Alan Doyle
Canada's beloved troubadour takes his home on the road
As if Alan Doyle doesn't have enough on his plate with a new album and ongoing preparations for a North American tour, the world-renowned Canadian singer-songwriter is penning another narrative about his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
“This little book that I am currently writing is very much trying to answer some big questions; Why are we all so drawn to this place, you know? Why are we all thrilled to have the chance to live here? I don't know, I mean, personally, I think it is the people - we are different, and I don't mind saying it. I don't know if we are any better or worse than anybody else, but there is a sense of community here that shows up in very practical, hands-on ways. Only this morning, I was carrying a truckload of wood into my mother's house, and two people stopped and helped me. I love where it is in the world too, and that we are from kind of a weird place.”
Despite that oddness, or perhaps because of it, “The Rock” (as Canadians call it) has produced its fair share of talent over the years,
“Well, for one thing, we have been disproportionately running the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) since 1975. Rex Murphy, Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, Alan Hawco, 22 Minutes, Mark Critch - someone from this province has been on one of the top three television shows in the country for the past 50 or 60 years.”
The region is a literary heavyweight as well, birthing a bevy of bestselling books from the likes of Wayne Johnston, Michael Crummey, Donna Morrissey, Lisa Moore, and many others.
“One thing we do very well here is tell stories. Perhaps that is our Celtic heritage, but we have taken that traditional storytelling culture and made it our own, be it in our music, our books, our theatre, whatever…and the rest of Canada has embraced it.”
That has certainly been the case for both his former band Great Big Sea and with his solo career.
“Audiences in Saskatoon will clap their hands to Lukey's Boat as fast as anyone, anywhere in Canada. Music from this part of the world is now an important piece of our national identity.”
Canada's sense of self, he notes, is a relatively new occurrence. “One of the things about having the United States as a neighbor is that Canada gets a little overlooked sometimes. On the whole, we are quieter by nature, even perhaps too modest or humble. Less patriotic than our American cousins anyway. I mean, for a long time if someone asked you to describe what it means to be Canadian, you'd be stumped.” That started to change, he says, in the 1990s.
“I remember being in a taxi in Toronto about 30 years ago and we were stuck in traffic and the radio station played four Canadian songs in a row; Celine Dion, Our Lady Peace, Susan Aglukark, and Great Big Sea. And I'm thinking to myself ‘there are four completely unique artists, each with a distinct sound, from four different regions of the country - and yet there is something that ties it all together, like the country itself.
Doyle's latest musical effort, Welcome Home, was a return to roots of sorts.
“This record was a band record,” he explains. “And it was great to stand in a room, wedged between Kendall Carson (violin) and Cory Tetford (guitar) and just celebrate the fact that we could all get back together and do music. It's a cliché, but it is true nonetheless; you don't know what you've got ‘til you almost lose it or it's gone altogether.” He is equally as grateful to return to the road.
“I am really, really looking forward to reconnecting with audiences. From what I have seen, people are coming out to concerts in a big way, and numbers are up from pre-pandemic times. Thank God, as most of us in the music industry had no idea what to expect. That said, it seems like every band and their dog is out there on tour these days and the competition is stronger than it ever was for live music. I am just grateful that people still dig what I am doing.”
And what Doyle is doing is filling his time with artistic pursuits. “Composing songs, performing, writing a book, a musical, doing a score for a TV show, etc. I always have a half-dozen things I am working on, so the laptop is constantly fired-up. And then there is my family and my home life - and there is always something to do around the house. Like I don't have enough on my plate.”
“And it occurred to me then that, as a country, we have a voice…a strong voice. And our music, perhaps more than anything else, gave us a definitive cultural identity as a people. It still does.”