Safe Upon the Shore
album by Great Big Sea
Safe Upon the Shore is the ninth and final studio album released by Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea. The album was released on July 13, 2010.
Track listing
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 7, and the bonus tracks were road tested before they recorded it in the studio.
Reception
Commercial performance
The album debuted at No. 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart, falling short to Eminem's Recovery. The album sold 7,000 copies in its first week, while Eminem placed first with 30,000 copies.
Critical reception
Greg Prato of allmusic gave the album mainly positive reviews, saying "there is more than meets the eye (or more fittingly, the ear) to this Canadian outfit.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Safe Upon the Shore” is album by Great Big Sea. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Safe, Upon and Shore, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “album by Great Big Sea” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7398507. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Safe Upon the Shore”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Safe Upon the Shore primary sources, Safe Upon the Shore archive and Safe research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Safe Upon the Shore”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Safe Upon the Shore” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.