IN THE SLOW LANE
It took the 2020 pandemic to bring Alan Doyle's busy life to a near halt
Sitting still is not Alan Doyle's jam.
“I'm go, go, go, then to sleep,” the multiple Juno award-winning singer-songwriter and bestselling author said over the phone recently from his home in St. John's, N.L.
If you have ever seen Doyle live, you know he could give a generating station a run for its money when it comes to energy.
But COVID-19 hit and Doyle suddenly had no stage to stalk. And he, like the rest of the world's touring musicians, was grounded.
Luckily for the self-professed boy from Petty Harbour, N.L., two important things happened and his sanity, for the most part he says, was secured.
First, his publisher (Doubleday Canada/Penguin Random House Canada) put him to work on a new book. And second, the summer weather in Newfoundland was, as the locals would say, grand.
“I needed something to do. Nothing terrifies me like a blank calendar,” Doyle recalls. “It's odd the whole origin of the book was born out of the fact I couldn't go anywhere.”
In May, Doyle spent three weeks furiously writing All Together Now: A Newfoundlander's Light Takes for Heavy Times.
The book, his third, is a goodtime, put-a-smile-on-your-face collection of stories Doyle has amassed in his decades of touring, travelling and enjoying a tipple and conversations in pubs such as his local haunt, the Duke of Duckworth.
“I said I could probably do a funny, random story book. Stories I would tell if we were out somewhere on the big yarn,” said Doyle. “It's the kind of book if you wanted to you could pick up and read a story then leave it alone for a day.”
Not one to putter — although he wishes he could figure out how to do that — Doyle said the book deadline timing was welcomed as he was hunkered down writing during a time of year that isn't the top seller for the local tourism board.
“I'm really glad I did it because it really made the month of May kind of fly by,” said Doyle adding: “May is a tough month here and I say that fully well knowing that if my wife was in the room with me, she'd shout: `You're never here in May!' And it's true. I'm always on the road. Springtime has come everywhere else to North America in May but not here,” he added. “It's the dead of winter here still or could be. It can be a tough month.”
The book finished and shipped off to his publisher, Doyle admits he felt a bit at loose ends. Summertime, after all, means the road. This time though the road was not a tour bus from one side of Canada to the other, but the family vehicle and trips around Newfoundland — remember Newfoundland had very few restrictions as they had very few cases — with his wife Jo and their 14-year-old son Henry.
“I'm sheepish to admit, but summer here in Newfoundland was great. I got to spend the summer with my family. It was glorious. I have to say I haven't had a summer off since I was 12,” said Doyle.
While vacation trips are off the books for all, Doyle's All Together Now does help scratch that travel itch as he relays stories from his many years on the road. Some of the topics Doyle covers in his distinct guy-you'd-enjoy-havinga-pint-with tone include the importance of neighbours; drinking too much; comedy duos (he was in one called Stagger and Home); accepting an aging fan base; acting in a major Hollywood movie; and also, a great tip for kids who fancy a foolproof method for avoiding bedtime.
“I wouldn't brag about many things when it comes to being clever, because I'm not that clever, but when I was 10 or 11, I figured out, and I can't believe I did, that if I delayed and spread out the John Denver songs that I could sing my aunts would not let my mother send me to bed,” said Doyle.
Also, there's a reminder about humility, something Doyle says you best understand if you come from his part of the world.
“In St. John's especially we don't have the same reward system for fame,” said Doyle.
“Sure, people are grateful for each other's successes, but this isn't the place where you want to pull up on the top of the steps of the Duke pub in your Hummer and some kind of fancy watch on or something. Wholly s--t can you imagine?
“I'm still Bernie's brother here in St. John's. The guy who wasn't as good a softball player. That's who I am.”
At the end of the day, “Bernie's brother” says he always comes back to the same thing, the stories — he loves telling them and he loves hearing them.
“One of the most compelling things to me is to stand in front of someone and be entertained by them or learn something from them or listen to them. I think that is one of the reasons, when I moved to St. John's, I fell in love with pub culture,” said Doyle. “I just love that there is a place where you go where you are just supposed to really sit and talk to teach other. There's no dance. There's no band.
You just go there and sit across from each other and talk. I still love that.”
While at home for the first time in decades Doyle also managed to produce some local Newfoundland acts and he has been working on a musical for the Charlottetown Festival.
“I am of course again the only guy who really has no experience in the genre but I'm forging ahead. It's super fun,” said Doyle about the musical.
Most recently, he and band members have played a few socially distanced gigs in Atlantic Canada.
Admittedly, he says, it was a bit weird going out into a room and playing for a 100 people.
Throughout the pandemic and likely up until the middle of this month, Doyle has been hosting Facebook Live Suppertime Singalong events in support of the Dollar A Day Foundation. At the time of writing the events have raised close to $800,000 for mental health and addictions programs across the country.
“It keeps people connected. It feels like we're together,” Doyle said about the sing-alongs. “Even though you're not nearby it is something familiar.”