Celtic band plans to rock Labrador City

The Navigators are charting a course to Labrador City.

Originally from Newfound-land, the band is set to bring sounds of the coast to Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre June 19.

The group will perform their brand of Celtic folk-rock featuring their newest album, Sea Miner, their first album, Dance and Sing, and traditional Irish/Newfoundland favourites.

Arthur O'Brien, songwriter and lead singer, described his band's music as a Celtic kick-in-the-pants that combines modern rock, distinct baritone sounds of lead vocals, and traditional instruments like the fiddle, bodhran, and tin whistle.

Performing at the Arts and Culture Centre -a soft-seated venue-will be a little bit different from a pub gig.

It will be a lot more acoustic, he said, especially since they'll be performing without their drummer Paul Murphy.

The show, he promises, will have lots of energy and he expects the audience to clap and sing along.

This will be O'Brien's second time in Labrador City, and he fondly remembers a tight-knit community from his last visit. He said he was really looking forward to returning especially since he has gotten a good response from people about the upcoming performance.

He started the band with Fred Jorgensen 10 years ago and said they were first called Talevanishk, which is an Galic word for Newfoundland meaning the land of the big fish.

O'Brien got tired of people asking him what the word meant and went with a more identifiable name, The Navigators.

He said a lot of his songs are influenced by Bay Bulls, Newfoundland's whale watching capital and the place he grew up.

His music is like the shoreline, he explained, hard at times and then smooth or tranquil.

According to O'Brien, Sea Miner, the band's latest album, is a lot about how Newfoundlanders feel caught between economic subjugation and a boom in resources like oil.

Stayed for Reason is one of his favourite new songs on the album, which talks about a man shipwrecked on the shores of Newfoundland who chose to stay there and make a life from the sea.

He said Newfoundland doesn't have a monopoly on Celtic music and he has found variations in pockets virtually everywhere he's been.

The band is planning to tour across Canada, said O'Brien, and will travel to France this summer.