Turn by Great Big Sea (CD, Mar-2000, Sire Records USA)

Listening to Great Big Sea will cause a great big smile to plaster itself acrost your face, a big silly grin born of indescribable, irresistable, joyful harmony and good times.

Maybe it's the merry go round cover, maybe it's the happy go lucky theme of Consequence Free, or the swirling melody to the title track, Feel It Turn, with it's wonderful whistle counterpoint, but this album is like being on a musical playground.

Canadian band Great Big Sea is multi-gold, and this record is one of the reasons why. They cross easily from the most basic of traditional songs (the stunningly simple four part acapella harmony of Old Brown's Daughter), to the rollicking I'm a Rover, to original material like Can't Stop Falling.

I'm sitting here listening to it as I type this, and marvelling at the talented Bob Hallett, with his whistle, fiddle, and concertina. The others are no slouch either, Sean plays a mean bodhran, and having hung around rudimental drummers for years, I say that in all sincerity. All play great guitar, banjo, mandolin, and whatever else is called for.

The delightful thing about GBS is that, singly, no one is a particularly outstanding world class singer, but together, they become something greater than the sum of the whole, and become a world class group. These guys were meant to be together.

Music should be entertaining, creative, memorable, fun, intelligent, enjoyable, and above all, satisfying to the soul. This album qualifies on all counts.