CELTIC TIDES

Head north and east until you reach North Sydney, Nova Scotia nestled at the very edge of continental North America.\nAt that point hop aboard the ferry for 280 nautical miles, out into the frigid North Atlantic. (Of course, you can only take the 14-hour ride in the summer, thanks to all the icebergs the rest of the year.) You'll land at Argentia, Newfoundland, arriving (after more than 2,000 miles) on The Rock, the Canadian province that is both jaw-droppingly beautiful and chillingly forbidding.\nIt's also the home of Bob Hallett, a multi-talented instrumentalist and founding member of Great Big Sea, a band which, over the last dozen or so years, has melted the divisions between Newfie folk, Celtic punk rock and American pop music.\nAnd Hallett, like the other two original band members -- Alan Doyle and Sean McCann -- is fiercely devoted to the enignmatic island and the culture which continues to nurture the band, both artistically and spiritually. By touring the rest of Canada and into the United States, Hallett says Great Big Sea hopes to change people's impressions of their beloved home.\n"For most people in America, their experience with Newfoundland is 'The Shipping News,'" he says. "That's a pretty fucked-up way to look at Newfoundland."\nIn many ways, the recent life of the band has served as a metaphor for existence in Newfoundland, an economically depressed province caught between the slow death of the cod-fishing industry and the uncertainty of new development ventures.\nAfter the departure of original bassist Darrell Power last year, the remaining trio was forced to evaluate where they stood and where they were headed. Years of carefree, full-throttle concert tours had taken their toll on the boys, and they were left wondering if they should even go on at all.\nBut they regrouped and, drawing inspiration from the rich tradition of reels, jigs and sea chanties which are crucial to Newfoundland's cultural history, they each started writing. The result is Something Beautiful, a CD chocked with 10 original tunes. Of course, there's three rollicking reworkings of traditional songs as well.\nBut perhaps even more important to the band's development was the addition of an actual rhythm section -- new bassist Murray Foster (formerly of Moxy Früvous) and drummer Kris MacFarlane. With their presence, Great Big Sea has produced -- dare we say it? -- a rock 'n' roll album.\n"We were trying to break out of our own box," Hallett says. "We had established a pattern of making albums that were half folk, half pop. This time we had songs and we wanted to record them any way they worked. We tried not to walk that tightrope between folk and pop."\nA prime example of the band's newfound (no pun intended) zeal and embrace of the rock sound is the Hallett-penned "Helmethead," a rowdy, raucous ode to a womanizing hockey player. By the end of the song the band almost sounds like the Pogues or even, say, Flogging Molly. Hallett credits that propulsive feel to newcomers Foster and MacFarlane.\n"That's something we never had before," Hallett says of the rhythm section. He adds that while Foster and MacFarlane "had sympathy for the music" of traditional Newfoundland, they also brought a heady, groove-focused attitude, and, Hallett says, "It's great that we had a section that looked at the music that way."\nThe CD has been released to generally positive reviews; Lynn Saxberg of the Ottawa Citizen called Something Beautiful "the best Great Big Sea disc yet."\nBut for all the masterwork the band produces in the studio, Great Big Sea is best known for its adrenaline-fueled live shows. The Halifax (Nova Scotia) Daily News' Sandy MacDonald posed, "Is there a happier crowd anywhere than the folks who follow Great Big Sea?," while Seamus O'Regan, host of Canada Television's "Canada AM," asserted that "you haven't lived life until you've heard Great Big Sea live." Saxberg was equally bold: "The fact is that Great Big Sea can outplay, outsing and outrock any indie-rock garage band out there."\nThe band brings its show to The Patio, in Indianapolis, on March 30 -- it will be the group's first visit to Indy -- and Hallett says it'll be a typically rousing experience.\n"We want to make our shows very entertaining, so we want to include the audience as much as possible," Hallett says. "We want our shows to be more about doing something and not just seeing something."\nThe throngs of Great Big Sea fans at the band's shows are often a close-knit bunch, many of them attracted just as much by Newfoundland culture as the group itself. Hallett says that at all times, whether on the road or in the studio, the band tries to fill people in about laid-back, affable Newfoundland life. He says that compared to what he calls the "suburban wastelands" of the rest of Canada and the United States, The Rock offers people authenticity and warmth.\n"When someone comes to Newfoundland they're treated like visitors, not like people walking around with wallets," he says.\nIt's that attitude, that ambiance, that outlook on life that drives Great Big Sea to bring its music to the rest of the world.\n"It's special to us," Hallett says. "For us, it's a privilege to go out and play Newfoundland music for people"