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Great Big Sea
Biography
The sea shanty tradition of Newfoundland is fused with the spirit and energy of contemporary rock and popular music by Great Big Sea. Their hard-driving approach has not only made them popular in their homeland, where they've been nominated for four Juno Awards, but has brought them a growing recognition throughout North America and Europe. The inspiration for Great Big Sea was sparked during informal, kitchen-party jam sessions in the Newfoundland fishing village of Petty Harbor. Guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki player Alan Doyle, whose mother is a piano teacher, learned piano and drums as a youngster. His most natural musical voice, however, was expressed on the guitar. Having joined his uncle's rockabilly-meets-traditional Newfoundland music band, the New Standells, at the age of 15, he formed a duo, Staggering Home, with John Benton while attending St. John's University. The other members of Great Big Sea -- Sean McCann (tin whistle, bodhran), Bob Hallett (button accordion, fiddle, and mandolin), and Darrell Power (bass) -- initially played together in Celtic rock band Rankin Street. Hallett and McCann had previously played in a traditional, politically slanted group, the Newfoundland Republican Army.