Great Big Sea can count actor Russell Crowe as a fan. Crowe even co-wrote a song for its new album.

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Don't be surprised to see Russell Crowe front row center Tuesday night when Canada's Great Big Sea plays the Rialto Theatre.

Crowe is a big fan and discovered the group while filming "Mystery, Alaska" in Alberta, according to Big Sea co-founder Bob Hallett.

The Academy Award-winning actor is known to pop up at their concerts unannounced and has collaborated musically with guitarist Alan Doyle. He even co-wrote the track "Company of Fools" with Doyle, on the band's latest release, "Fortune's Favour."

"Russell is someone who makes a living with very interesting and compelling words," said Hallett. "He is a real poet when it comes to writing lyrics. We like the song they wrote. It speaks to some of the eccentricities of our lifestyle."

Great Big Sea's Rialto gig marks the band's first visit since 2006. Hallett spoke to the Star by phone last week.

For living so far away, you are extremely accessible musicians. You have individual online journals, a MySpace page a Facebook page and even a Twitter account. Do you enjoy working on all this online content?

"Enjoy is probably not the right word. It is more that these things are necessary so there is no point complaining about it. If you are going to do it, you might as well do it with some enthusiasm and put some creativity into it. That is our philosophy.

"Five years ago our participation on the Web site was minimal. Now, it is a daily conversation."

"Fortune's Favour" is a departure from your usual brand of folk rock. How did the idea for the album come about?

"We convened on the studio when we had a couple of days off to lay down some demos. But we weren't happy with them. They felt very predictable and average, very middle-of-the-road. So we went to a couple of producers and told them, 'This is the body of material we have. This is why we are not happy doing this ourselves. What can you bring to the table?' "

And you ended up with Canadian cabaret pop star Hawksley Workman

"Yeah. Hawksley was a gadfly of activity and creativity. We got caught up in his enthusiasm. It was so infectious. We thought 'We'll make this album with him, and if it sucks, we'll stick it on the Internet and that will be that.'

"As it turned out, we really liked it. We ditched almost everything that we had. We wrote a big pile of new songs and heavily rearranged the couple that survived. It is a completely different beast than what we started with. It is more of a collaboration between us and Hawksley than just a band thing.

"It's different than what fans are used to, but at this stage in the game you are better off risking pissing people off than boring them. Boring them is not an option."

Any favorite song on the release?

"I like the song 'Here and Now.' It started so different and not that good, and it finished off as one of the best songs on the record. Its transition from ugly duckling to swan was so basic. To go there and see it all brand new again was a real pleasure and brought a ton of energy to the band."