**1/2 Great Big Sea

UP

(Warner Music Canada)

Call this quartet from Newfoundland a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and mostly good-natured Canadian folk. On their second album, Up (the first, Great Big Sea, is also distributed by Warner Canada), they mix sea chanteys ("The Old Black Rum"), reels ("Dancing with Mrs. White"), jigs/mouth music ("Billy Peddle"), and ballads ("Fast As I Can"), throwing in a pop cover (Slade's "Run Runaway") and an a cappella protest song ("The Chemical Worker's Song").

The highlight here is the tongue-twisting "Mari-Mac" ("Mari-Mac's mother's makin' Mari-Mac marry me/My mother's makin' me marry Mari-Mac," and that's the easy part), which accelerates dizzyingly. Vocalist Alan Doyle's "Fast As I Can" doesn't have much new to say ("I'm goin' fast as I can/Please don't make me rush/This feeling's comin' on way too fast"), but Bob Hallett's fiddle and Sean McCann's tin whistle make it glow. For the most part the traditional tracks (some with a touch of zydeco) work better than the new stuff, which tends toward the bland and new-agey. Still, in person the band deliver the goods, if the show they played at the Middle East back in March was any indication.

-- Jeffrey Gantz

(Great Big Sea play the Phoenix Landing with the Big Geraniums this Friday, June 13. Both bands will go on to the Guinness Fleadh in New York this weekend. Call 756-6260.)