CD/DVD Review: Great Big Sea In Concert

Great Big Sea is a band from Newfoundland, which they playfully call a "tropical island". Having fun is a big part of what they are about, and their newest CD/concert DVD 2 disc set, "Courage, Patience and Grit" showcases the band's wit, stage presence and party-on-dude charisma in a way that only a concert DVD can do.  In the old days of vinyl the strengths of some of the greatest live bands were often lost or at least diluted when recorded---the operative phrase was "you had to be there".  Today a good concert DVD can be better in some ways than the live experience.  I recently went to an Eric Clapton concert at the TD Center in Boston, where I experienced this first-hand.  We were in the 'nosebleed' seats, about a quarter mile from the stage, thankful at least for the big-screen projection video and the decent sound system but one couldn't help thinking "why didn't I save the two hundred bucks and wait for the DVD and just play it on my home system where nobody's going to spill a beer on me?"  

OK, there is absolutely no substitute for live music, don't get me wrong.  And yes, Clapton is God.  But back to the subject at hand, three boys from way, way up there in the not-so-tropical Gulf of St Lawrence.  Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett were born and raised in the St John's area and share a passion for their native music that they distilled into an all-acoustic album, "The Hard and The Easy", released in 2005.  It was somewhat of a departure; Great Big Sea's earlier recordings featured their melding of Celtic and traditional influences and instrumentation into a more contemporary sound.  The new CD/DVD is from a June 2006 performance from the "Hard and Easy" tour but also adds hits from their eight earlier recordings.

Part of the enjoyment of watching them on the new DVD is the fluidity with which they can segue from a classic sea shanty in multi-part harmony like "Old Polina" to a rockin', uptempo power chord-basher like "Shines Right Through Me".  These guys are highly versatile and it keeps the show moving, the audience dancing in their seats and the sound fresh.  

Alan Doyle sings lead on most of the songs.  He has the face of Russell Crowe with the hoarse, bourbon-and-cigarette baritone of Huey Lewis.   It's a sensual combination that is reflected in the camera shots of the audience, which is very enthusiastic and largely female.  The musicians make a few nod-nod-wink-wink jokes from the stage to effectively fan this flame.  Sean McCann fronts the sweeter ballads and some of the humorous traditional songs with a less powerful voice but excellent musicianship and it seems he is playing a different instrument on practically every song.  The players pass around guitars, bodhran (a Celtic hand drum), fiddles, even a bouzouki.  Yes it's a little far from Greece but this is a what-the-heck amalgam, traditional without the rules and it works.  

The backbone instrumentalist is Bob Hallett who is very strong on the fiddle and equally impressive on the button accordion.  He sings a couple of the songs but the band's vocal presence rests heavily on Doyle.  

For this 26-song set Great Big Sea also features Murray Foster on bass who plays the big fiddle with impeccable taste and switches easily from upright for the old standards to acoustic-electric for the original material.  He's not a Newfie but he carries the fun and the spirit.  Kris MacFarlane plays a variety of percussion instruments during the first set which is mostly traditional material, then switches to a full drum kit for the second set in which he gets to rock out.  He's solid, tasteful and reinforces my prejudice that a drummer can either make or ruin a band, and in this case MacFarlane makes an already strong band sound even better.  He doubles on accordion. 

 Did I mention that everyone plays tin whistle?  And they play it nicely.  It's a signature sound, like the bodhran, that defines Celtic-influenced music and adds a distinct, more ancient personality to the group's newer tunes.

 If you like Anglo-Celtic with a twist, listen to Great Big Sea.  It's nice to hear good musicians working with the material they grew up with and adapting it to other influences, or using it as a springboard to create something new.  The concert DVD is a very effective way to really get into their stage personalities as well as the music, and that's part of the fun.