Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea merges Newfoundland’s seafaring shanty heritage with the drive and vitality of current rock and pop. Their forceful style earned four Juno Award nominations in Canada while steadily expanding their reach across North America and Europe.

The band took shape through spontaneous kitchen gatherings in the fishing village of Petty Harbor. Guitarist, mandolinist, and bouzouki player Alan Doyle, whose mother taught piano, studied both piano and drums in childhood yet gravitated most naturally to guitar. At fifteen he joined his uncle’s group, the New Standells, which combined rockabilly with local Newfoundland traditions; later, while attending St. John’s University, he formed the duo Staggering Home alongside John Benton.

Sean McCann (tin whistle and bodhran), Bob Hallett (button accordion, fiddle, and mandolin), and bassist Darrell Power had first performed together in the Celtic rock band Rankin Street. Hallett and McCann had earlier played in the politically charged traditional ensemble the Newfoundland Republican Army.

Following the independent release of their self-titled debut in 1992, Great Big Sea signed with Warner Brothers Canada, which promptly reissued the album. Momentum around their vigorous sound and tight harmonies grew quickly. Their second record, Up, issued in September 1995, took nearly a year to reach 100,000 Canadian sales and platinum certification, while the June 1997 follow-up Play achieved platinum status within three months and surpassed 200,000 copies by February 1998.

Rant and Roar, a 1998 compilation drawn from earlier material, marked their first album distributed in the United States, prompting months of touring across the country. Turn, the band’s fifth studio album and their first produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and the Tragically Hip, arrived the next year and included the traditional French song “Trois Navires de Ble” recorded with the Chieftains. The live set Road Rage followed a year later.

Sea of No Cares, released in 2002, became their first album on Zoe. Michael Phillip Wojewoda, previously associated with Barenaked Ladies and Jane Siberry, produced the seventh album, Something Beautiful, which appeared in 2004. The Hard and the Easy came out in 2005, followed by Courage and Patience and Grit: In Concert the next year. The band returned to the studio in 2008 for Fortune’s Favor and completed Safe Upon the Shore in 2010.