Buffalo Place

Saturday, August 27th

Great Big Sea
www.greatbigsea.com 

Great Big Sea is an exceptionally lively and energetic group that fuses Irish, French and English rhythms and adds their own unique sea shanty and pop flow to bring audiences a fresh taste of Celtic rock music.  March 11, 2011 marked the bands 18th birthday.  Founding members were Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett, Sean McCann and Darrell Power.  McCann, Hallett and Power formally played together in a band called Rankin Street, McCann and Hallett played collectively in the Newfoundland Republican Army and Alan Doyle and John Brenton made up the duo Staggering Home before establishing Great Big Sea.  In 2003, bassist Darrell Power retired from the group to spend more time with his family and supporting members Kris MacFarlane (drums, accordion, guitar, backing vocals) and Murray Foster (bass, backing vocals) soon joined.  From 1996 through 2000 the group won the Entertainer of the Year award at the East Coast Music Awards.  Great Big Sea took part in fan cruises called Ships and Dip III and Ships and Dip V in 2008 and 2009.  Other artists on the cruises included Barenaked Ladies, Sloan, The New Odds and The Weakerthans.  February 23, 2010 Sean McCann released his first solo album, Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes.  Just three days later, Great Big Sea was the headline act at Newfoundland-Labrador Night at the 2010 Winter Olympic Victory Ceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia.  In July of 2010 the group released its 10th and most recent album, Safe Upon the Shore.  This album was recorded down in New Orleans and while touring over the course of six months. 

Alan Doyle starred with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in the 2010 film Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, where he played the role of Allen a-Dale, one of Robin Hood’s merry men.  Doyle was able to land the role as he is a lifelong friend of Russell Crowe.  Doyle also co-wrote for Russell Crowe’s new band, The Ordinary Fear of God which is set to release a new record in May of 2011.  When not working with the group, Doyle has taken on other side projects including composing music for Law & Order: Criminal Intent and the CBC comedy Hatching, Matching & Disbatching.  The band was also featured in commercials across Canada to attract tourism to Newfoundland and Labrador, using the group’s energetic pub performance to showcase the province as an area where the locals know how to host a great party.  Great Big Sea continues to embrace music from their roots in Newfoundland, Canada and infuse it with pop music to create a sound all of their own.  One critic says of their most recent album, “they still know how to bring the party to the people of Newfoundland and elsewhere with their anthemic beer barrel tunes. All that can be said to that is, well, bottoms up.” 


Opening for Great Big Sea…

Martin Sexton
www.martinsexton.com 

According to the Boston Globe, "Martin Sexton is ripe with raw, expansive talent. His voice comes in a hundred impossible shades. His songs are sweet and spirited and soulful. His repertoire is like a cross-country tour of the American musical vernacular."  Martin Sexton is a native of Syracuse, New York and began his career as a street musician in Boston’s Harvard Square.  He is known for the tremendous range of his vocal talent and his music style is broad as well, fusing a mix of soul, gospel, country, rock, blues and R&B.  After recording his first demo back in 1992, In The Journey, on an old 8-track player at a friends place he managed to sell 20,000 copies out of his guitar case.  After producing his second album Black Sheep, Sexton signed with Atlantic Records and grew his loyal fan base with the release of The American, Wonder Bar and Live Wide Open between 1998 and 2002.  Live Wide Open was mixed by John Alagia who is known for his work with Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer.  This American folk singer-songwriter and producer is known for his high spirits and being incredibly independent, which led him to start his own record label KTR in 2002.  In 2007, after the release of “Diner,” the single was featured on the episode of Scrubs, “My Night to Remember” and other pieces have been featured on NBC Parenthood and Showtimes Brotherhood.  Last April, Sexton released his latest album Sugarcoating.  According to the New York Times, Sexton "jumps beyond standard fare on the strength of his voice, a blue-eyed soul man's supple instrument," and "his unpretentious heartiness helps him focus on every soul singer's goal: to amplify the sound of the ordinary heart."