Great Big Sea are intensely crazy musicians, very talented, and they write some really
upbeat amazing stuff. They've taken a lot of traditional
east coast music and added an edge to it, made it more mainstream but kept some of the original sound making it pretty
unique and a sort of cross between
Celtic and
Contemporary Rock.
It's been mentioned to me that GBS have a sort of cult following in NYC, and have played summerstage in
Central Park. Aside from the fact that they're a really awesome band, I'm not sure why this is the case
.
Discography (brief):
Great Big Sea (self-titled) - 1992,
NRA Production
Up - 1996,
Wea International
Play - 1997,
Wea International
Rant and Roar - 1998,
Sire
Turn - 2000,
WEA
Road Rage (live), 2000, Rounder
Sea of No Cares, 2002, Zoe
The group consists of
Alan Doyle (guitar, drums, vocals),
John Benton,
Sean McCann (tin whistle,
bodhran),
Bob Hallett (button accordion, fiddle and mandolin), and
Darrell Power (bass). They've got a ton of energy and they seem to put it all into their
music. I don't know how much
recognition they've had in the
United States, but they're very popular here in
Canada, especially in
Newfoundland.