Between The Rock And A Hard Place: Newfoundland, Great Big Sea, Alan Doyle, And Even Russell Crowe

"With A Single-Star Spotlight," Conclude And Begin - For Alan's Birthday, In The Hours Before His First Solo Tour Begins

 

 

Beginning once again with the beautiful Protagonist, because he is central to the heart of what I want to say this time.

Alan Doyle, Calgary GBS show

 

 

Along with the Protagonist Dear - the post-Belleville, now at the George Street Festival Protagonist Dear - because he is central to the heart. Always. 

Alan, George Street GBS show

 

I hope to spend the bulk of May slowly but surely bringing my broken bits back to full working order. - Alan Doyle, April 25, 2011 blog

 

I was beginning to worry about taking too long to get this year's Birthday Blog finished, but when I went back to read last year's blog(s), I remembered how I took my own sweet time then, basically declaring all of May to be Alan's Birthday Month, while taking a leisurely stroll back through a sampling of your prodigious public accomplishments of the prior year, not getting around to the biggest accomplishment/best advice portion until nearly June. 

But that was last year; your circumstances warranted such lingering, as you had an abundance of time - an overabundance of time - on your hands while your beautiful-but-broken bits slowly healed. As I wrote last time about your Year That Was and your Year To Come, I kept thinking over and over what a difference a year can make. Writing the year before that there was, as I recall, considerably less time for lingering - I wrote your Birthday Blog from a hotel room in Rome, right after the big Robin Hood premiere in Cannes. 

 

And here we are again, here we are at the close of one more Birthday Year and the start of another; here we are again, and what I am thinking so much more wonderfully so now than last time is what a difference - what an amazing difference - a year can make.

What an amazing difference you can make in a year. 

 

There is now, I am thoroughly delighted to say, next to no time left for lingering this year, as I write these words in the early morning hours of Day One of the Alan Doyle Band Tour, the first leg of that tour, as you take your Boy On Bridge music all the way across the continent, from Seattle to St. John's. As you share your Greatest Accomplishment - not  bit of doubt, not even a moment of second-guessing this time about which accomplishment wins the prize this year - along the road of your first Grand Adventure of this brand new year. Along Your Road. 

 

 

Which is not to say you lacked other noteworthy accomplishments this past year, chief among them the release of the Crowe-Doyle Songbook, your joint music project with Russell Crowe, which you and your dear friends celebrated with the most delightful of Indoor Garden Parties in the aptly-named-for-such-occasions City Of Legends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You also reprised your Wolf Redmond role, joined by a few of those same dear friends, in a blockbuster season-opener of CBC-TV's Republic of Doyle. With Great Big Sea, you wrapped up the Safe Upon The Shore Tour, worked on the upcoming GBS Twentieth-Anniversary Box Set, and made it to your third continent as a band. You scored a documentary film and played a series of Gold Medal Plates shows across Canada with yet another group of dear friends.

You have a sizeable number of Dear Friends, Alan; as it should be for a Dear Man. 

 

You turned in an awesome performance with the Cantus Vocum choir, as well.

 

 

 

 

And in one of the most unforgettable public moments of the year, you brought a Future King to his feet when you commanded hundreds of thousands of people - an audience of 300,000 that day, the largest I have ever seen GBS perform for - to get up and dance to Lukey's Boat duirng the Canada Day Celebration on Ottawa's Parliament Hill.

 

Such an amazing moment, and the screaming-siren police escort to the airport immediately afterward as your plane whisked you away to your Gold Medal Plates Croatian Hockey Cruise with Ron MacLean must have been friggin' cool too.

 

Another Amazing Alan Year (another Amazing-Alan Year too, the adjective describing both Man and Year exceptionally well), even with such a painfully slow start out of the gate. But as wonderful as it all has been, none of it compares to what you spent so much of your time doing these past months - the widely scattered writing, recording, and filming sessions, all of the creative thought and effort and labours of love that went into the creation of your awesome Debut Solo Album.

 

 

What a splendid accomplishment your album is, Alan. After having desired just such an album - filled with the music I had hoped to be hearing the very first time I went to see you perform live - for so many years, I can say with both surprise and delight that you have somehow exceeded my considerably high expectations. Your Boy On Bridge truly is awesome (the same is true of all your Bonus Songs): It is diverse, rich and varied, much like its Creator; it is thoughtful and intelligent, moving and revealing, poised and mature; it is keenly aware and poignantly sweet. It is open-heartedly honest. All and again, so much like its Creator.  

For all the promo-interview talk about your solo album's "eclectic" nature and your own conscious determination not to centre the songs around a single theme nor focus on a sole genre, I can still hear a unified and consistent voice in your solo album, a dear and familiar voice in your new songs. That voice is yours, Alan, not only in the expressive warmth of your distinctive vocals and the skillful strengths of your characteristic song-writing techniques (I do love your bridges - after all, this is an album that began long ago on another bridge) and arrangements, but in the uniquely-yours artistic voice that underlies all that each song has to offer and to say to its listener (and its singer-alonger).

That unique voice of yours is compellingly and persuasively a voice of Passion, Alan. Billy Joel had his "An Innocent Man" album; I have given your Boy On Bridge the deeply personal (and totally unofficial) subtitle of "Alan Doyle: A Passionate Man". The Man, and the Boy, I know and love best.

 

You did it, Alan. Your solo album is a triumph - a triumph of any year, for every year. It's your Triumph. It's the Grand Accomplishment of your 42nd Year (perfectly fitting for your Ultimate Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything Year), a year you capped off by putting together an expert band and filming your excellent Live At Revival CMT special to showcase the brilliance of your brand new music simultaneously with the album-release date.

 

 

And now, a Whirlwind Week of Press completed (with at least a few more such whirlwinds ahead, to be sure), you stand poised on the edge of your First Solo Tour, ready to take the leap, you and your expert new band, now snugly esconced during these early-morning hours in the Alan Doyle Band Tour Bus. Something New, Alan, something brand new and wonderfully exciting to begin Year 43. Show Number One tonight at the Tractor...you are going to be loved tonight. Thoroughly and well. And deservedly. 

 

I'll have much more to say about your album - especially about your impressive lyrics (how lovely - and how helpful - it would be for a posting of official lyrics to magically appear on your website) - soon. I'm still taking such pleasure in listening to and singing your songs, and in reading and hearing all of your comments and those of others as well (one reviewer called BOB a "muscular work"..I really like that and thought you would too). And I want to see the songs done live before I write about them in any depth; the recording of this music is gorgeous, but your songs always come to their fullest and most potent life as you perform them for your audiences. 

I do have the advice for your Year To Come ready too; it is a straightforward, clear-choice for that as well this year, and I will work my way back to that Beautiful Protagonist and to the Dear Protagonist as it's given. It may take me a bit longer to write that part, so I am going to put this part up now and edit in the advice when I get it worded the way it needs to be said.

Not too much longer till this is done, though, no more than a few hours - there's no time for lingering, not this Alan Year. There's a show tonight, your show tonight...and the next night, again and again for the nights yet to come. 

And when the last waltz is over, let the next waltz begin. 

 

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For Alan's Wonderful Year To Come

I approached the Advice Portion of your Birthday Blog last year without a bit of my customary hesitation and reluctance; this is a very good thing, seeing as how, coincidentally or not, you followed that advice to the letter, at least judging by the result in hand...the brand new Alan Doyle Boy On Bridge CD in your hand, that is.

There's no way for me to know today if the result - again, coincidental or otherwise - will be the same again by this time next year. All I can do is hope. I have become quite proficient at hoping over the past ten years or so, in large part because of you. For you and because of you. This too is a very good thing.

You have created a remarkable album, Alan. Considering how smart and self-aware you are, you already know this. You're also smart enough, self-aware enough, and experienced enough to know that "remarkable" is merely a bare beginning - a wonderful beginning, to be sure, but a beginning nonetheless.

Beginnings are yet another very good thing, most of all when they whisper into our willing ears the sweet promise of long-held desires at long last reaching fulfillment. Your remarkable album deserves to be taken seriously and treated with respect; it deserves success, Alan, every bit of the success you hope for it to achieve - you who are yourself quite proficient at hope - and quite possibly even more than that. You deserve every bit of the success you hope for, Alan. And quite possibly even more than that too.

So this year's unhesitant and unreluctant advice to you is to hold firm to the course you have presently - and admirably - set, to frankly and straightforwardly pursue the success that your heart desires and your music deserves. To be neither swayed nor deterred by anyone whose preference for your measure of success in this endeavour might differ from that of your own.

My advice to you for this Year To Come is that you know in both heart and mind, that you are sure beyond the slightest bit of doubt, that every step you take toward what you most desire is a next step in exactly the Right Direction. This is the very best thing of all. 

Keep walking, Alan, through the sunlight and the snow.  And straight into the Wonderful. 

 

Alright, I'm ready for Your Show to begin now. Though that's been true since March of 2001.

 

"With A Single-Star Spotlight..." - For Alan's Birthday, Slowly & Surely: The Perfect Place To End, The Perfect Place To Begin (Costco Gig Videos)

 

With just a few minutes left (Newfoundland Time, of course) in Alan's Birthday, here is the very first part of what is going to be his Birthday Blog. The rest will come, surely if perhaps slowly. I'm going to take my time with him this year. 

Consider this Preamble for all that's still to come, if you will. 

 

Almost exactly eight years ago, during the early morning hours after the night before - a night that had included a Songwriters' Circle, an NHL Playoff Game, and a woozy visit to the Snug Pub - I wrote a story in an Ottawa hotel room.

During that story's climactic scene, there's a moment in which the female protagonist looks up into the eyes of the male protagonist and tells him he's the most beautiful man she's ever seen.

This photo reminds me of that story. 

 

 

It's a good story, one of the best I've ever written; it's a True Story, in all the ways that matter most Though to remain honest with that Truth, I do need to re-write the bittersweet final scene, because there's no room for any bitter with such sweet.

In this Story, when the last waltz is over, the next waltz begins. This Story has a happy ending 

Happy Birthday, Dear Alan. You made something beautiful, something wonderful and amazing, of 42. I can't wait to see how much more you'll make of 43. 

 

More tomorrow. And on and on. 

 

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When I got into Halifax, I soon set out on my customary downtown walk in the (uncustomary) Spring sunshine. I love Halifax and have been there countless times over the past decade, but this time I noticed that I was having to think a bit about how to get to my favourite places; that hesitation made me realise it's been longer than usual since my last YHZ stopover.

I was trying to remember just how long it actually had been, and it suddenly came to me, understandably so, while I was walking across the Grand Parade...it was February 2011 and Great  Big Sea was playing at the Canada Games, right there in the Grand Parade - then in frigid snow flurries instead of the present caressing sunshine - which had been aptly named, perfectly named, Celebration Square for the occasion. 

And what a Grand Celebration it was, for all 15,000 cheering Haligonians (and visitors) packed into that Square. GBS put on a spectacular show that night up on the huge stage, the cameras in front, the huge screen behind, one of the shows best of the year, of any year, and what just might be my own favourite GBS show of all (at the very least, it's tied with the Big Fish Pub show for that honour). It was a Big Show; it was an wonderful show. Alan was irresistible. Alan was unforgettable. 

 

 

 

 

And there I was again, standing at Ground Zero of that Big Show, in almost exactly the same spot I'd stood that frosty night, smiling at the sweetness of the memory as I recalled other splendid moments you have created and crafted, and then so generously shared, in this same city.

This was where I first saw you play an electric guitar, as you came tearing out on stage with Crush at an ECMA showcase and then rushed headlong to the edge of the stage, front and centre, right where you  always belong - grasping that guitar in your eager hands. This was where I saw you stubbornly force an aching, ragged, heart-possessing Boston & St. John's from your weary vocal cords at during one of the final shows of the long-road Sea Of No Cares Tour.

This was where I saw you give a blissfully beautiful performance of that same song, while also being an awesomely impressive Host of the Juno Songwriters' Circle.

 

 

 

Not to mention play some dandy (and gorgeous) hockey as the Juno Cup Goalie

 

 

Still I stood there in the brilliant sunshine, glady surrendered to and willingly lost in these sweet memories, But then I noticed the time. It was getting late in the afternoon and I needed to get on the move, get on the way to this day's Unmissable Show: Alan Doyle, the Best, the Brightest and the Most Dear, was playing out in the Haliburbs at Costco to promote Boy On Bridge, his just-released solo-debut album.   

And that is the Biggest Show of all. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure you could see it, but by the time you got to this song, you'd brought Costco to a shopping standstill.  

 

 

On an evening when CMT was airing a hourlong television special all about your new album - on an evening that was your last as a 42 year old - in a city where you have so frequently shone wth the brilliance of the Brightest Star, there is no better place, no more appropriate place, you could have been at this moment than right where you were...right there in front of the cartons of Giant Stuffed Bears, the stacks of Super Soakers, the piles of special-discount Nora Roberts books, and just a stone's throw away from the roast chickens. Right there doing absolutely anything and everything you needed to do, anything and everything you could do, to make sure your music - the songs with your own name on them - will be heard as widely and as well as possible. As widely and as well as those songs, as widely and as well as you, deserve.

You played the final night of this year of yours, the last night before your year to come, perfectly, Alan. As you performed your wonderful new songs tp more than a few blown-away shoppers and then greeted each autograph- and photo-seeker with gracious welcome and endless charm (being utterly endearing with all the children), what I was thinkng - along with thoughts of how irrevocably my own life would be changed if I wandered into a Costco and heard you for the first time performing Nightingale or Testify - is that there is no other place you could have been where I would have been any more proud of you than right there where you were.

You were irresistible. You were unforgettable.

 

 

As you always are.

 

More again in a bit, the annual Best Of The Year That Was and the Advice For The Year To Come parts, and more about his album too. After all, I did say "and on and on".  Also, I'll put up video links to the Live At Revival show that will work for those outside of Canada, if there still aren't any up on CMT by then, and perhaps a few more photos from the Halifax Costco gig.

And I really do need to note that Alan will be doing one more Unmissable Costco Gig, this time in St. John's on Saturday at 1:30 pm. It's free to get in and he has offered to autograph not only his  new CD which can be purchased there, but any fine Costco product he's asked to sign. Giant stuffed bears, super soakers, and roast chicken included. Pickles too, apparently. 

 

[More really is coming - I'm just having a busy time trying to get everything done here before I get on a plane to go get everything done there...and then the really exciting stuff begins on Tuesday]

 

 

"Come Hell Or High Water I'm Off & Running, Either Way" - Something With Alan's Name On It : Alan Doyle Band On CTV's Canada AM Today & ETA 'Boy On Bridge' Sweet-Release Day; ETA, Again: Now (Alan Doyle on Q Radio Video)

 

 Final ETA (I promise), May 16th: No Time For Waiting

I'm working on a new blog, two of them actually (though they may wind up together...or multi-parts..not quite sure yet), one about Boy On Bridge and Alan's most recent, and most excellent, new blog entry today, and one for his birthday, the year before and the year to come.

But QTV just uploaded video of The Alan Doyle Band's deadly performance of "I've Seen A Little" on that show the other day. I suppose could wait to put the video up, but I'm thinking that the time has passed for all this waiting nonsense. Along with More, the other operative words are Right Now: 

 

 

Another pertinently operative word: Soon. Make that Very Soon. That's for - but certainly not limited to - the album/blog comments and Alan's birthday blog(s). 

 

 

ETA: May 15, 2012: The Sweet Release Of Alan Doyle

Today is the day, the very best day of all: Today, Alan Doyle's Boy On Bridge solo-debut album  is set free - the sweetest of releases - to the wide world outside. (There's an  iTunes Deluxe Edition too - includes two particularly lovely bonus tracks.)

 

Boy on Bridge Day. CD available in stores and online just about everywhere. Jaysus. - Alan Doyle, Twitter, May 15th

More, so much more, to say about Alan's superb solo debut later. Right now, I am totally caught up in listening to his songs. And smiling.

For now, a Your solo album is wonderful, Alan - all of it is so wonderful - and I love it will have to suffice. Oh yes, and  an Everyone, absolutely everyone, should hear this music. That needs to be said too. 

And a Yay, Alan! You are the most wonderful of all as well. Of course that needs to be said. He deserves this to be said each and every day.  But all the more so Today. 

 

Adding in an interview a very busy Alan did this morning on Global's Morning Show.

 

Adding in The Morning Show's own link to this segment:

http://www.globaltoronto.com/Pages/MorningSegment.aspx?id=6442641247

And I'm still chuckling over the photos. I'd have gladly said Yes, yes, yes if asked, so no real need to ask, I suppose. Yes, yes, yes speaks well enough, and clearly enough, all on its own.

 

Alan did another spot today (several, actually), this one a beautiful live performance (with Cory, Kendel, and Todd) of Where The Nightingales Song on the Marilyn Denis Show. It should be available on the shows Archive Page soon. 

Here it is: Video of Where The Nightingales Sing, Alan Doyle (with Cory Tetford, Kendel Carson & Todd Lumley), Marilyn Denis Show 5/15

And because I am never sure how long links will stay up on these sites, a version I can be sure will abide:

 

 

Breathtakingly beautiful. The song as well. 

 

Happy Album Release Day, Alan. What an amazing, wonderful day. What A perfect day for you. 

 

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ETA: He did it - Alan did it all so well, so wonderfully well. Very little in this beautiful life is sweeter than believing in Wonderful and then seeing that Wonderful come true before your eyes. Just like you knew it would.

 

First, the sweetly charming and disarmingly humble interviewee, engaging and appealing as a focused bundle of soon-to-burst-forth energy. Perfectly played - a decided and delightful success even with such a scant time alloted and an Interviewer who made me miss Seamus all the more.

 

CTV News link for this clip    (unsure how long the CTV links stay active)

 

 

And then the deadly live performance of Boy On Bridge's first single, I've Seen A Little. Again, beautifully played; in the absence of a studio audience to claim as his own, Alan wooed and won (decidedly and thoroughly) the camera - and those of us on the other side of that camera. The Big Tough Gig was handled well by all, by the entire Alan Doyle Band (Cory Tetford, Kris MadFarlane, Todd Lumley, Kendel Carson, and Shehab Illyas), all showing smooth assurance and admirable skill.

Definitely creating a taste for "More". A hunger and a thirst for "More".

 

CTV News link for this clip

 

It was so good, so exciting and so much fun to watch; I was so busy cheering for Alan at the end of the song that I completely forgot the recorder was still going, hence the bit of subsequent commercial at the end.

I am ready for that More now. Release date for Boy On Bridge is tomorrow...and after that come the Alan Doyle Band Tour shows. More is going to be spectacular. 

Guess I should go take that Canada PM nap and get rested up for it. 

 

 

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I don't seem to be sleeping much yet tonight. I keep thinkng about Alan's Canada AM performance in the way-too-early hours of the morning - not too many hours from right now - thinking too about something he said on a radio interview Saturday night. 

He does have a penchant, a genuine talent and an enduring gift, for making me think. I really love that about him. 

Canada AM, 2008

This is the first moment of holding my own record - what a great day! It feels pretty special; it's an emotional moment, to be honest. When you play music for a living, it's kind of your fantasy to get your own record and to get your own record deal and have people listen to your songs. I've been blessed for the last almost-two decades to have that with Great Big Sea...and now to have something with my own name on it.- Alan Doyle, In Studio Newstalk 1010 interview (May 12th podcast)

 

I've seen Alan perform live on Canada AM with Great Big Sea a half-dozen or so times, at least a few while watching on the TV and three or four times while at the CTV studio during the performance. It's a Big Deal gig - for anyone who doesn't know, the show is pretty much Canada's equivalent to the USA's Today show, drawing a large and demographically desirable audience - which is why GBS has invariably made sure they were available to play that gig at each new-album release time.

It's also quite a Tough Gig, most musicians not being known for being at their best in the morning's early hours (as opposed to the mornings wee hours...there is a world of difference between staying up and getting up), especially when it comes to singing. Vocal cords are one part of the body that apparently prefers to sleep in; the Canada AM schedule requires otherwise.

I've found it difficult simply to wake up early enough to make it to CTV's Canada AM studio in time to be an audience member; the thought of actually performing at that hour - performing live, no less - is definitely daunting. Add to the challenge the fact that the album-release promo gigs almost always mean that a brand-new, still-a-bit-unfamiliar song is being performed at such an unkind hour and even "daunting" doesn't do justice to the describing.

And yet every time I've watched Alan on Canada AM, on television or in person, I've seen charming and engaging performances, winning and victorious performances. Canada AM performances to be proud of and to take pleasure in...after the traditional Canada PM nap, of course. He's done this before, done it with skill and strength and assurance. No matter how nervous Alan might have been the night before, he's been brilliant and beautiful come morning.

 

Canada AM, 2010

 

 

Canada AM, 2008

 

 

Big Week ahead. Me and the AD Band on Canada AM on CTV tomorrow morning. Check it out, and wish us luck, if you don't mind. - Alan, Twitter, May 13th

 

Alan's a seasoned and experienced Canada AM pro - the consummate pro - by now, but tomorrow morning, today in not too many more hours, will be something new, something special. Something more. This time, the promo gig will be for the album with his own name on it. The brand-new, still-a-bit-unfamiliar song - what very well could be the best song he's done so far on this show - will be his own, all his own. Alan Doyle, performing solo, will backed by an expert band - a band with his own name on it.

All of the attention, all of the applause, all of the praise, all of the respect, all of the love...Alan's own name will be on that too. Exactly where it belongs. 

I love that thought best of all. 

 

Canada AM, December 2010

 

I can't wait, can't sleep for not being able to wait. This is  something wonderful - this is the very best of Alan, which I believe is as wonderful as it gets, much more wonderful than I once believed possible. I do believe now, with all of my heart. I believe in the man whose name is on this music. 

Just as I believe that man, along with his AD Band, is going to be amazing on his own on Canada AM tomorrow. Today. Soon, very soon. 

And finally.

 

 

"Another Way To Go" - The Boy On Bridge Shines Brightly During His Press Week (CBC Radio Q Live Gig) & Alan Rocks: The Story (Photos)

 

 

The dear Boy On Bridge with his Hockey-Dance Guitar

 

I can't tell you how many days I spent on that bridge waiting to go somewhere else, dreaming of what the next thing might be, and how significant a piece of architecture that bridge was in my life. - Alan Doyle, CBC Radio Q, May 11th

 

The Somewhere Else that Alan has waited for, the Next Thing of his dreams, is going to be as Wonderful as he deserves for it to be, as Wonderful as he has always and will always deserve for it to be. As Wonderful as he makes it. 

 

 

Alan - along with his excellent eponymous band (comprised of Kris MacFarlane, Cory Tetford, Todd Lumley and Shehab Illyas...no Kendel Carson on this day) - gave a jewel of a performance on today's broadcast of Jian Ghomeshi's CBC Radio Q. 

Two links, one to a podcast of the entire show, the second a link to a player that contains the three live songs.

CBC Radio One Q Podcast, May 11th

Alan Doyle Band Live Songs on CBC Radio One Q ("I've Seen A Little," "Where The Nightingales Sing," and "The Rules Will All Be Broken")

There will eventually be video too, up on the QTV YouTube site. I'm not sure how long that will take, but you can be sure that once it's up, the video of Alan's performance will find its way here.

 

They did a spectacular job today, with live renditions of three of Alan's Boy On Bridge album songs - all the more impressive if you have an idea how scant the rehearsal time these gifted musicians have had together thus far. If they sound this good in these early days, by the time they get out on the road together they are going to be unstoppable and incomparable. These songs are so strong and the arrangements so compelling, they are so powerful and so true; each time I hear them, they claim my heart anew. 

Especially so when played as well as they were today. There was some very nifty guitar work from Cory - notable harmony vocals too, especially on those high notes - and the mandolin/piano accordion duet between Alan and Todd during Where The Nightingales Sing was blissfully beautiful. Alan's vocals were very nearly letter-perfect on all three songs, a awesomely strong live showing of his vocal prowess (though I still think that when it comes to his bloody early Canada AM gig on Monday, he ought to either stay up all night or be in bed by 6 pm and up by midnight). His Rules Will All Be Broken was perfect; it was poignant passion at its finest and most deeply moving. 

The spoken-word portion of the Q program was equally delightful. Alan was his characteristically charming self in several interview segments scattered across the duration of the two-hour show, but showed an even more honestly and openly insightful side of himself than he usually reveals during most GBS interviews, making comments ranging from the rationale and guiding principle for his solo-debut album, what underlies his live-show performance ethic, the multi-dimensionality of heroes, his desire to make an album his parents enjoy, his passion for life and thoughts on his own mortality.

Alan was genuine and thoughtful, intelligent and real - he was Alan, Alan the brilliant, creative man who desires and deserves to be taken seriously and respected thoroughly - and he set the tone that goes perfectly with that of his new songs. 

Then there was the bit or two about Freddie Mercury and holograms, Russell Crowe, Brad Pitt,and Laverne & Shirley, and the fundamentally arousing nature of a Double-Deep-Freeze Ice Bra. That's Alan too, Alan the sweet, endearing Boy who desires and deserves to be embraced unhesitatingly and loved wholeheartedly.  

It's all wonderful. Of course it's all wonderful...it's all Alan.

 

 The beautiful Boy On Bridge with his Hockey-Dance Guitar

 

 

Whew. A 13 Hour day of press is over. Grand times. Thanks all. Don't have to get up till 8:30 tomorrow. Dandy. - Alan, Twitter, May 11th

 

Alan tweeted this earler tonight, the sweet promise of a free night in the midst of crazy busy - that's "crazy busy" in the best of ways - Boy On Bridge Press Week.  He's already put in so many long hours and so much hard work, with still so much more to go than I can even begin to keep track of (though I am sure going to try). And thrilled with every single minute of it all, I'm sure, as well he should be.

Step by step toward this Something Else - toward his Something Else, this bright and beautiful Next Thing of his own choosing and his own making, Straight toward More...right where he belongs. 

Though I will confess to hoping he arrives there after having gotten a very good night's sleep tonight.  

 

The  well-loved Boy On Bridge with his Hockey-Dance Guitar 

 All Alan. All wonderful. Always. 

 

A final note, purely personal. At one point during today's show, Jian asked Alan about any worries he might have in regard to attracting and pleasing existing Great Big Sea fans who are lkely to prefer seeing a GBS show over an Alan Doyle show. It's a good and a pertinent question, and Alan gave his thoughtful and intelligent answer, making it clear that his goal in his solo shows will be exactly the same as it has always been in all of his shows, with GBS and even before that: Doing all he can to ensure that every single person who comes through the door has the greatest night of their lives. 

While Alan was so thoughtfully and intelligently answering Jian's question, what I was thinking - what I was thinking in additon to Holy Shit, the Boy On Bridge Tour shows are going to rock! - was that while I have had many spectacularly wonderful evenings at countless GBS shows, what I've been waiting what feels like forever for - what I have been waiting for since the very first time I ever saw Alan and heard his songs -  are Alan Doyle shows.  I have waited, sometimes patiently and sometimes less so, more than a decade for Alan Doyle shows. 

And I have not one bit of doubt that Alan is going to make every single moment of that long wait so blessedly well worth it that it will feel like it took only a few preciously fleeting moments between longing and response; I have equally scant doubt about the successful achieving of his Greatest Night goal. But what I want the most of all and with the deepest desire - what will fully and truly ensure the achieving of that goal - is for him to have his own Greatest Night of his life, a Greatest Night that repeats for him over and over and over, again and again and again, as he receives all that he's given and so much more.  

That's worth a decade's wait. That's worth waiting a lifetime for. 

 

I'm still collecting the best of the Rock Star Guitar Boy Alan photos from the blog. Still taking great pleasure in being thorough too. I'll edit the second thorough batch of Alan's Rock Walk in here as I go.

 

These two photos should have gone right up at the top of the initial batch, the first because it's of the first time I saw Alan holding his electric guitar on a GBS Stage, and the second because it is the sweetest I've ever seen him be while holding that same guitar. I firmly believe the entire world should have fallen in love with King Alan that night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And continuing on with my Favourite Story. There are a lot of photos here..my Favourite Story's not a simple one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Rocks. He's  absolutely Amazing. With so much more Rocking and so much more Amazing yet to come.

Exactly how a Favourite Story should go. 

 

 

"It's Mine To Keep, No One Can Take It Away": Rock Walking & Holding The Finished Goods

 

Go to Alan's aptly named "Boy On Tour" page for an update on the AD Band members you'll be seeing and hearing on the road, as well all tour-gig info and pertinent links, and an utterly tantalising quote about how his "more intimate than you might be accustomed to" Solo Tour shows "will feature a bunch of the tunes from the new Solo CD as well as some songs I wrote for GBS, Crowe Doyle SongBook, Robin Hood, Law and Order, and other cool stuff" (please, please, please do Middle Of Nowhere, and Perfect In Your Eyes, Dream Out Loud, and some rarely-performed GBS tunes would be spectacular too).

Perhaps best of all, there's also a Player that's streaming five brand new to-be-heard-on-the-tour Alan Doyle songs  (two of them available here for the very first time) from his solo debut Boy On Bridge album: 

 

Boy On Tour - Includes stream of Testify (featuring Colin James), My Day, I've Seen A Little, Where The Nightingales Sing, and Where I Belong

 

 

Holding the finished goods for the first time. Holy Shite. - Alan Doyle, Twitter, May 9th

 

Or, as I see it, you're the true Finished Goods, Alan. And you're holding your own finished goods for the first time. Doubly beautiful. 

 

 

There you are again, Rock Star Guitar Boy in gorgeous process, incendiary and irresistible then as well as now:

 

1986ish. St Kevin's High-school Dance. I saved up for a forty foot gtr cable so I could rock walk to the floor.Jaysus - Alan, May 8th

It's a very long way from St. Kevin's, a Rock Walk considerably lengthier than your 40-foot guitar cable could have possibly accommodated. Step by step of that impressive journey, you have worked so hard and come so far, accomplished so much and waited so long; you have grown in so many ways and yet you still remain the same sweet Boy who is and will always be well worth loving, along with applauding. As well as having become the brilliantly Finished Goods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The brlliantly and the beautifully Finished Goods. It's Yours; it's all Yours. You earned it, you created it; it belongs to you, to have and to hold and to keep. No one can ever take it away. 

 

 

Today, Alan - who is still working hard, going far, and accomplishing much in the midst of what has to be a dizzyingly busy Press Week for his Solo Debut - is filming his first-ever Alan Doyle music video. It''s going to be awesome. Not a bit of doubt about it - it will be just as awesome as is his "I've Seen A LIttle" single, just as awesome as his Boy On Bridge album. And even (almost) as awesome as he is. 

It's Alan's Day today. And tomorrow. And the next day...and all the days yet to come. The guitar cable hasn't been made that's long enough to equal Alan Doyle's Rock Walk. 

 

 

Thinking about going all the way back through the blog and amassing a pile of Rock Star Guitar Boy Alan photos to put up later today, perhaps edit them in as I go. Though it might take a bit longer than first estimate; I'll surely want to  take my time and be very, very thorough. 

ETA: I've edited in a sample of Rock Star Guitar Boy photos, three blog years so far, with three more years still left to go through. Thoroughly. It's been a delightful morning, well-spent I must say. I'll get back to being pleasurably thorough some time later on this evening and then edit in the rest.

 

And I noticed a photo put up today on Twitter (with thanks to @unimarcus) from the "I've Seen A Little" video shoot in which Alan is playing (embracing, just as likely, and understandably so) a striking White Falcon Gretsch.

 

Photo by Marcus Tamm

 

Doubly beautiful, yet again.

 

And so Alan Doyle's Rock Walk continues. Better put a rush on that order for more guitar cable. 

 

 

"Can't Make A Heart Forget..." - Heading Farther Down The Right Road (Alan's 'Boy On Bridge' Pre-Release & PR Time: 10 Days And Counting Down To Grand Prize Alan); ETA: Alan Doyle, (Potential) Radio Host

 

ETA: I really ought to start up a brand new blog for this news, but I don't want to wait even long enough to think up a title. This is such cool news - such cool potential news, I suppose I should say - that I just want to share it right now, and then get back to cheering for Alan. 

 

From Newcap Radio's CRTC presentation concerning the proposal for new Toronto station 88.1 The Sound:

We are pleased to present to you 88.1 "The Sound", a radio station that will bring a new editorial voice to Canada's largest city. We offer a distinct format designed specifically for Toronto, created to fill an unmet need in the market. 

Newcap Radio is in a unique position among the applicants before you at this hearing. We are Canada's only true coast-to-coast radio company, with stations from Newfoundland to British Columbia, yet we do not have a radio station here in Canada's largest city ...Toronto. 

Thanks to our scope and size, we are able to dedicate the significant resources required to grow a successful start-up standalone radio station in Toronto. We know it won't be easy. It will be a difficult, expensive, and challenging project. The competitive nature of Toronto is evidenced by the response to this hearing, in which 25 companies are seeking a new license. Successfully getting this license will be only the first of many hurdles. 

Launching in a crowded and expensive media market where all the major radio companies have multiple stations will be the next hurdle. And sustaining it through the difficult early days will be a major task. Those are all challenges that we are prepared for, both in terms of financial management and radio acumen.

We also present to the Commission an opportunity to license a new editorial voice in Toronto. In every city and town that we serve, we maintain a close-to-the-community approach to programming, research, sales, and management. We look forward to the opportunity to bring that approach to Toronto. 

I would like to show you a short video to describe our proposed station. You may recognize the voice of the narrator of the video; Alan Doyle of legendary Canadian band Great Big Sea. Alan will also be on the air on 88.1 The Sound, hosting a weekly discussion with emerging and heritage Canadian artists. He will take our listeners on a journey into the creation of a great song, from the initial idea to the final production...  

 

Need I say those are my boldface italics? So cool if Newcap wins the bid for the open TO Radio airspace (do read the rest of Newcap's proposal; it's really quite excellent) and Alan's  Songwriter Discussion Show becomes a reality. But even if not, it is still so frigging cool that he considered and accepted this opportunity, because it's something he would be - something he will be, on The Sound or elsewhere - wonderful at. 

 

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...What it truly longs to know

Today's blog title is from another new song from Alan, "The Heart So Longs To Know." It's a beautiful song, Alan sounding a bit like Jackson Browne but a whole lot more - excellently and gladly a whole lot more - like his own dear self, with some very nice string work also in the song. This lovely new tune can be heard in full, today, at the conclusion of a pre-order transaction for Boy On Bridge, digital format ($8.99) or the digital/CD combination (a great deal here - $11.99 for both). 

A visit to the newly opened Alan Doyle Store on his website is the place to pre-order his solo debut album and be able to listen to this gorgeous new song right away, no waiting until the May 15th album ship/download date of the rest. I do love that No Waiting option. There are not nearly enough such options in this beautiful life.

You'll also find an iTunes link for a Deluxe Edition there, a version of Boy On Bridge which includes two more bonus tracks, one of which ("Don't Like To Dance") I have heard and can say without hesitation is heart-winningly wonderful. Given Alan's track record, the same is sure to be true of the second bonus song too. 

(ETA: Fans in the US can also pre-order Boy On Bridge from Newbury Comics and receive an Alan-Doyle-autographed lyric booklet.)

While on Alan's site, do notice there's also No Waiting for a free download of Alan's "Mutiny On The Dawn," the song Alan wrote and recorded while on the BNL Ships & Dip 4 cruise in January of 2011. He asked for and of course willingly received the help of a "cast of thousands" of his fellow S&D shipmates, musicians and backup singers aplenty.

 

Here's a sequential five-video playlist view of one part of that Cast Of Thousands experience: 

 

 

 

 

ETA: Today Alan's own video of the making Of Mutiny - a part of his upcoming Boy On Bridge documentary film - showed up on his Alan Doyle site. It's a real winner, so I'll link it here too:, along with his description. 

 

 

Also you can view a short clip of the Boy on Bridge film featuring the making of Mutiny on the Dawn, the song I wrote and a few thousand of us recorded aboard BNL Ships and Dips Cruise. This is cool little preview of the film, which should document the making of the CD in the most likely and unlikely places. From the best studio in Nashville to a kitchen in Ferryland, Newfoundland. From the Duke pub, to Bryan Adams studio in Vancouver. From Mike Post Productions in LA to, you know, a cruise ship. - Alan Doyle, May 4th blog

 

A grand time was had by all that memorable afternoon on the High Seas. It was a blast, made so by Alan as Producer, Alan as Songwriter, Alan as Performer, Alan as Entertainer...Alan as Alan, as charming and persuasive as he always is, as endearing and irresistible as he forever will be. Even without the visual aids, the fun shared by everyone there that day can be clearly heard in the track, which is perhaps best and most fittingly described as irrepressibly buoyant.

I think Alan made a very wise move making this song one of his bonus tracks, even more canny of him to offer it for free to one and to all, ahead of the Boy On Bridge release date and regardless of pre-order status. Of all the new Alan Doyle songs I've heard so far, Mutiny is, I believe, the most likely to appeal to the Hard-Core Traditional Great Big Sea fan, the type of fan who might possibly be just a wee bit worried about how far a departure Alan Doyle music might be from the GBS music they love best.

Mutiny is a perfect, and a reassuring, transition song - a bridge, if you will - from GBS Alan to Alan On His Own, emphasising the fact that Alan's solo music isn't something separate and removed from all that he's achieved and accomplished with GBS, that it's instead a natural and necessary progression, a deeper and broader expression, of that same creative process - a next-few-steps continuation on the Long Road he's been travelling all of his years as a professional musician. All that Alan Doyle was, is, and will be as GBS's incomparably engaging and consummately skilled Front Man...and all the unforgettable music and awesome performances that Alan Doyle is finally beginning to show the wide world outside that he's capable of creating and sharing on his own and with his own band. All that he's going to be showing that wide world outside in the shows of his upcoming tour - all the way from Seattle to St. John's - with his Alan Doyle Band. 

 

I see Mutiny On The Dawn as Alan's pre-release and pre-show message to so many of his longtime and faithful GBS fans: Hello there - you know me. We know each other. We've been having a dance and sharing a song for so many years. We've had some grand times together. Come have another dance while singing my new songs with me, will you?

 

And I sure can't think of any possible answer other than Yes, Alan. Yes, I'll be there. Spoken with eager anticipation. 

 

 

Next up, a word or two (or three or four) about PR and Passion. 

 

 

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A deservedly well-pleased - and utterly lovable - "It's going very well tonight" face if ever there were one.

 

 

Some people tend to look down their noses at an Artist's dligent and determined effort to "sell" his or her creative output. I'm not one of those people.

Just the opposite, actually. I've got neither patience nor respect for the Artists who act as if such efforts are unnecessary - or worse, somehow beneath them. To assume that any work of art, no matter how excellent it might be, will be discovered and appreciated strictly by virtue of that posited excellence - to assume that it will, in effect, sell itself - is, quite simply, foolish, both foolish and arrogant in this era of diverse, fragmented, and at times overwhelming information-source possibilities.

Equally foolish, if perhaps a bit less arrogant, is the assumption that "Everyone who'd be interested has already heard about it by now". Never overestimate the public's awareness of what you've been hard at work creating - even if you've been at it for a very long time, there are sure to still be those who have somehow found a way to remain blithely and blinkingly unaware - and never, ever, presume that persuading is the effective equivalent of informing. 

More often than not, when I see an Artist shrug off his (or her) Flog The Album/Book/Film/Show duties, the clearest message that shrug sends me is that he has a fundamental, and all too likely a fatal, lack of faith in and passion for his own Creation; chances seem slim that anyone else will ever have a greater belief in the Creation than does its Creator. On the other hand, when I see an Artist giving his all to promote his work, diligently jumping through each PR hoop and determinedly leaping over every Promotional hurdle, that gets my attention; that makes me think Cool - that Artist genuinely believes he''s made Something Special. 

And every now and then, that Artist is absolutely, positively and blissfully, 100% right. 

 

10 Days till Boy on Bridge CD launch. Nervous. Excited. Spread the word if you can. Thanks. www.alandoyle.ca - Alan Doyle, Twitter, May 5th

 

I love how Alan's Boy On Bridge PR is shaping up so far. There's that growing list of album pre-order options, each with its own lovely (and irresistible) siren-song bonus track (looks like I'll be giving copies of his album to a number of lucky recipients come Christmastime). He's got his upcoming Radio Q and Canada AM performances, plus Out Of The Fog and all the other TV and radio and print promo spots to come, along with the soon-to-be-filmed "I've Seen A LIttle" video, not to mention his Costco in-store/autograph gigs.

And then there's the Meet Alan! Contest - I really love that he's doing this too, and I'd love if all the more if the Grand Prize Winner were to be some kind and bashful soul who will be thrilled beyond words by the chance to meet Alan Doyle for the very first time...because "thrilled beyond words" is exactly what Grand Prize Alan deserves. 

What I love - as well as respect and admire - most of all, best of all, is how Alan's faith in and passion for his Boy On Bridge music and his Alan Doyle Band shows is so strong and so deep that he allows the whole world see just how much he cares about what he's created and how well it's received, Nothing says This is what I believe in; this is what owns my heart more clearly and more persuasively to me than such a self-revealing - and self-revelatory - show of earnest desire and honest humility  as that spoken-for heart is so unapologetically (and bravely) worn upon vulnerable sleeve.  

Through each hoop, over every hurdle. Because he genuinely believes, because he is sure, he's made Something Special.

And he is absolutely, positively and blissfully, 100% right. 

 

 

Something Special from Someone Special. This is what I believe in; this is what owns my heart. This is going to be Amazing. 

This is going to be the Grand Prize. 

"It's What You're Lookin' For" - May...We Begin

 

 ETA: A brand new blog from Alan today, chock full of delicious bits of information about his nearly-here Great Adventure, more details of his venturing out in the media and on the road with his Alan Doyle Band. In all the excitement, I apparently shouted out a bit too soon about the filming of his  "I've Seen A Little" video. No worries. When the time comes, I'll just shout out again. And again and again.

 

All things being well, in less than a month the Boy on Bridge CD will be released, a video will be shot, a full Press Blitz will be under way, and the tour with the AD Band will have begun.- Alan Doyle, April 30th blog

 

Yes, it's a long way to Heaven. And eventually, you arrive. Soon, soon, soon, Alan. 

 

 

 

 The Moon and the Stars and Everything Else your Heart desires...

Alan Doyle, Calgary GBS show (2nd night), 2010

 

 

Also looks like we’ll be shooting a music video for the single, ‘I’ve Seen a Little’. Details are to be decided this week, but the video will most be shot the first week of May. - Alan Doyle, April 16th blog

Hello, first week of May; I have been waiting impatiently for your arrival. And I know I'm not the only one.

I'm very much hoping that the shooting the very first (as ever, of many) Alan Doyle music video is still scheduled to take place in the next few days. Alan's "I've Seen A Little" (adding an Amazon.com link for the anti-iTuners) is a great song - upbeat and intelligent, evocative and fun...and it rocks - and the perfect choice for the first single from his solo debut Boy On Bridge album. Beginning with a great song is an excellent Step One for making an unforgettable video. Step Two is Alan's own charismatic charm; he has been and will always be well-loved, well- and thoroughly loved, by the camera. By any camera. By every camera.

Now add to this the exciting prospect of Step Three: the impressive film experience Alan has acquired over the past few years, not only his several (and very well-reviewed) guest appearances on the hit CBC-TV Republic Of Doyle show and the months-long documentary filming of his Boy On Bridge recording process for the upcoming CMT Live At Revival special, but especially his substantial-role participation in the top-of-the-line, major-motion-picture Robin Hood - also affectionately and proudly known as "Alan's Movie" by the good folks of Petty Harbour, among others (yes, I confess...with a subtitle of "Half-Naked Alan's Movie") - where he worked (and learned) alongside the luminary likes of Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, and Max Von Sydow - and under the direction of the legendary Sir Ridley Scott.

A very steep learning curve, to be sure, for the Rural Newfoundland Folk Singer who walked into the massive Robin Hood production as a nervous novice. Just as surely a skillfully accomplished learning curve for the assured actor whose Allan A'Dayle performance has been enthusiastically admired and consistently praised on all fronts. Alan is a film pro now, a film pro who has a priceless wealth of hard-won practical experience tucked under his belt, a truth which fills this first-ever Solo Alan video with a brand new world of potential that goes so much further beyond his already extensive music-video and live-performance experience with Great Big Sea.

The man can sing, the man can play. The man can write, the man can act. The camera adores him, a adoration he reciprocates wholeheartedly.  Oh yes, and he's absolutely beautiful; I take great pleasure noting that delightful fact, in pictures and in words. While adding quietly that I can see this beauty both inside and out. Clearly. 

 

Step by step by step, each leading unerringly toward the outcome of that wonderful (hoped-for) video. Maybe, just maybe, even as wonderful as his song and his album deserve. Even as wonderful as he deserves. And as he desires.

 

Kiss that Fortunate Bottle, Alan. Again and again and again. 

 

This is for Monday's reading. More to come as we begin May - as we may begin - in earnest.  

 

 

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It's finally, officially the Merry Month of May - and this May belongs to Alan.

 

Alan's May is going to be amazing.  He's going to make it so. 

 

 

More from Alan's most recent blog:

 

On May 10th we shoot a music video for the single ‘I’ve Seen a Little’. I don’t want to give anything away about the concept for the video but it should be a fun and energetic wee movie to watch while listening to the song. 

 

How cool does this sound?  I love music videos - rather, I should say I love the concept of music videos, the potential of this artistic medium, even if that potential is infrequently achieved. When at their best, music videos sell the song (yes, I said "sell the song" - that's what they're supposed to do and that's what they should do) by creating a visual expression that embodies the central truth of the song. The video doesn't have to be "about" the song's actual events; to be its best, to sell its song the most effectively, what the video needs to be about is what lies at the heart of the song, what is consistent with and faithful to the thoughts and feelings that inspired the song. The thoughts and feelings the song inspires in the song's listener, as well as the in the video's viewer. 

It's a tall order, one that requires the video's director - as well as the song's creator - to understand and accept both the song's intent and its effect. It requires a song whose inner story merits such a visual representation, as well as a talented artist who is skilled performer enough to bring that representation to camera-ready life. Alan is all that and so much more and his song, like most of his songs (like most all well-written songs), offers itself up readily and glady to such tangible rendering.

With the right director, with adequate funding, this could be a clear winner of a video, an effective tool for the selling of his song, that effectiveness not limited to the present moment. One thing I've learned about videos is that they've got an impressively long shelf life, especially on YouTube; I regularly encounter follks who tell me that they're at a show or they just bought an album after having come across the Can't Stop Falling or the Ordinary Day or the Lukey's Boat videos.

For better and for worse, video abides. From how Alan is describing his soon-to-be First Alan Doyle video, from how enthusiastic he sounds about that concept he's so carefully not giving away, this sure sounds like Better to me.  

It sure sounds like More too. 

 

 

One day of May nearly done. One day less to wait.