Memorial arts graduate profiles - Great Big Sea

Sean McCann BA, 1989
Darrell Power BA, B.Ed., 1991
Alan Doyle BA, 1992
Bob Hallett BA, 1990

The four members of Great Big Sea are musicians, songwriters, performers and entrepreneurs who make their living playing Newfoundland folk and traditionally based original music across Canada and around the world. Great Big Sea has sold almost 350,000 albums, performed for hundreds of thousands of people, released albums on three continents, toured Canada, the U.S., Germany, England, Scotland and Poland. They have been nominated for two Juno awards and numerous East Coast Music Awards, and have twice been named Entertainer of the Year.

Here's what they say about their Memorial BAs. "Unlike many musicians and/or entrepreneurs, we have little practical training in either of our chosen fields. What we do share, and can thank our years at Memorial for, is a genuine enthusiasm for ideas and culture. Our extensive course work in Newfoundland history and literature (Bob), folklore (Sean), religion (Alan), and linguistics (Darrell), has given us a real intellectual grounding in the culture we celebrate through songs and stories. This has given us a credibility that has helped enormously in our mission as folk musicians and informal representatives of our culture. As entrepreneurs, the kind of abstract and eyes-wide-open thinking that is the hallmark of a good arts education has led us to strive for goals rich in excitement and vigor, and to make decisions based on our collective ideals rather than our collective worries. It is a cliché to say a BA teaches you to think; better, perhaps, to say that a BA teaches you to question what you think. And this is always a good thing.

"Also, we all read a lot of good books that we otherwise probably wouldn't have bothered with, saw a bunch of plays that we wouldn't have thought we would have liked, listened to a lot of music that wasn't played on the radio, met a lot of influential people that we otherwise wouldn't have talked to, and developed a life-long addiction to coffee (which we are all sure must have a good side to it somewhere)."

here's the link if you want to check it out: http://www.trainyourbrain.ca/english/tools/bigsea.html