GBS

You are currently browsing the archive for the GBS category.

Bring out your Great Big Sea videos!

August 25, 2011 in GBS, Music | 2 comments

People, I am experiencing a potentially life-changing event here. I ain’t up to GBS levels of fangirling on Le Vent du Nord quite yet, but those lads from Quebec now very well and thoroughly have my attention, and it’s very significant that at an earlier point today, the number of LVN fan videos I’d added to my YouTube playlist had in fact outnumbered the Great Big Sea videos!

And that, my friends, is pure crazytalk. The lovely Monsieur Beaudry is laying down a very, very compelling case. But this is THE HONOR OF THE DOYLE at stake here. So I put out a call on Twitter and Facebook and Google Plus for people to hit me with their favorite GBS vids on YouTube–and I now repeat that call here! Link me up with your favorite Great Big Sea vids, people! Bonus points if they’re from shows I actually attended!

Remembering that userinfoangelina_zooma had pointed me at a vid of hers I’d never looked at, I finally looked at that tonight. And I gotta tell you, you have never heard “Cod Liver Oil” until you have heard it performed by Murray Foster. Behold!

And for the record, yes, C minor IS the key of someone who’s been drinking until five-thirty. ;>

Tags: ,

Great Big Sea at the Moore in Seattle, 3/12/2011 (Part 3 of 3)

March 24, 2011 in GBS | Permalink

In which our heroine is super-late posting the last bit of the concert writeup from the 12th, she admits! But I beg your indulgence, my fellow GBS fans, for lo, I have been stricken this last week or so with the plague. STRICKEN, I tell you. Handsome and talented as The Doyle is, not even he can make me string coherent thoughts together when I’m in a Sudafed-and-Nyquil-induced coma. And I’m assuming y’all want me to finish this report off with something a bit more substantial than “mmmm Alan is so pretty mmmm”, anyway!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Great Big Sea at the Moore in Seattle, 3/12/2011 (Part 2 of 3)

March 17, 2011 in GBS | Permalink

Things were a little hectic getting us out of the pub and over into the Moore, I fear–we lost track of userinfomamishka! Oops. But she did catch up with us, and all tickets were safely handed out in our party of seven, and our seats on row M on the right hand side of the main floor were secured.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Great Big Sea at the Moore in Seattle, 3/12/2011 (Part 1 of 3)

March 17, 2011 in GBS | 4 comments

This was, hands down, the biggest GBS fan outing I’d arranged in some time. I was juggling communication about it across four different channels–Facebook, Twitter, email, and the OKP–and five, really, if you count anything off-net. (This did, I am embarrassed to admit, make me a little crazy; apologies to those to whom I got more crazy than was warranted, and much gratitude to all as I kept a whole bunch of balls in the air to get the whole shebang going!) It wound up going in three, count ‘em, three different waves all across Saturday afternoon and evening.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,

GBS show teaser!

March 13, 2011 in GBS, Photos | Permalink

The obligatory Great Big Writeup of Great Big Swoonability is on the way, but I’d like to share this one pic I got during the show. Usually my iPhone’s less than useful for taking photos in an indoor concert situation–since I inevitably wind up with blurred figures in a wash of color and light.

Sometimes, though, it winds up looking really, REALLY cool. Like this pic!

God of Music and Light

God of Music and Light

And some of you may have heard rumors of a Certain Cake. What I’ll say about that right now is that the cake was not indeed a Lie. Stay tuned for more details on that cunning plan and how it was enacted!

Tags: , ,

T-14 days and counting to VERTICAL MOVEMENT

February 26, 2011 in GBS | 3 comments

Two weeks from today, my beloved B’ys will be arriving at the Moore to sing to me!

Well, okay, and userinfomamishka and userinfojennygriffee and userinfotechnoshaman and userinfomaellenkleth and userinfosutures1 and a few thousand other people as well. That’s okay. Because I am a person of STRONG CHARACTER, I will SHARE.

I know several of the usual Seattle suspects will be showing up for this show, too, so if you’re going to be there don’t hesitate to sing out! I and mine are discussing an Eat Dinner at The Night Kitchen Beforehand Plan, but I’m also thinking of coming down early to blow the afternoon in Pike Place and Barnes and Noble. So if anybody wants to meet up for lunch, there’s ample opportunity for that too.

And, of course, consider yourselves warned that I will be ramping up the insufferably bouncy swooniness and singing GBS songs at the top of my lungs for the next two weeks. “Yes yes yes,” I hear you say, “but how is this different from your USUAL demeanor?” Fair point, well argued. The main difference is, I’ll be doing it LOUDER.

Tags: ,

I cannot IMAGINE what tipped them off

December 15, 2010 in GBS | Permalink

My latest auto-recommendation email from Amazon is totally to giggle: Folk Songs of Newfoundland, by Alan Mills! Note also this dude has a separate album called We’ll Rant and We’ll Roar: Songs of Newfoundland, too!

Wikipedia informs me that Mr. Mills was best known for popularizing Canadian folk music, and it’s very clear, looking over the track listings for both of these albums, that my beloved B’ys either pulled hard from his songs or else were pulling from the same sources he did! Between these albums, I see a whole bunch of songs that were much, much later covered by GBS:

  • From the B’ys’ very first, self-titled album: “I’se the B’y” and “Great Big Sea”
  • From up and later also, Rant and Roar: “Lukey’s Boat”, and of course, “Rant and Roar”
  • From Turn: “Jack Hinks”
  • From Sea of No Cares: “Feller from Fortune”
  • From the mighty, mighty The Hard and the Easy: “Tickle Cove Pond”, “Harbor Le Cou”, “The Old Polina”

Mr. Mills’ versions are of course much more old school, and a lot more folksy. But damn, it’s weird and fun listening to his earlier versions of these songs. I’m very tempted to get both of these albums, just for the giggle factor of the contrast to GBS’ versions!

And clearly, Amazon ignored the “sexy, bouncy, long-haired bouzouki player” part of “customer’s affection for Newfoundland folk music”, when their auto-recommender code sent me that mail. :D

Tags: ,

More guitar geeking!

December 5, 2010 in GBS, Music | 6 comments

So unless a more awesome name presents itself, my shiny new guitar is going to be henceforth known as “General Taylor”. I am, yes, quite cognizant of the irony of naming a guitar for a song performed without any instruments whatsoever.

I have also realized that as I was grabbing shinies to go with the General at Dusty Strings, I forgot to get one other critical thing: a capo. The capo I bought for Rags was intended for nylon string guitars; it works okay on the new guitar, but isn’t optimal and I keep expecting it to pop off. So I’ll need to pick up another one. Oh DARN, I’ll have to go into a music store again! Twist my arm. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Meanwhile I have retuned Rags to DADGAD tuning. Poor Rags really sounds kind of feeble compared to the Taylor, but going into that tuning adds some really nice complexity to his tone. I’ve printed off a chord chart to see what I can learn, and also went and re-printed the chords to “Boston and St. John’s”–which is played in said tuning. It’ll be fun to properly learn that song.

Tags: , ,

PSA: Great Big Sea @ the Moore in March on presale TOMORROW!

November 23, 2010 in GBS | Permalink

This just in: tickets go on sale on greatbigsea.com for the show at the Moore on March 12th of next year, TOMORROW at 10am!

The show will be on a delicious, delicious SATURDAY, so Seattle peeps, if you think you want in on the goodness and you aren’t already a member of the site–i.e., if you need me to get your tickets–let me know ASAP so that I know how many tickets to get!

Tags:

Well, bugger

August 23, 2010 in GBS | 4 comments

The finalists for the Great Big Sea Karaoke Contest were announced this morning and I fear that our video was NOT included on the list! Sniff.

Many thanks to all of you who took a look and offered words of encouragement, they are much appreciated! I would like to endorse, in our stead, the “Hit the Ground and Run” video by the Singing Roberts–since they had an awesome acting out, complete with costumes and a mini-script, of that particular song. You can vote on the video of your choice here.

I shall now also accept kittens, cookies, and other forms of consolation, if any happen to be around. *^_^*;;

Tags:

« Older entries