Friday, June 17, 2011

CD Odyssey Disc 287: Great Big Sea

It is amazing how little time you spend in your car when you live downtown, and don't drive ungodly distances to work every day. It is one experience I'd enjoy more, if it weren't for missing all those chances to listen to music while driving.

Enter...the dentist! I had a dentist appointment, and my dentist is a good 30 minute drive from my house, so I was able to get a full listen of this album in - almost two! I knew going to the dentist would eventually pay off.

Disc 287 is...Turn

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 1999

Rating: 3 stars.

What’s Up With The Cover?: This cover does not appeal. Some annoying looking kid gets going quickly on a merry-go-round. Now a picture of him staggering around in disoriented fashion after the ride - that is a cover I could get behind. Or failing that, a youtube video.

How I Came To Know It: I was an early convert to Great Big Sea, getting into them during the mid-nineties when I was big into folk music. This album is nearer the end of my collection, as I soured on them a bit in later records and haven't kept it up. However, when "Turn" came out in 1999 I was still basically buying anything the band released, and so here it is.

How It Stacks Up: I have the first five Great Big Sea Albums, that cover the period 1993-2002. They've since released four more records, but I don't have those. Of the five I have, I must reluctantly put "Turn" last, or in 5th place.

Great Big Sea is a Canadian folk band from Newfoundland, that was sufficiently pop-oriented that they were able to break into the mainstream for a number of years, particularly in the nineties when East Coast folk music was growing in national popularity. In fact, "Turn" is the 3rd of four straight albums of theirs to go platinum, which is an impressive run, even by the kind definition of "platinum" in Canada (at the time, 100,000 units sold).

The band is a mix of radio friendly melodic pop songs, with more traditional songs in the Newfoundland folk music tradition. Generally speaking, I prefer the latter influence, but when they are on their game Great Big Sea can deliver both with equal skill.

"Turn" manages to do a fair turn at both, but excell at neither. On the pop front, the record's hit is "Consequence Free", a song about the common experience we have as we grow up and wish we could have less responsibilities to look after. The theme is inoffensive and the melody is passable, but it is hardly insightful beyond that.

Slightly better is "Demasduit Dream", a song that tells the tale of Demasduit, a woman of the Beothuk People, a First Nations tribe from Newfoundland. It is a tragic tale of a woman who is one of the last of a dying people. The song is not brilliant, but it is solid, and it tells a story I'd never heard before. It also made me look up more information on the Beothuk, which I wouldn't have otherwise done. For this alone, people should listen to more folk music than they do.

Probably the best of the modern songs is the one written in the most traditional manner - "Boston and St. John's". It is a touching story of a sailor having to leave his love and head out to sea, but who consoles her by advising that he won't be gone long because, "there isn't that much ocean between Boston and St. John's".

The traditional tracks are mostly good, and overall represent the strength of the record. There's also a great one page summary of their sources in the liner notes of the CD, which gives a quick run down of the song's source, what it is about, and the name of any airs and reels that are borrowed in the arrangement. Great Big Sea are excellent at taking traditional fiddle reels and working them into more modern arrangements, something I've always admired in them.

One of the standouts is "Ferryland Sealer", a song celebrating the brave men who make the journey to the ice and back every spring to take part in the seal hunt. The song helps show how differently Newfoundlanders perceive the seal hunt from many in western Canada. In Newfoundland, it is a part not only of their culture, but a part of their economy. I think it was a brave decision by Great Big Sea to put a song about it on their album, given their national prominence at the time. Beyond the political bravery, it is a good song, with a rollicking pace that makes you feel the sea under your feet (another Great Big Sea specialty).

At the other end of the spectrum, is the humorous but equally entertaining, "Old Brown's Daughter", which is a song about a man who is interested in winning the hand in marriage of the title character, beautifully delivered entirely in a capella.

The song originates from the early 1900s (thank you liner notes) and tells the story of our narrator ruminating on the beauty of Old Brown's daughter, and all the various ways he could win her hand. Here's my favourite snippet:

"But Miss Brown she smiles so sweetly when I say a tender word
Ah but Old Brown says she must marry a Marquis or a Lord
And I don't suppose it is one of those things I ever will be
But by jingo, next election I will run for Trinity."

So I guess you could say, "Old Brown's Daughter" is a turn of the century song exhorting the importance of voter turnout. Sort of.

Other good traditional tracks are the rollicking tale of "that seafaring, sail-making, gambling, capering, rum-drinking hero - Jack Hinks." Now there's a man who lives a fine lifestyle. Also good - the most tender, touching song you'll ever hear where the subject is nothing more than getting a woman to sleep with you - "Captain Wedderburn."

Anyway, as a folk die-hard, I want to hear an artist demonstrate they can build a modern song with ancient arrangements. It can be innovative or feel timeless - sometimes both - but it demonstrates that you know your material sufficiently well to build on it like a master.

I also want an artist to deliver traditional tracks with enthusiasm, vigour and soul. I want more than fine playing (there is many a great technical fiddler out there), I want to reach inside my gut and move me.

There are places on this record where Great Big Sea delivers all of these things, but just as many where I feel they missed. As a result, I'm going to give them a reluctant 3 stars, just a whisker safe from 2. It also makes me look forward to all of their other albums, which I have been remiss in putting on of late.

Best tracks: Jack Hinks, Ferryland Sealer, Old Brown's Daughter, Captain Wedderburn

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