= MUSIC

The Hard and the Easy
by Great Big Sea
Warner Music Canada 2005

REVIEWED BY NORMAN GARCIA

THE GREAT BIG SEA, with this its
ninth recording, has always blend-
ed traditional folk songs with pop
sounds. Last year it released an
entire CD of well-known and for-
gotten classics from Newfoundland
and Labrador.

In addition
to pint-hoist-
ing romps,
and blue-
tinged love
songs from
wayward sea
balladeers, this record holds a few
gems which capture traditions from
Newfoundland’s logging industry.

On the River Driver, the boys’
three-part harmonies capture the
days when Newfoundland’s woods-
men would bring the season’s cut
down the river, as the spring ice
breakup came. Many a fisherman
would get work in the camps
through the long winter months.
The song’s lament: “I‘ll eat when I
am hungry and 111 drink when I am
dry/Get drunk whenever I'm
ready/Get sober bye and bye/ And if
this river don’t drown me/It’s down
I’m free to roam.”

From Tickle Cove Pond comes the
album’s title: “The Hard and the
Easy we take as they come/And when
ponds freeze over we shorten our
runs.” The logger repents his mare
falling through the ice because he
did not follow his sweetheart’s
advice.

And on Concerning Charlie Horse,
yet another tune recalls the demise

= Ltor. are the Sean McCann, Alan
Doyle and Bob Hallett, three of Great Big
Sea’s founding members.

of a horse falling through the ice:
“No better horse ne’er ran the course
nor pulled the logs more faster.” And
despite characters like Old Moose
Coosten, Barracuda Bill, Smiley
Stubborn and Sagebrush Sam and
others coming the the rescue, the
old mare didn’t make ‘er.

Probably the toughest one to
sing along with is Come and I Will
Sing Ye, which claims ancient ori-
gins - Christian, Hebrew and
Pagan alike. Bearing a great resem-
blence to the Twelve Days of
Christmas, Bob Hallet does a mas-
terful job as lead vocalist.

The Band’s two lead singers,
Alan Doyle and Sean McCann, nail
some other fine numbers. Doyle
skips through Captain Kidd, about
a real pirate, who was hung for his
misdeeds in 1701. The version’s
banjo and bodrah (Irish drum) help
punch the words even more.

To this reviewer the most melod-
ic tunes are Harbour LeCou and
French Shore, songs of infidelity and
youthful recollection.

The Great Big Sea are truly great
Canadians. I’d bet many others out
there hope they do another album
of traditional songs. It would be
another lead-in to discover more
about rich folklore from The Rock
and Labrador.

‘iri

MUSIC

We Shall Overcome: The

Seeger Sessions
by Bruce Springsteen
Columbia 2006

HERE’S AN AMERICAN music icon
singing and playing tribute to leg-
endary folk icon Pete Seeger. A Bruce
Springsteen album of today shows
why traditional songs matter. Backed
by a big wall of accoustic sound —
fourteen musicians — Springsteen
blends folk, rockabilly, country and
other forms of
American roots
music to
pump new life
into both com-
mon and rare
songs from
Seeger's (he’s
alive and kicking at age 87) many
recordings.

The timeless title track, a gospel
anthem sung at many a picket line and
social justice rally, breathes renewed
purpose. The Irish ballad Mrs.
McGrath's lyrics speak loudly as
American troops needlessly die in Iraq
and Afghanistan. “All foreign wars, | do
proclaim/Live on Blood and a Mother's
Pain.” Springsteen and company roam
the Seeger gamut, including the coun-
try blues classic John Henry, the sea
chanty Pay Me My Money Down, a
gospel/Dixieland version of Oh, Mary
Don’t you Weep and the outlaw tune
Jessie James. Just as important as the
songs themselves are the many fans
who will discover music that links an
America past with a current-day
America that’s going through some
very turbulent times.

- reviewed by Norman Garcia

THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2006 | 39