event Great Big Sea

While Great Big Sea’s songs boom with the desire to make earnest pop, the Newfoundland group also manages to weave in Celtic-Canadian sounds with convincing enthusiasm. All three main members sing, and all play both conventional rock instruments and traditional ones, including the bouzouki, fiddle, whistles, and bodhran (an Irish hand drum). The sea still pops up as a lyrical theme here and there on the group’s last studio album 2008’s Fortune’s Favour, even as the sound tilts a bit more toward the mainstream. “England” is either a traditional Newfoundland sea chantey or a very convincing attempt to recreate one, paying lusty tribute to those who “curse the cod with the fear of God.” 

While Great Big Sea’s songs boom with the desire to make earnest pop, the Newfoundland group also manages to weave in Celtic-Canadian sounds with convincing enthusiasm. All three main members sing, and all play both conventional rock instruments and traditional ones, including the bouzouki, fiddle, whistles, and bodhran (an Irish hand drum). The sea still pops up as a lyrical theme here and there on the group’s last studio album 2008’s Fortune’s Favour, even as the sound tilts a bit more toward the mainstream. “England” is either a traditional Newfoundland sea chantey or a very convincing attempt to recreate one, paying lusty tribute to those who “curse the cod with the fear of God.”