GREAT BIG SEA
Safe Upon the Shore
Redeye/Great Big Sea 010
* * *
Great Big Sea began life in a rowdy Newfoundland pub and eighteen years later, they’re still at it and still cranking out their unique mix of Maritime mayhem, folk rock, and Celtic-tinged music. On Safe Upon the Shore, the band’s tenth album, they’ve added a new twist—songs such as “Hit the Ground and Run” and “Don’t Want to Go Home” are what you’d get if you mixed GBS’s trademark good time bar band music with New Orleans-style brass and some Cajun spices.
GBS is not a subtle band and they remind us of this from the get-go. The album opens with some hot party music whose temperature rises when guest musician Sonny Landreth lets loose on slide guitar. A few tracks later the charismatic Alan Doyle adds some salt to the mix on “Yankee Sailor.” The sea, some romance, a rivalry, a hint of tension, and Doyle’s unique vocals that are filled with gravel one moment and butterscotch the next…. What could be better? How about a song co-written by Doyle and Randy Bachman (Bachman Turner Overdrive)? Or Bob Hallett’s “Over the Hills,” which takes a traditional sea song and reworks it as a contemporary cautionary tale on the idiocy of military adventurism? And for sheer fun, the GBS cover of Ray Davies’ “Have a Cuppa Tea” is sheer delight. If you know anything about the British-Canadian obsession with tea, this one will have you in stitches.
There’s lots of intriguing stuff on this album, though some of the finest to my ears are those that stick closest to what the band has always done well. Séan McCann’s cover of “Gallows Pole” is sublime, as the title track—an a cappella sea song with Séan on the lead and robust harmony choruses framing him. And GBS just can’t go too long without dragging out such kick-ass bad boys behaving badly songs. Both “Wandering Ways” and “Road to Ruin” fit that bill admirably and if you think Irish drinking songs are irreverent, they’re practically hymns compared to what their Newfoundland cousins conjure. Like I said, not a subtle band. On the art-versus-good time scale, their needle goes off the right-hand scale.
Safe Upon the Shore
Redeye/Great Big Sea 010
* * *
Great Big Sea began life in a rowdy Newfoundland pub and eighteen years later, they’re still at it and still cranking out their unique mix of Maritime mayhem, folk rock, and Celtic-tinged music. On Safe Upon the Shore, the band’s tenth album, they’ve added a new twist—songs such as “Hit the Ground and Run” and “Don’t Want to Go Home” are what you’d get if you mixed GBS’s trademark good time bar band music with New Orleans-style brass and some Cajun spices.
GBS is not a subtle band and they remind us of this from the get-go. The album opens with some hot party music whose temperature rises when guest musician Sonny Landreth lets loose on slide guitar. A few tracks later the charismatic Alan Doyle adds some salt to the mix on “Yankee Sailor.” The sea, some romance, a rivalry, a hint of tension, and Doyle’s unique vocals that are filled with gravel one moment and butterscotch the next…. What could be better? How about a song co-written by Doyle and Randy Bachman (Bachman Turner Overdrive)? Or Bob Hallett’s “Over the Hills,” which takes a traditional sea song and reworks it as a contemporary cautionary tale on the idiocy of military adventurism? And for sheer fun, the GBS cover of Ray Davies’ “Have a Cuppa Tea” is sheer delight. If you know anything about the British-Canadian obsession with tea, this one will have you in stitches.
There’s lots of intriguing stuff on this album, though some of the finest to my ears are those that stick closest to what the band has always done well. Séan McCann’s cover of “Gallows Pole” is sublime, as the title track—an a cappella sea song with Séan on the lead and robust harmony choruses framing him. And GBS just can’t go too long without dragging out such kick-ass bad boys behaving badly songs. Both “Wandering Ways” and “Road to Ruin” fit that bill admirably and if you think Irish drinking songs are irreverent, they’re practically hymns compared to what their Newfoundland cousins conjure. Like I said, not a subtle band. On the art-versus-good time scale, their needle goes off the right-hand scale.
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