After nearly 20 years touring with the Canadian folk-rock outfit Great Big Sea and bringing Newfoundland traditional music and sea shanties with a harder edge to the masses, Séan McCann tested the proverbial waters of a solo career, recording tracks for what would become Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes. The album, a deeply personal work inspired in part by the birth of his sons, enjoyed some critical success, and just short of a year later, McCann released its followup, Son of a Sailor, taking those Newfoundland sounds popularized by Great Big Sea and combining them with a country balladeer aesthetic, accompanied by Kelly Russell and Craig Young as The Committed.
