So you want to check out GBS?
May. 9th, 2006 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI've been asked this a few times on my journal now, so just for the sake of having this to put in my Memories, I will now expound on what you can do if you'd like to check out these B'ys from Newfoundland over whom I am so often prone to babbling. Hope you enjoy!
Places to look for just checking them out:
GreatBigSea.com: the official GBS site. There's an embedded player on the index page that'll let you listen to half a dozen songs. Look for "Ordinary Day" in particular.
Discography page on greatbigsea.com: Quite a few sample clips on various albums available to listen to up here
GBS MySpace page: There are four songs posted here in their entirety, including three fine ditties off their recent album Fortune's Favour, "Walk On The Moon", "Here and Now", and "Long Lost Love".
Sample clips should also be available for listening if you look up their various albums on Amazon.com. Though for anything earlier than Rant and Roar, you might have better luck with prices on Amazon.ca.
Places to look to buy albums:
- The GreatBigSea.com store page, which sells all of the albums, and some in download form.
- Just about the entire GBS discography is available for purchase on the iTunes music store.
- A good bit of their discography is also available on Real.com's Rhapsody music subscription service.
- I've spotted at least a few GBS albums on MSN's music store, too.
And of course, there's always physical musical stores. Depending on where you are and how your local source of CDs organizes itself, you may find GBS filed in the Rock/Pop section or in the Celtic/World/Folk sections.
Anna's recommendations on albums:
My all-time favorite GBS album is Rant and Roar, which has the best collection of songs I consider canonical GBS: things like "Ordinary Day", "When I'm Up", "Mari-Mac", "The Night Pat Murphy Died", and more. One thing to note about this album is that it is a compilation of tracks previously released in Canada alone on Play and up, and mostly, all the tracks are the same. Except that the Rant and Roar take of "End of the World As We Know It" is a bit different from the take on Play, which has more fiddle. (If you already have Rant and Roar it's still worth it to get both Play and up later, though, because there are songs on both of those that don't appear on Rant and Roar at all.)
Very, very close behind Rant and Roar is the second-most recent studio GBS album, The Hard and the Easy. Much of the B'ys' recent work has been more towards the pop/rock side of things, but this album is a hardcore return to their original Newfoundland roots. Very, very fine listening here. Plus, the album comes with an extra DVD of footage of the band members playing these songs as they learned them--played around their kitchens.
However, these two albums give you only half the picture. Live GBS is just as entertaining if not more so than GBS in the studio, so you should also check out Road Rage, their first live CD. They also have a second live CD, The Great Big DVD & CD, but Road Rage actually has better performances of most of the songs that the two albums have in common. On the other hand, the latter album also has a DVD with all kinds of goodies, including the film that goes with the audio performance, and that is chock full of fabulous.
In late 2006 they put out another live DVD/CD compilation called Courage & Patience & Grit, which featured their excellent two-set show that they did for the tour for The Hard and the Easy. Séan McCann has the best vocals on this performance, though he and Alan are in prime banter form. The best part of the entire show can be summed up in two words: Mermaid Dance.
Either of the live DVDs are required viewing for anyone who'd like to sample a GBS show and who can't make it to an actual performance.
Anna's recommendations on songs:
If you only want to cherrypick songs off various albums and you want the best of the best, here is my Top Ten List of best GBS ditties ever, in ascending order of coolness:
10. Trois Navires de Ble - The only song GBS has ever done in French, and the first song I ever learned how to play on mandolin. One of the not-quite-as-lively GBS ditties, but it has a certain jaunty feel to it. Especially if you understand French. Album: Turn
9. Something Beautiful - An Alan ballad, which I love since although it's a lot more understated than "Ordinary Day", it's still got an inherent optimism to it that even if life seems to suck at the moment, things can get better. Album: Something Beautiful*
8. Jack Hinks - This is a GBS ditty for which I have a great deal of affection because I can actually play it and sing it myself, but aside from that, it's a great example of the high-energy folk ditties that the B'ys pull out of their home province. It usually gets introduced in concerts as a "song about a Newfoundland superhero". The live version on the Great Big CD is fun because Alan flubs the first verse and has to start all over again, and he's charmingly sheepish about it. Albums: Turn, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
7. Old Black Rum - This is another I'm personally partial to this one just because I can PLAY IT, but it's also another great foot-stomping audience rouser in live performances, and it tends to be introduced with the B'ys making jokes about how they don't do drinking songs, they do anti-drinking songs that warn people to "beware of the Old Black Rum". The studio version is fun, and so are both of the live versions. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
6. Goin' Up - Here we have a ditty which, like "Ordinary Day", excellently captures the overall spirit of the band: joyous exuberance. Fun in the studio and even better live. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
5. General Taylor - This is pretty much the song that earned Séan McCann his nickname of The Shanty Man, as far as I'm concerned. Prime, prime example of the B'ys doing some killer four-part harmony. There are multiple versions floating around--the studio version on Rant and Roar is excellent, and so are the live performances on both of the live discs. The performance on Road Rage is better, but the one on the Great Big CD also has one of the variants of what GBS fandom likes to call the Shanty Man verses, which Séan sometimes sneaks into live performances. The other variant is on Courage & Patience & Grit. Albums: Rant and Roar, Play, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
5. Mari-Mac - This one is a great deal of fun, both in the studio version and in the live versions, in no small part because Séan roars out the lyrics and each verse is faster than the one before. By the time you get to the end, the B'ys are blazing. It's even more impressive when they do it live, too. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
4. The River Driver - Another unaccompanied shanty, wherein Alan Doyle demonstrates that he can damn well carry off a shanty as well as Séan can, and in which the current five members of GBS hit some truly spine-shivering harmony. The minor chord on the second to the last chorus, where Murray Foster slams out a deep rumbly bass note, kills me every single time I hear it. Album: The Hard and the Easy, Courage & Patience & Grit
3. John Barbour - Very possibly my favorite GBS song of those performed by Séan McCann and the only ditty where any member of GBS sings all by himself. Given how Séan shows off his magnificent pipes in this song, it's absolutely worth it. Plus, it's a hell of a song regardless. Album: Something Beautiful*
2. Lukey - This song is way cooler live than it is in the studio version on Rant and Roar, since the B'ys doinked around with it a bit between the studio version and how they usually do it live now. It's one of the very best examples of what GBS sounds like in live performances, and is generally peppered with Alan's trademark bellows of things like "VERTICAL MOVEMENT!" and lots of audience singing. If you find the performance from Road Rage, too, you also get the treat of Alan's long and giggleworthy intro. Two words: Newfoundland rap. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
Special side note for this ditty: If you can find it, there is a compilation album called Fire in the Kitchen which was put out by the Chieftains, teaming up with various bands and individual artists in Canada. GBS does a kickass version of "Lukey" on that album. (Note also that this song is one of the video extras on Courage & Patience & Grit.)
1. Ordinary Day - Because this one song pretty much encapsulates every single thing I love about this band. It's got the rich, multi-layered harmony. It's got the highly energetic rhythm. And most of all, it's got the unbridled joy. This song always brightens my darkest days, and with its chorus of "Way hey hey, it's just an ordinary day, and it's all your state of mind, at the end of the day you've just got to say it's all right", it's pretty much a summary of how I strive to live my life! Albums: Rant and Roar, Play, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
Places to look for just checking them out:
GreatBigSea.com: the official GBS site. There's an embedded player on the index page that'll let you listen to half a dozen songs. Look for "Ordinary Day" in particular.
Discography page on greatbigsea.com: Quite a few sample clips on various albums available to listen to up here
GBS MySpace page: There are four songs posted here in their entirety, including three fine ditties off their recent album Fortune's Favour, "Walk On The Moon", "Here and Now", and "Long Lost Love".
Sample clips should also be available for listening if you look up their various albums on Amazon.com. Though for anything earlier than Rant and Roar, you might have better luck with prices on Amazon.ca.
Places to look to buy albums:
- The GreatBigSea.com store page, which sells all of the albums, and some in download form.
- Just about the entire GBS discography is available for purchase on the iTunes music store.
- A good bit of their discography is also available on Real.com's Rhapsody music subscription service.
- I've spotted at least a few GBS albums on MSN's music store, too.
And of course, there's always physical musical stores. Depending on where you are and how your local source of CDs organizes itself, you may find GBS filed in the Rock/Pop section or in the Celtic/World/Folk sections.
Anna's recommendations on albums:
My all-time favorite GBS album is Rant and Roar, which has the best collection of songs I consider canonical GBS: things like "Ordinary Day", "When I'm Up", "Mari-Mac", "The Night Pat Murphy Died", and more. One thing to note about this album is that it is a compilation of tracks previously released in Canada alone on Play and up, and mostly, all the tracks are the same. Except that the Rant and Roar take of "End of the World As We Know It" is a bit different from the take on Play, which has more fiddle. (If you already have Rant and Roar it's still worth it to get both Play and up later, though, because there are songs on both of those that don't appear on Rant and Roar at all.)
Very, very close behind Rant and Roar is the second-most recent studio GBS album, The Hard and the Easy. Much of the B'ys' recent work has been more towards the pop/rock side of things, but this album is a hardcore return to their original Newfoundland roots. Very, very fine listening here. Plus, the album comes with an extra DVD of footage of the band members playing these songs as they learned them--played around their kitchens.
However, these two albums give you only half the picture. Live GBS is just as entertaining if not more so than GBS in the studio, so you should also check out Road Rage, their first live CD. They also have a second live CD, The Great Big DVD & CD, but Road Rage actually has better performances of most of the songs that the two albums have in common. On the other hand, the latter album also has a DVD with all kinds of goodies, including the film that goes with the audio performance, and that is chock full of fabulous.
In late 2006 they put out another live DVD/CD compilation called Courage & Patience & Grit, which featured their excellent two-set show that they did for the tour for The Hard and the Easy. Séan McCann has the best vocals on this performance, though he and Alan are in prime banter form. The best part of the entire show can be summed up in two words: Mermaid Dance.
Either of the live DVDs are required viewing for anyone who'd like to sample a GBS show and who can't make it to an actual performance.
Anna's recommendations on songs:
If you only want to cherrypick songs off various albums and you want the best of the best, here is my Top Ten List of best GBS ditties ever, in ascending order of coolness:
10. Trois Navires de Ble - The only song GBS has ever done in French, and the first song I ever learned how to play on mandolin. One of the not-quite-as-lively GBS ditties, but it has a certain jaunty feel to it. Especially if you understand French. Album: Turn
9. Something Beautiful - An Alan ballad, which I love since although it's a lot more understated than "Ordinary Day", it's still got an inherent optimism to it that even if life seems to suck at the moment, things can get better. Album: Something Beautiful*
8. Jack Hinks - This is a GBS ditty for which I have a great deal of affection because I can actually play it and sing it myself, but aside from that, it's a great example of the high-energy folk ditties that the B'ys pull out of their home province. It usually gets introduced in concerts as a "song about a Newfoundland superhero". The live version on the Great Big CD is fun because Alan flubs the first verse and has to start all over again, and he's charmingly sheepish about it. Albums: Turn, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
7. Old Black Rum - This is another I'm personally partial to this one just because I can PLAY IT, but it's also another great foot-stomping audience rouser in live performances, and it tends to be introduced with the B'ys making jokes about how they don't do drinking songs, they do anti-drinking songs that warn people to "beware of the Old Black Rum". The studio version is fun, and so are both of the live versions. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
6. Goin' Up - Here we have a ditty which, like "Ordinary Day", excellently captures the overall spirit of the band: joyous exuberance. Fun in the studio and even better live. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
5. General Taylor - This is pretty much the song that earned Séan McCann his nickname of The Shanty Man, as far as I'm concerned. Prime, prime example of the B'ys doing some killer four-part harmony. There are multiple versions floating around--the studio version on Rant and Roar is excellent, and so are the live performances on both of the live discs. The performance on Road Rage is better, but the one on the Great Big CD also has one of the variants of what GBS fandom likes to call the Shanty Man verses, which Séan sometimes sneaks into live performances. The other variant is on Courage & Patience & Grit. Albums: Rant and Roar, Play, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
5. Mari-Mac - This one is a great deal of fun, both in the studio version and in the live versions, in no small part because Séan roars out the lyrics and each verse is faster than the one before. By the time you get to the end, the B'ys are blazing. It's even more impressive when they do it live, too. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
4. The River Driver - Another unaccompanied shanty, wherein Alan Doyle demonstrates that he can damn well carry off a shanty as well as Séan can, and in which the current five members of GBS hit some truly spine-shivering harmony. The minor chord on the second to the last chorus, where Murray Foster slams out a deep rumbly bass note, kills me every single time I hear it. Album: The Hard and the Easy, Courage & Patience & Grit
3. John Barbour - Very possibly my favorite GBS song of those performed by Séan McCann and the only ditty where any member of GBS sings all by himself. Given how Séan shows off his magnificent pipes in this song, it's absolutely worth it. Plus, it's a hell of a song regardless. Album: Something Beautiful*
2. Lukey - This song is way cooler live than it is in the studio version on Rant and Roar, since the B'ys doinked around with it a bit between the studio version and how they usually do it live now. It's one of the very best examples of what GBS sounds like in live performances, and is generally peppered with Alan's trademark bellows of things like "VERTICAL MOVEMENT!" and lots of audience singing. If you find the performance from Road Rage, too, you also get the treat of Alan's long and giggleworthy intro. Two words: Newfoundland rap. Albums: Rant and Roar, up, Road Rage, Great Big CD
Special side note for this ditty: If you can find it, there is a compilation album called Fire in the Kitchen which was put out by the Chieftains, teaming up with various bands and individual artists in Canada. GBS does a kickass version of "Lukey" on that album. (Note also that this song is one of the video extras on Courage & Patience & Grit.)
1. Ordinary Day - Because this one song pretty much encapsulates every single thing I love about this band. It's got the rich, multi-layered harmony. It's got the highly energetic rhythm. And most of all, it's got the unbridled joy. This song always brightens my darkest days, and with its chorus of "Way hey hey, it's just an ordinary day, and it's all your state of mind, at the end of the day you've just got to say it's all right", it's pretty much a summary of how I strive to live my life! Albums: Rant and Roar, Play, Road Rage, Great Big CD, Courage & Patience & Grit
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
My favourites
Date: 2006-05-17 07:27 pm (UTC)I don't know if I'd be able to number my favourites - it's too hard to narrow them down, let alone rank them! So in no particular order:
Someday Soon
and
Fisherman's Lament
(Perhaps I just have a thing for political songs?)
Wave Over Wave
(Always makes me smile, and a little bit homesick)
Fast As I Can
(Illustrative of my life at one point)
The Old Black Rum
(A great song to get me ready for a night on the town!)
Rant & Roar
(SO much fun to sing with a bunch of Newfoundlanders)
Excursion Around The Bay
(Again, fun to sing in a group)
Jolly Roving Tar
(I just love hearing Alan laugh in this song)
Margarita
(It's not their best song, but I get a kick out of it - and I wonder if it's about someone in particular!)
Scolding Wife
(Hilarious! Probably shouldn't let my husband know I like this one so much ;)
Come and I Will Sing You
(I've always loved this song, and I just love the instrumentation on this song)
Honourable mentions:
French Shore
Harbour LeCou
A Boat Like Gideon Brown
The Night Pat Murphy Died
Goin' Up
General Taylor
River Driver
And of course, the Christmas songs!
The Seven Joys Of Mary
and
The Mummers Song (Any Mummers Aloud In?)
I knew I couldn't narrow it down to 10. ;)
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-17 09:13 pm (UTC)Believe me, I had a hard time narrowing it down to just ten myself! ^_^ I've got a good 70 tracks on my GBS Favorites playlist on my iPod, with all the songs that rate "repeat play" for me, which is to say, a great number of them. Of the ones you've listed here, "Wave Over Wave", "Old Black Rum", "Rant and Roar", "Jolly Roving Tar", "The Night Pat Murphy Died", and "A Boat Like Gideon Brown" are all very much in that group.
I have been told by another GBS fan who's lived in Newfoundland for a while that you have not really and truly experienced a GBS show until you've experienced it on Newfoundland soil, surrounded by a crowd full of Newfoundlanders all bellowing "Rant and Roar". :D I would give a great deal to hear that!
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-18 07:09 pm (UTC)The last time I saw them play in Nfld. was in 2000 at the New Year's millennium bash in St. John's, and I'm only going to be home for a week in July this summer, so I'll probably have to wait to see them on Newfoundland soil again. But yes, it is truly an experience. :)
By the way, I came across this video clip today on my ISP's homepage. It's a clip of GBS as Bravo's artist of the week. Enjoy!
http://broadband-largebande.aliant.net/level2.jsp?contentID=13213112&categoryName=PCCelebrity&flag=video
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-18 09:52 pm (UTC)As a US fan I've had the experience of starting off seeing them in very small and intimate venues, but my first GBS concert still stands out brightly in my memory. It was at a local winery that has an ampitheater they sometimes use for concert performances, and it was in early September, so still very summery here in the Pacific Northwest. Wonderful experience!
Though seeing them at Stanley Park in Vancouver was even better, and I'm hoping with great hope that they will play Stanley Park again. Last several GBS shows I've been to, though, have been in larger local venues. Part of me thinks this is a fabulous thing, that they have enough of a local following to play larger shows, but I do miss the smaller ones. :)
And then I watch the Great Big DVD, and I see the huge crowd in that concert, and still count myself lucky!
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-18 11:06 pm (UTC)Hopefully you'll make it to Newfoundland someday to see them!
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-18 11:51 pm (UTC)Plus it was a concert festival, so we got to see some fabulous acts besides GBS as well--the Battlefield Band, La Bottine Souriante, and Natalie MacMaster.
I entered the Great Big Vacation contest that they've been running up on greatbigsea.com, but unless I manage to win that, it'll probably be a while before I'll be able to visit the Rock, sadly. Right now my major vacation every year is going to a big yearly science fiction convention called Worldcon, and that's about all I get to manage for a trip. But maybe someday!
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-19 05:01 am (UTC)Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-19 12:18 pm (UTC)That bites that the video won't work for you! It won't let me save the clip, and I can't seem to find the Entertainment>Celebrity section on the english.aliant.net site. Weird. Well, I tried! ;)
Re: My favourites
Date: 2006-05-26 01:47 pm (UTC)I do love me some La Bottine Souriante, though. I also picked up their album Rock and Reel at that same performance, and fondly remember that wall of sound they were putting out during the show. And the voice of their lead singer, rich and round and full like a good cheesecake. :9 I'd really like to get more of their albums, but that's the only one I've ever seen sold down here in the States, so I'll have to order further albums from amazon.ca, I think.
I bought a Natalie MacMaster album at the show as well--Fit as a Fiddle. I found it good music to go into my general Celtic instrumentals collection, though I'd be interested to know if there are better albums she's done. It didn't quite click with me.
We have two huge music festivals here in the Seattle every year. One of them is Folklife, which is this very weekend in fact, and it's a great deal of fun. I'll be spending at least one good day at that this weekend. :D
The other is Bumbershoot--which is more rock-oriented than folk-oriented, and which is later on in the year, at the very beginning of September. GBS played it one year and they're coming back to play there again this year!