Fortune's Favour

The new Great Big Sea album is available on iTunes. Woohoo!

UPDATE: So far, so good; I've listened to tracks 1-4 and 7. "Banks of Newfoundland" is, as I thought it might be, quite dissimilar from (and probably more authentic than!) the Irish Rovers' version; the lyrics are roughly the same, but they're set to a completely different tune. It doesn't have the same hairy-chested, belt-it-out feel as the Rovers' version (or, for that matter, as some other GBS songs like "General Taylor," "Captain Kidd," "The Old Black Rum," etc.), but I still like it, I think. I'll have to listen to it a bunch more times to decide for sure. :)

One song I definitely like is track #3, "England," which contains the lyric that gave rise to the album's title, "Fortune's Favour." It's a very neat little ditty about the first English settlers who came to Newfoundland (or "the New Found Land," as the island was originally known, and as the song initially describes it). "England" has good lyrics, beautiful harmonies, and some nice little nuanced touches in the way the song evolves and the way the boys sing it.

P.S. Appropriately enough -- and, come to think of it, this is probably intentional on Great Big Sea's part -- today is the anniversary of the date in 1497 when John Cabot landed in Newfoundland*, becoming the first European to since the Vikings to reach North America's shores. (Hat tip: My Adversaria.)

*Probably. Various other locations, including Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, claim he landed there rather than in Newfoundland. But it was most likely in Newfoundland, at Cape Bonavista.

Comments

[Becky]

Delete my comment! You vile censor! A pox on the phony King of England...er, uh, the blog-tater. You know who else deleted blog comments? That's right. Hitler!

:)

[dcl]

Rats I missed the comment that got deleted... And seriously dude, do you think it wise to delete a comment your wife made?