Fortune favours Great Big Sea

Their current tour in support of the band's 10th album, Fortune's Favour, started last June with the release of the record. Its final leg opened last week in the Maritimes and wraps up March 29 in Vancouver with an appearance on the Juno Awards. The band has been nominated for best group.

Nominated 10 times, Great Big Sea has never won a Juno. "We're kind of the Susan Lucci of Canadian rock, I guess."

On the other hand, they won the East Coast Music Awards so often in the late 1990s and early 2000s they had to remove their name from contention to give other acts a chance.

Fortune's Favour was produced by Canadian rocker Hawksley Workman, who also appears playing a multitude of instruments. It's one of the grittiest GBS recordings in years, and that was the plan, said Hallett.

"I think we wanted to hit a bit harder this time," he said. "It was designed to play live and we have enjoyed doing the songs in concert."

From the opening love chant, Love Me Tonight, there's a singalong, joyously upbeat quality about the album. Each of the three core members - Hallett, Alan Doyle and Sean McCann - gets an equal share at fronting the group, too.

GBS has always approached its music as a collective, said Hallett. "That's been the mark of this band right from the start, I think."

The band evolved out of Newfoundland's bar and folk club traditions in the early 1990s. Its first gig, backing up the Irish Descendants, was 16 years ago this month - March 11, 1993, at Memorial University in St. John's.

Originally a four-piece that included Darrell Power on bass, the band was reduced to the current trio when Power retired in 2003 to spend more time with his family.

Drummer Kris MacFarlane, whose presence gives Fortune's Favour its visceral sound, has been touring and recording with GBS since 2001. He is essentially a full-time member, said Hallett.

So, too, is bass player Murray Foster, formerly of Moxy Fruvous, who has been with GBS for six years. MacFarlane and Foster can also sing, which is a prime ingredient in GBS.

"We have some fairly intricate harmonies," said Hallett. "Not everyone can do it well, so we really appreciate what these guys bring to the mix."

Hallett is listed in the credits for Fortune's Favour as playing bouzouki, fiddle, banjo, accordion, tin whistle and harmonica. He even threw in some bagpipes on the tune Heart of Stone.

Playing many instruments is something of a Newfoundland tradition, he said. It's a mark of achievement in the rich musical community of St. John's.

While GBS continues to capture new audiences in Canada and the U.S., its fame in recent years has gone international on the strength of the band's close association with film star and fellow musician Russell Crowe.

Crowe picked up on the Newfoundland band while filming Mystery, Alaska in Alberta several years ago, and he has maintained a regular correspondence with the band, especially lead singer Alan Doyle. Doyle, in fact, produced and contributed songs to Crowe's solo album, My Hand, My Heart.

In turn, Crowe wrote Company of Fools on the new GBS album, and arranged to have Doyle appear in his next movie, a Robin Hood adventure directed by Ridley Scott. Doyle will portray troubadour Allan A'Dayle.

"People might see this as an odd relationship," said Hallett. "But Crowe is a serious musician and he happens to really like our music. He's a great guy, too."

Windsor Star