Great Big Sea floats new tour dates as live DVD surfaces

Canadian outfit Great Big Sea follows its current break from the road with a late-winter/early-spring U.S. tour.

The Celtic Rockers plan to kick things off in the Northeast in early March, and dates so far are scheduled into April. The group is also slated to give a Dec. 27 performance in its native Newfoundland.

Last month, the band released a new DVD titled "Great Big DVD," which features about 80 minutes of concert footage, as well as 13 music videos, three Karaoke tracks, a tour documentary, home movies and a band timeline, according to the group's website.

Great Big Sea's most-recent audio release is last year's "Sea of No Cares," which debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian charts.

The group spent much of 2003 on the road in support of the set during the band's first outing without founding bassist Darrell Power, who announced at the beginning of the year that he was retiring from the group in order to spend more time with his family.

Founding members Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann have charged ahead with new bassist Murray Foster, formerly of Moxy Fruvious.

Multi-instrumentalist Hallet, in the band's label biography, describes Great Big Sea as "a really aggressive folk band that marries traditional Celtic music with modern rhythms."