CD Odyssey Disc 1231: Great Big Sea

Sometimes the randomness of the Odyssey gives me a brand-new album to discover and sometimes it gives me an old and cherished favourite. Today it was the latter.

Disc 1231 is… Play

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover? A collectible toy from a time in the distant past when toys sucked. Anyone who says toys were better back in the day is just jealous that they don’t get to play with the new ones.

Fortunately, as this album proves, old songs are still just as good as ever!

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of Great Big Sea and bought this album when it came out trusting it would be as good as the ones I already had. Back then you couldn’t Youtube songs first, so you watched a video or two on VH-1 or CMT and if it sounded promising you took the plunge.

How It Stacks Up:  The last time I did a Great Big Sea review (August of 2015) I had five albums but I’ve recently added a sixth. Of those six, “Play” comes in at #2.

Ratings:  4 stars

“Play” is an apt title for this record’s role in my music collection because have I played the living shit out of this record. Part of this is that when I bought it back in 1997 I only owned so many albums; part of it is also this is an easy record to love.

Great Big Sea blend traditional Newfoundland folk music with modern pop anthems to create something that is filled with fun and makes you want to laugh, dance and sing along. “Play” is them at the height of their powers. Consider that this is a folk record that went triple platinum in Canada. Granted, the nineties were very kind to Canadian folk music (the Rankin Family was also busting up the charts) but it is still quite an achievement.

Most of the time an album this popular is destined to be terrible, but with “Play” Great Big Sea beats the trend with music that is played with gusto and unbounded joy. You hear these guys and you basically want to hang out in a pub with them all night.

The record is about two-thirds traditional songs and covers, treated with Great Big Sea’s particular blend of folk-pop. This involves a lot of energy, singing in unison, and lots of tin whistle, fiddle and accordion to give it whimsy or a mournful undercurrent as the song demands.

The arrangements tend to be fast and furious, sometimes aided by the only drum that belongs in music like this – the bodhran. Despite the speed and intensity the band never feels rushed. They are masters of riding the front of the pocket, like a surfer hanging ten on a big wave.

The best of the covers is the traditional “Recruiting Sargeant” which tells the tragic story of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (aka the Blue Puttees) who fought in World War One. The song’s narrative takes us from the exhortations of the King’s recruiters through the terrible tragic losses the regiment encountered at Gallipoli and the Somme. The song artfully juxtaposes the promised glories of battle, complete with the martial beat of the bodhran:

“So it's over the mountains, and over the sea

Come brave Newfoundlanders and join the Blue Puttees

You'll fight the Hun in Flanders, and at Galipoli

Enlist you Newfoundlanders and come follow me”

With the horrible realities of war, underscored by the mournful tin whistle:

“Then the call came from London, for the last July drive

To the trenches with the regiment, prepare yourselves to die

The roll call next morning, just a handful survived.

Enlist you Newfoundlanders and come follow me”

This damned song puts a lump in my throat every time.

I also enjoy “Donkey Riding” which is not about an actual donkey, but rather a steam powered winch used at the turn of the century in logging and marine industry. It isn’t for riding, but the song ably captures the fact that young men often do foolhardy things. It’s a miracle any of us make it to thirty.

While Great Big Sea has always embraced traditional Newfoundland folk music and history, they write a pretty ditty themselves when they’re of a mind. The album opens with “Ordinary Day” which is a song that reminds us “it’s just an ordinary day/and it’s all your state of mind.” Very true, and when you hear the song your spirit is inclined to see an ordinary day as pretty damned fine.

I definitely over-listened this record in the day and as a result I rarely put it on anymore. Despite this, when the Odyssey gods called its number it wasn’t boring or tired and even though I feel like I know every note and word on the record, it didn’t detract in any way from my joy at hearing them all again.

Best tracks: Ordinary Day, When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), The Night Pat Murphy Died, Donkey Riding, Recruiting Sargeant, Jolly Roving Tar

CD Odyssey Disc 767: Great Big Sea

I am not feeling any witticisms or idle observations coming over me today, so let’s just get right down to the music.

Disc 767 is….Sea of No Cares

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a goldfish, which the liner notes indicate is named Steve. A goldfish in a bowl is kind of in a sea of no cares, which is a good reminder that not having any cares often means you don’t have any freedom either.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me buying Great Big Sea’s latest release when it came out, having been a fan from the very first studio album. Interestingly, this was the last CD of theirs that I bought. I might one day check out their later work (they’ve done four studio albums since) but lately I’ve been pulled down different roads.

How It Stacks Up: As noted, I have five Great Big Sea albums. “Sea of No Cares” is right in the middle at three, just ahead of their self-titled debut (reviewed back at Disc 453).

Ratings: 3 stars but close to 4

“Sea of No Cares” is Great Big Sea’s fifth studio album, and by this point they’ve got their sound pretty nailed down; traditional Newfoundland folk music which just the right amount of pop production to make it go down easy.

The songs might be traditional or they might be Great Big Sea originals but the band makes every song sound like it was made for them. They have an energy that makes it feel like you’re hearing them at a pub, and an approachability that makes them feel like you’re with the band.

Folk music demands tight, disciplined playing if it is going to work. The trick is to keep it tight but keep the swing in it that makes it sound relaxed. Great Big Sea has this down, whether it is the easy strum of the guitar, the mandolin keeping the pace, or the bodhran sitting in the background holding it all together.

And since I mentioned it, I’d like to just say how much I love the bodhran as a percussion instrument. So many Celtic bands at this stage of their development go too heavily into the traditional pop and rock drumming. They’re trying to energize their work, but instead they drown it in high hats and snares. Great Big Sea does use a regular drum kit tastefully on a few songs, but I like it best when they stick with the bodhran. Songs like “Scolding Wife” and “French Perfume” are held together by the bodhran’s easy rhythms and whatever foot stomps the audience would like to add when they hear it live.

Lead vocals are (mostly) done by Alan Doyle, and his voice has a powerful, back-of-the-throat quality that holds the songs together. He also has a natural talent for finding just the right point of the beat to come in, and just what phrasing to sing to best tell the story. On a modern tale of heartbreak, like “Clearest Indication” he draws each note out, and on “Yarmouth Town” and “Scolding Wife” he lets his perfect timing and almost staccato delivery drive the songs’ action and humour simultaneously.

This album has the requisite classics about life on the sea with “Boat Like Gideon Brown” and “Barque in the Harbour” and funny songs about sailors on leave getting into mischief (“Yarmouth Town”). It has a solid range of fun, sad and whimsical. It even has a ghost story (“French Perfume”).

Great Big Sea sometimes gets dismissed as being too far on the pop side of folk. To be fair, there are songs that feel a bit schmaltzy (“Stumbling In” and “Own True Way” come to mind on this album). Even these songs don’t pull the album down too far, though. Besides, I don’t think it should be a crime to be listenable and accessible. In the modern age where everything has to feel ironically detached to be cool, it is nice to remember a simpler time not that long ago when folk music could be joyful and full of honest feeling.

Sometimes you just want to listen to a little music and not feel like you’re working to understand it. When you have this condition – let’s call it “ear of no cares” – an excellent tonic for what ails you is to put on an album by Great Big Sea. This one would be a fine choice.

Best tracks: Sea of No Cares, Scolding Wife, A Boat Like Gideon Brown, French Perfume, Yarmouth Town

CD Odyssey Disc 453: Great Big Sea

Happy Hallowe’en!  Hallowe’en is my favourite holiday of the year, bar none.  It is the one time of the year people are inspired to step outside themselves, and in reveal a bit of themselves in the process.

For the first time in over ten years I was able to wear a costume to work (my old job was a poor fit for such activity).  I love dressing up in costume, and it added a little whimsy to my day.  Congratulations to everyone who took the same opportunity and lived a little today.  In particular, a big shout out to my wife and partner-in-fun Sheila, who did a kick-ass homage to Alfred Hitcock's "The Birds" - check it out at her blog.

My next review is not very Hallowe’eny, but I guess for some, Newfoundland folk music can be scary.  Not for me though; I love the stuff.

Disc 453 is… Self-Titled 

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s a picture of the great big sea.  You can’t get much more literal than this.  Unlike the cover for Audioslave’s “Out of Exile” this actually has an authentic feel to it.

How I Came To Know It:  I had purchased Great Big Sea’s second album, “Up” and loved it.  This was me going backwards to see what I might have missed.

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Great Big Sea albums.  I would put their Self-Titled effort 4^th, slightly edging out “Turn” (Reviewed back at Disc 287).

Rating:  3 stars

Some albums are more enjoyable in the context of the type of music the band would create later in their career.  Great Big Sea have carved a niche for themselves in Canadian musical history – and more than a little fame – playing a pop-infused East Coast folk.  However, their self-titled first album is them still questing for the perfect blend of this sound.

The energy is there, but the music on their opening record is solidly traditional.  Long-time readers of this blog will know that doesn’t bother me in the least; I love traditional no-frills folk music that is well played.

Great Big Sea can certainly play well, so there is no problem there.  They are also gifted with the powerful vocals of Alan Doyle who is a fine gift to the Canadian music scene.  Doyle’s voice is big and friendly, and when he sings he always sounds like he’s smiling.  Of note, he’s also a pretty good actor in recent years, and is one of the bright spots of the otherwise forgettable Russell Crowe “Robin Hood” movie that came out a few years back.  He plays the merry “Alan A’Dale,” the good-natured minstrel, so it wasn’t exactly a stretch, mind you; even his name is the same.

Singing about various Newfoundland topics also comes easily to Doyle, and his love of his homeland is easy to hear.  Traditional fare like “Excursion Around the Bay,” “I’se the B’y” and some traditional reels are all played with warmth and affection.  In the case of “Drunken Sailor” glimpses of what the band will do later shine through, as they light into the song double-time, getting the song’s subject’s belly shaved, arrested and in the drunk-tank all in record time.

The band also delivers some original material on this front, poking gentle fun at a well-known Newfoundland turn of phrase with “What Are Ya’ At?”  This is well executed but after repeat listens it now sounds a bit too trite and manipulative.

The real stand-out on this record is “The Fisherman’s Lament” an original protest song encapsulating all of the frustration of their home province over the collapse of the East Coast cod fishery, and laying the blame squarely at the feet of government mismanagement.  No doubt there are plenty of opinions about how the Newfoundland cod fishery declined – I just review music.  Whatever your conclusion, you can’t deny the genuine anger and betrayal that comes out in this song about fishermen who, having spent their whole life on the sea, are told they can no longer do so:

“I’ve spent my whole life out there on the sea

Some government bastard now takes it from me.

It’s not just the fish – they’ve taken my pride

I feel so ashamed that I just want to die.”

You don’t have to agree, but I’d be surprised if you hadn’t heard someone say some version of this in a café somewhere when times get hard.  If you haven’t, you’re spending too much time in Starbucks and not enough in Tim Hortons.

Less impressive is “Someday Soon” another political song, this one about the promises politicians make that never seem to come through for the working man.  This song comes from an honest place as well, but the lyrics are weak:

“They said they’d stop the fighting

And they said they would bring peace

And they said they’d find a serum

That could cure all our disease.”

These promises are pretty extreme even for a campaigning politician, and yet they’re so generic that there’s nothing specific for the mind to wrap itself around. Not even a fine tin whistle riff can save this one.

“The Fisherman’s Lament” is such a strong song, and Great Big Sea are such natural talents that together they lift this album to three stars.  However, the album gets self-referential in places and the lyrics are uneven even on some of the stronger songs.  It wouldn’t be long before Great Big Sea would fully develop their sound and go on to give me a solid decade of great music.  This album is the beginning of that experience, and so I view it with a lot of fondness, but it is a bit like Alice Cooper’s “Easy Action” – better in context of the great records that were just around the corner.  Great Big Sea eventually came to where they’re at, but on this first record they’d just started the journey.

Best tracks:  Fisherman’s Lament, I’se the B’y, Drunken Sailor, Irish Paddy/Festival Reel/Roger’s Reel.

CD Odyssey Disc 374: Great Big Sea

Just home after a long day at the office, I could not motivate to go to the gym, and instead have decided to get a blog entry in. I guess you could say I've sacrificed my arms for my art. Kind of like the Venus de Milo.

Disc 374 is...Up

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 1995

What’s Up With The Cover?: A combination of close up photos of the band with generic art that looks like the stuff that comes with your Windows program. Not a good cover, but Great Big Sea covers are never great.

How I Came To Know It: This is the first Great Big Sea album I ever bought, having seen a couple videos on CMT that appealed (I can't remember which songs anymore). I liked it so much I ended up buying four more over years.

How It Stacks Up: If you applied your keen reading comprehension to the previous paragraph, you'll know I have five Great Big Sea albums. "Up" is my absolute favourite.

Rating: 5 stars

If you've ever been in a pub surrounded by Maritimers and Newfoundlanders, singing along to some folk band in full throat, then you know the incredible joy of the experience. "Up" is about as close as recorded music can get to that experience.

This is a fun record, full of sea shanties sung in such vigorous unison it is physical exertion not to sing along. When the penny whistle wails, if you don't want to whistle along then you should immediately see a doctor, because your song-bone is broken.

"Lukey," "Wave Over Wave" and "Rant & Roar" are sing-alongs extraordinaire. Only know the chorus? No problem - just chime in with the rest of the band. Or, if like me you've heard this record hundreds of times, then sing along to the whole song. Don't worry if you're out of tune. Like a vocal boat pilot, Alan Doyle's pure and easy voice'll guide you through any rough parts.

I love all the songs of the sea, but the best sing-a-long is "The Old Black Rum" which is both a celebration and a warning of the sweet siren of dark demarara rum. The chorus is one of the finest images for excessive drinking I've heard:

"The old black rum's got a hold of me
Like a dog wrapped 'round my leg."

Of course, on some songs, Great Big Sea simply must show off, furiously blasting off lyrics with the precision of a rap star on "Mari-Mac" and "Billy Peddle." "Mari-Mac"s chorus is:

"Mari-Mac's mother's makin' Mari-Mac marry me,
My mother's makin' me marry Mari-Mac
Well I'm gonna marry Mari for when Mari's takin' care of me
We'll all be feelin' merry when I marry Mari-Mac."

The song slowly increases tempo, and by the fourth chorus, that tongue twister is delivered in six and a half seconds, in perfectly timed unison. It's an impressive musical display, and what's more it is enjoyable to listen to, not just clever.

As with all of their records, Great Big Sea is more than just a good time, they always take time to cover important social issues. On this album, they address dangerous working conditions, ("The Chemical Worker's Song (Process Man)"), and the poverty on the streets of St. John's ("Nothing Out Of Nothing"). Both songs feature the driving beat of the bodhran, musically grounding their more serious subjects.

I had intended to give this album four stars, and as I listened, I cast about for reasons to knock it back down from five. Did it teach me anything? Well - it teaches me joy every time I hear it, so hard to deny it on that count. Musically, it is perfectly pitched, and the production values are exceptional (and a huge upgrade from their debut).

Finally, I thought I had it when I noted there were 15 songs - one more than my long-established maximum. I immediately set out to find the weakest link. What about the token remake of Slade's "Run Runaway"? Nope - that remake rivals the original. Maybe a schmaltzy love song that hits flat? Nope - "Fast As I Can" is a beautiful expression of a man not ready to say he loves a woman who is growing impatient, and "One More Day" and "Something To It" are poignant 'on the cusp of a break-up' songs.

Finally, I was reduced to looking at other four star albums I had sold short with four stars (e.g. Nick Cave's "The Boatman's Call") but all that did was make me all the more determined not to do that again.

And so I dub this record perfect Canadian folk. In the genre, it is a top 5, desert island type album, and unquestionably the first Great Big Sea album you should buy. Preferably soon.

Best tracks: all tracks

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