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

"Oh Yeah" Part 3.1 - The Story Of A Band To Be Proud Of: GBS Raises Funds For Daffodil Place & Rises Above Circumstance At The Bowery Ballroom

The most fascinating and moving story to be found on any stage, in the eyes of this reader. 

Sometimes it feels like I spend more time worrying about what I should write - or shouldn't write - than I spend actually writing. My preference is always to write about the Wonderful and the Loved, but the Wonderful and the Loved lives in a world that can often be confusing and cruel, a world in which unrelenting demands and disappointing outcomes can make for hard times and harder choices. None of which means that the Wonderful and the Loved is not still right there, still as bright and beautiful and still as deserving of respect and admiration, as well as of loyalty and affection, as it has ever been and will always be. All it means is that the howling and buffeting of today's storm has made it difficult to clearly see that brightness and that beauty, for a few brief moments only. This storm will blow through, as have all the storms that came before and as will all the storms to come after; the time spent waiting for clear skies to return is a very good time to recall the Wonderful and the Loved at its best and most proud moments. It's a very good time to remember that which is so worth the wait.

I've been going back and forth about what show's pictures to be working on, since I've managed to get myself halfway through several of them at once, the Bowery Ballroom show, the Great Big Christmas show, and the Grey Cup show. Then there's a second Vancouver casino show still undone, not to mention the Borderline show and those two wonderful Tonder shows. Pure personal preference would cause me to choose the second Tonder show, which comes close to being my favourite Great Big Sea show ever, largely because it was so far removed from (literally and figuratively) and free of the customary bullshit of The World Of GBS. After that, I'd head straight for the Grey Cup show because it was a performance triumph from start to finish and because it featured the sexiest, most gorgeous beard I have ever seen, conveniently situated upon the sexiest and most gorgeous of faces. Next up could be the brand new music, as well as the slightly sodden sweetness and silliness, of the Delta show.

But every time I've started to work on photos, I've been drawn back to the Bowery Ballroom show, an insistent tugging I keep stubbornly resisting because, in my opinion, this show was as troublesome in its surrounding circumstances as are my photos in their technical aspects. The Grey Cup was gorgeous triumph, Tonder was unfettered delight...taking on the Bowery show means lots of hard work to put together an entry that winds up saying some things that I don't believe hardly anybody (on stage or off) really wants to hear because those things might intrude on the "Everyone was happy; everyone had a great time" GBS-show afterglow. There's not usually much reward to  be found in telling a story that hardly anybody wants to hear, not even when it's an important story. Maybe most of all when it's an important story.

Still, I keep going back to these photos, inescapably curious to see if the impression I had gotten during this show - which really was a great show in terms of performance power and audience impact, but which also appeared to be a show that required an impressive effort from the players - would still hold true when I looked closely at the images from the show. And that initial impression has held, all still completely subjective, of course. The Bowery Ballroom Show I saw was a difficult one, still great and breathtaking and totally enjoyable, but difficult nonetheless. Even before Alan so kindly explained about this show being a showcase for an artists' presenters convention, even before there was any inkling about the possible importance of those empty reserved tables upstairs, this show looked to be one filled with subtextual significance, along with all sorts of sharp edges which weree poking and cutting and, most of all, hurting.

What I saw at the Bowery Ballroom - again, with the requisite arse-covering "in my opinion" qualifier - was a band who came out onto a stage and for some reason found justifiable cause there to feel genuine disappointment, a band who then worked their way through and past that disappointment and went on to put on an excellent performance (with special credit due for both Alan's and Sean's efforts), showing character and courage and stubborn defiance in accomplishing something worthy of respect, admiration, and most of all, pride. By the end of the Bowery show, I was more proud of Great Big Sea than I have been in quite some time. I have felt that same pride before in the past, and I am choosing to believe that I will feel it again in the future.

I haven't gotten all of the Bowery photos finished yet, and I don't have enough time to do so. The photos that can be found here in this entry and the next are as far as I've gotten - up through Ordinary Day. With the exception of the introductory photos, I'm putting them up in show order from top to bottom, thereby beginning and ending with Ordinary Day, fitting since it was during this song that all I had seen throughout the show was visible in its clearest and most distilled aspect, as well as its most achingly beautiful aspect.

Part 3.1 (this entry) will be on top and Part 3.2  can be found directly below, with 3.3 following right after. this seems the better way to tell the story, or as much of that story as is ready to tell. I'm still switching back and forth from colour to black and white, with more of the latter for this show because of the low lights and  pervasive backlighting, though even a few of these wound up looking good enough in each format to warrant including both. I'll put up the rest when they're done and when I have the time....then I think I might not be able to resist going back to that sexiest and most gorgeous beard on the face that is its equal in both. Though Tonder was indeed very sweet, temptingly so. Perhaps doing both at the same time would be a great version of (Alan-In-The-)Middle Ground.

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Every face tells a story...some are true and some are false. Some are fascinating and complex and compelling...and some are not. Rare enough are those faces which tell a fascinating story filled with dramatic flourish and tender nuance, the kind of story that intrigues the mind and claims the heart; most rare of all are those faces in which the plotted paths of a myriad of stories can be traced. Alan's face is its own Schezerade In The Stagelights, telling wondrous tales of 1001 Newfoundland Nights. I can look up into Alan's face and see the story of the crowd, of the show, of the band...most of all the story of the man and the place where he belongs ; his face is mirror, window, crystal ball - revelation of the present moment proceeding from the past and plunging straight ahead into the future, never looking back.

At the Bowery Ballroom, it took less than a minute during Ordinary Day for a summary of this show's story to reveal itself on the most eloquent of faces.

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Now for that same story, chapter by chapter.

First up, a brief mention of the opener, Reid Genauer, who perfprmed a good-natured set of nicely written Paul Simonesque-type tunes.

It was short and sweet and he left with many in the crowd still cheerfully willing to hear more from him...the perfect (and very smart) gig opener.

Great  Big Sea Bowery Ballroom Show set list, with thanks to Cheryl.

No pictures from Donkey Riding; I was much too busy reading the opening chapter for photography. Second up was Tonight, and here is a re-post of the link for that video (I'll try to get all the videos up into the Download Links soon):

Tonight, Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea, video download link

Again, no pictures during Jack Hinks; my attention was still caught by what I could see in a very expressive face, actually in several expressive faces. It wasn't until they were into When I'm Up that I began to take pictures of what I was seeing.

Lukey

 

After Lukey, Alan talked for a short while, saying only a few words about how they've been working on a new CD and thanking those who had turned out on this in spite of the threat of snow, adding that there could be no better band to wind up with if it did in fact snow heavily, but that he thought the number of inches of snow forecasted for that night sounded more like the amount of snow Newfoundlanders would "brush off the cat". Then he pointed to the strategically situated access pass on his left thigh and said "Check it out - I'm with the band." Sean, who along with all the rest of them sported no such access pass, immediately retorted, "Apparently you're the only one."

The brief comments about working on the new CD were the lead-in to Walk On The Moon. I'm not sure who was doing the sound at the show, but the reverb on Alan's vocal sounded kind of cool..a bit like a precursor of hearing this song sung at rink-rock shows, albeit with warm feet this time around.

Walk On The Moon, Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea video download link

Sean came out with a Paddy Murphy intro I hadn't ever heard: He carries the dead man around in his pocket "like a voodoo doll".

I think that's enough for this one entry; stopping here makes it possible to start the next entry with When I Am King, and I always like to begin with with my favourite Rock Star Guitar God.

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Last, but certainly not least, for this entry is this: The final tally of funds raised for Daffodil Place at the Great Big Christmas Show.

Jan. 23 Telegram

Great Big gift for Daffodil Place

The Telegram

Great Big Sea’s Great Big Christmas Concert benefit on Dec. 28 raised $46,481.18 to help with the construction of Daffodil Place in St. John’s.

The members of the popular Newfoundland band topped up the amount to $50,000.

A project of the Canadian Cancer Society, Daffodil Place will offer accommodations and services designed for people undergoing cancer treatment. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring.

“We were so impressed by how much support there is for this project,” said Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea.

“On behalf of the band, I would like to thank everyone who attended the show and helped make this a success.”>Doyle is also a member of the Daffodil Place Campaign Cabinet.

Cabinet chairman John Steele said, “(Doyle) is a great ambassador for the project and has worked tirelessly in the public and private sectors to gain support for Daffodil Place.”

These are the men who have my admiration and respect. This is the man who is the wonderful and the loved. What they gave at their Great Big Christmas show, and what they accomplished at their Bowery Ballroom show, are accomplishments that should cause anyone who cares at all about them to feel very proud of them, as well as accomplishments which deserve to be written about. And remembered.

"Oh Yeah" Part 3.2 - Story Of A Band To Be Proud Of: Bowery Ballroom Photos

This is the middle entry of three; the first is above and the last below. This entry contains photos of the Bowery  Ballroom show from When I Am King through Helmethead.

WIAK

"It could happen!"

I can't say for sure what the segue from WIAK to Sean's impromptu rendition of the Flaming Lips' Do You Realize might have been. Most of this is on video, along with the breathtaking bonus of a disconcertingly beautiful view of Alan's foremost hindmost as he makes a move to come down into the audience to see how things might look from that perspective.

Sean's Flaming Lips & Alan's Gorgeous Arse, Floating In Space, video download link

Whatever brought the song to Sean/s mind at that moment, the lyrics really do deserve to be recalled as more than a Volvo jingle:

Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?
Do you realize
We're floating in space?
Do you realize
That happiness makes you cry?

Do you realize
That everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your good-byes
Let them know you realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

After that interlude, it was back to the set list, with Charlie Horse up next.

"Stalwart Men"

Sean's dead General followed after the dead horse.

General Taylor, Sean McCann/Great Big Sea, video download link

Scolding Wife, came next starting out with Alan's lovely little guitar piece. I don't usually take a lot of photos during this song, but on this night, Alan's performance had a keen edge to it, much like a freshly sharpened blade.

Rover, from an AlanStory perspective.

 

After Rover came the Singalongs (Video Killed, 500 Miles, and Bohemian Rhapsody which is on video, followed by Run, Runaway, which is not.

Pre-Run, Runaway Singalongs, Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea video download link

Sea Of No Cares.

I simply could not decide which version to choose, since both are beautiful.

For that matter, I'm having a hard time deciding which Sexy Murray is the sexiest. These photos from Helmethead.

Even better is when Sexy Alan comes over to join Sexy Murray.

The third and final entry will be for the last three songs of the main set , and it will include the encore photos too, if I can get them done quickly enough, but in case I don't, I want to be sure to get as much up as I can now and those will go up later.

"Oh Yeah" Part 3.3 - Story Of A Band To Be Proud Of: Bowery Ballroom Show Continued

This entry follows after the two directly above, being a continuation of photos from the recent Great Big Sea Bowery Ballroom show in New York City, these of the closing songs of the main set. If tthe encore tunes are epilogue to the story of this show, that would makes these last three songs, and most of all the final song of the main set, the destination toward which all of the evening's plotlines had been heading.

After Helmethead, the customary final closing songs begin, with Alan playing his beautiful instrumental intro for Consequence Free.

Mari Mac

Ordinary Day, ending where this began, a larger moment in time glimpsed in the passing of a few fleeting seconds, daunting clarity and ephemeral truth.

 

 

Walking out of the Bowery Ballroom on a rainy evening, I felt as shaken and stirred as the proverbial Bondian martini, worried by what I had seen and even more impressed by what I had seen. Regardless of what might or might not have been the larger truth of this one evening, the smaller truth is that this was a very good show, a powerful and a persuasive show. Perhaps not a large triumph in the face of greater challenges, but a real and genuine small triumph nonetheless. And an equally real and genuine occasion to feel proud of the men who accomplished more on this evening than they might have.

"Oh Yeah" Part Two - Alan Bon Jovi & Making A Memory At The Bowery Ballroom (Videos and Photos)

Sorry this took so long...I've got an Abundance of Alan and I've been trying to figure out what order to do him in. I've finally decided to begin with my favourite memory made on this night.

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From the Bowery Ballroom show:

Alan Doyle: I feel like Bon Jovi tonight.

Sean McCann:  You look like Bon Jovi tonight.

Alan Doyle (smiling wickedly): No...Bon Jovi looks like me.

Heard on the radio while exiting the Holland Tunnel into New Jersey on the way to Newark Airport to catch the return flight:

If you don't know if you should stay
If you don't say what's on your mind
Baby just breathe
There's nowhere else tonight we should be
You wanna make a memory? - Bon Jovi

Maybe on one of Jon's really, really good days. Maybe.  He's excellent, to be sure, but Alan was - Alan is - spectacular.

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Most of the kind folks who paid to see us at the Bowery would have no idea that the gig was, in part, a showcase event for a conference that was on going in the Big Apple.  The delegates of this conference are all buyers for the major theatres and concert venues in North America, and the Sunday night show was a chance for GBS to get in front of a bunch of them at once.  Smart planning by manager Louis and US agent Brian, I figure.  Hope they were all impressed and hire us to play all over the place. - Alan's Jan. 14 journal entry

I'm feeling very grateful to Alan for sharing this information about the whys and wherefores of Great Big Sea's Bowery Ballroom show on Sunday past; in doing so, he's given his readers a clearer perspective on this show - it was a contextually/subtextually illuminating journal entry overall, quite well-crafted, as always.

He's also made me think about how much I would have liked to have been a conference delegate who had wandered my way into the Bowery Ballroom on a New York City Sunday night to check out a band from some place I'd never heard of. If I had been that delegate, by the time the band got to the second song - which was Tonight - I would have been captivated. By the time they got to Lukey, I'd have been amazed by the way the performers and their music were connecting with an enthusiastic crowd that would keep right on eagerly embracing everything  from a cappella folk songs to hard-driving rock tunes, never missing a beat and singing along with nearly every syllable. Oh Yeah would have gotten my full attention, guaranteed. As the final few resonant notes of a stage-edge off-mic Old Brown's Daughter were sung into the awed hush of the crowd, I would have been deeply impressed with what I had just seen and heard. I would remember this band.

I am deeply impressed with what I saw and heard at the Bowery Ballroom, a night which will leave its own lasting memory, and I hope any and all conference delegates present heard and saw the same show I did. It was a show that deserved to evoke just such an impressed reaction. I have pictures of and thoughts about that show, and videos as well, but I'll start with what impressed me the most on this night at the Bowery, what would have been the most likely to catch my ear and eye and very likely win my heart if I really had been a conference delegate looking for a wonderful new band to play my venue.

Video Download Links

New Great Big Sea music:- Four excellent reasons to be eagerly anticipating the upcoming GBS CD:

Tonight , Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (212 MB)

Walk On The Moon, Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (172MB)

Oh Yeah, Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (110 MB)

Straight To Hell (With Intro), Alan Doyle/Great Big Sea, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (262 MB)

Classic Great Big Sea music to impress delegate and diehard fan alike:

General Taylor, Sean McCann/Great Big Sea, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (185 MB)

Singalongs (Video Killed, 500 Miles, Bohemian Rhapsody), Alan Doyle/GBS, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (142 MB)

Impromptu (and photographer-rattling) moments - proof positive of the distracting power of the foremost hindmost to make me completely forget which direction I was videoing in:

Sean's Flaming Lips Tune, and Alan's Arse Both Horizontically & Vertically, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, January 2008    (100 MB)

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I'm nowhere near done with the Bowery photos yet, partly because I've been fighting a nasty bug I brought back as an unplanned souvenir from an otherwise-wonderful weekend in NYC, and partly because I keep playing around with going back and forth from colour to black and white while photoediting. The lights at this show were moderately shitty (it looked like straight venue lights to me...I'm not sure if they brought any of their own lighting gear with them), with very low light for much of the show, which caused most of the photos to be shots of Great Big Red Sea.

It was tempting to solve the problem the way I saw plenty of others solving it and simply switch to flash, but we were too close to do that. So I wound up with the usual crimson hues and have been fooling around with the black-and-white option to see which works best. It's really interesting how some photos work better one way or the other, but then some others look great both ways, which leaves me somewhat at a loss when it comes to choosing. I am always in favour of an Abundance Of Alan. As the Innocent Spoon says eagerly: More! More! (I found a improperly perfect Evil Spoon while in NYC; yet another gift I am keeping all for myself.)

I've also not exactly been working on the photos in show order. With the exception of a few WIAK shots and a few OBD ones too, along with one wonderfully sweet OBR one, almost all of what I've done so far is from a song I dearly love to see Alan sing: Excursion. It was during this unimpeded view of beautiful curves, mischievous smiles, and long arms stretched up as high as possible that Alan made his Bon Jovi declaration; he had - he has - my full and willing agreement.

A bit of what has inspired my full and willing agreement, Alan Bon Jovi at his most seductively persuasive - up until five years ago it would have never occurred to me that a century-old a cappella Newfoundland folk song could possibly be so sexy - along with a shot or two of a few other fellows who are quite charming in their own rights.

I love this one, with all of its lovely curves and sky-high fist pumpinp and that gloriously wicked smirk, promise and potential personified. It was right after this that Alan  made his "I feel like Bon Jovi tonight" declaration.

Alan ponders Sean's "You look like Bon Jovi tonight" response for a few seconds.

And then, with a devilsh grin on his face, out comes his delightfully cocksure  "No...Bon Jovi looks like me". I really like it when Alan is devilish and cocksure...it suits him perfectly.

I could not decide which version of this photo was the best. I think he looks wonderful in each of them.

Ending Excursion in the positon that suits him nearly as well as does the devilishly cocksure attitude.

I could put up some more photos, but this a lovely place to end for now, I think. Quite the memorable closing image, especially for me since I am heading off to bed now to try to sleep away my bug. It shouldn't be long till the next entry, more Bowery photos (maybe even in show order) and the usual abundance of words. Along with more of an Abundance of Alan, including a response or two to his most recent illuminating journal entry. But for now, I am taking my body-image-beautiful memory straight up the stairs and to bed.

"Oh Yeah" Part One - First Thoughts About Thoughts About The Great Big Sea Bowery Ballroom Show

This was originally part of a comments response on the prior entry, but it wound up going into so much detail that a friend suggested I put it up as a first entry about the Bowery show for those who don't read the comments but who might like not having to keep on waiting to hear more about this show. Works for me, with just a couple of edits.

I'm still thinking about this show - still uploading videos too (Straight To Hell, with encore comments about Speedo cruisewear, is uploading as I type this) - so it will be a day or two more before I write very much about it, I think, though I will likely put up an entry tonight (or tomorrow morning, if we make it to the pub as planned tonight) with the video links and a couple of photos I really like; I've got one of Alan that is so sweet it immediately and irrevocably evokes the 'Here's my heart, do with it whatever you please" response, and another one that comes close to capturing why it is he is simply the best of the best performers. And I loved the comment Alan made about himself and Bon Jovi; I've got the perfect photo of Alan to go with that quote too, along with the perfect coincidental moment - one of those "rejected by the editor for straining credulity" moments.

It will take my usual forever to get all the photos done (especially since I am also still poised halfway through both Grey Cup photos and Christmas Show photos), so I don't know which to do in what order, though I do have some time between now and Jacksonville to maybe even get it all done. I want to write about our time in NYC too - which was a blast, best time I've had there so far - including the very good show we saw on Saturday night at the Rodeo Bar. Video coming of that too.

I have one video from the Bowery show that's hilarious. When Sean started to sing the impromptu "Volvo" song, I was videoing him and Alan, holding the camera horizontally so I could get them both in. While Sean was warbling and Alan came to stage edge and turned his back to the crowd and started to climb down from the stage (so he could "see what we look like"), in so doing, there was suddenly the most gorgeous arse I have ever seen, filling my camera screen with distracting beauty. Ahem. So much for keeping my cool. He shook me and rattled me so much that at first I forgot all about the camera (and instinctively got it the hell out of the way of my enjoying the pleasure of that spectacular closeup view...so much for my ever qualifying for the title of Intrepid Photographer) and by the time I recalled the camera - which was still videoing merrily away - and got it back up, now I was videoing vertically, not even remembering that I had started out horizontally. I didn't realise it until I watched the video last night.

I am not sure what in the world to do with that Horizontal/Vertical video file, other than laugh at it, treasure it, and keep right on admiring the lovely view of that most gorgeous arse I have ever seen. So much more than just a money shot, it is more like a grand-prize-winning lotto ticket. Maybe I should just put the video up as it is (or "ass it is"), with Alan's lovely arse going both ways, in tribute to the distracting power of that most gorgeous arse, which grows even more gorgeous, and even more distracting, the closer it gets.

But as for the real writing about the Bowery show, that will happen when I know for sure what I want to say. It was a really good show - the connection with the crowd was spectacular - the kind of show that leaves you breathless and delighted and knowing you have just been a part of something very special.

And (not "but") the show, even more so the front man, had an edge to it/him, maybe better to call it a "double edge," that has left me still casting about for the best way to write about him and it, even for the best words to use to describe him and it. That double edge worked perfectly with this NYC crowd - a self-possessed and slightly ironic edge is right at home among most New Yorkers - and it also left me intrigued and thoughtful, enough so to make me hesitant to write much before thinking hard. Maybe while I'm still thinking, Alan will write the show from his own perspective, which would keep me from having to venture  too far out onto that wobbly limb all by myself; I am always willing to follow his lead.   

Yes, I'll admit it, as appealing and compelling as the edges were ("Edges and Curves" would be a perfect description of one very beautiful man) and as great as this show was, those edges left their mark on me. It's not so much a feeling of worry as it is just being concerned - but then, that's just me and my own perspective.

All of them have worked so hard for so long, and Alan especially is often so willing to pay exorbitant prices to obtain and keep what he most desires...so edges, even edges that play really great with a particular crowd, tend to concern me. I want him to get what makes him happiest (actually, I've become surprisingly invested in wanting to see Sean be happy too, now that I've gotten a look at him being that way), and I'm going to feel much better when those things Alan most desires and may have paid dearly for -  such as the new CD and the new tour - actually happen.

Along with the breathless delight - and there was definitely no shortage of breathless delight - these are the thoughts I took out of the Bowery Ballroom with me. Not all of the thoughts, to be sure, but some of them. There was also the "Well, maybe Bon Jovi is almost as hot as Alan is when Jon's having a really good night" thought too, among other related musings. Breathless-delight thoughts. Which is not to say I don't think really well of Bon Jovi; anyone who loves great performers would think well of him, and I do love great performers. There's just not a bit of doubt about who my own choice would be between the two of them, on stage or off. I mean it when I say I see as Alan as the "Best of the Best".

I spent most of yesterday pondering this show a bit more soberly (literally...the drinks at the Bowery are as outrageously strong as they are outrageously expensive) in quieter moments, including all the way back up on the flight. After we got in, I sat up a long time thinking about it while watching the snow plow scurrying around, then decided to sleep on it and see what occurred to me when I woke up. Here I am now, still working on it, but getting closer.

For now, I can say I think they did great - especially Alan and Sean, who have been so good performing together lately...Sean has been wonderful to watch on stage, so much so I forget to take pictures most of the time just because I am so enjoying seeing him smile - and the crowd clearly loved everything they heard on that Old GBS/New GBS set list. 

Murray seemed especially glad to be in New York - where there are always some endlessly faithful Fruheads positioned nearby his stage spot - and Kris seemed cheerful too. I'm not sure what is up with Bob lately; he's playing well, but for much of several of the recent shows (including the Grey Cup and the Christmas shows, the Vancouver casino shows as well) there's been what looks to be an undercurrent of ambivalence persistently appearing on the performance surface

Alan really did a spectacular job on Tonight, and Sean too. I love Tonight; it's beautiful and honest and powerful, and it plays like it comes straight from the heart, straight from the very good heart of a very dear man. I'm going to say more about Tonight when I write about the show for real, so for now I'll just say I love this song and I think the world of the songwriter/s.

I like Rock And Roll Alan too. Oh yeah. I like R&R Alan a whole hell of a lot. Oh Yeah really is different from much of anything GBS's ever done (though it's an excellent and logical companion to Straight To Hell musically), and I've been wondering how the mainline/longtime GBS fans are going to react to that difference. Two crowds so far, at home and in NYC, and two positive reactions, if maybe a bit startled at first. But by the end of the song, most of the people I've seen at both shows have been rocking along, grins on their faces, though some will be sure to think it's "too different" to suit their own tastes.

And, frankly, those who for whatever psychological reasons have a need to see GBS - and/or Alan specifically - as being nonsexual (the Anatomically Incorrect Teddy Bear Brigade) are not going to be at all comfortable with Oh Yeah. This is one fucking sexy song, gloriously so, and the adjectival choice is quite intentional. Although I tend to find all of his songs sexy, and see him much more as the Lion King than as the teddy bear, no matter what the tune. Personal taste and individual perspective yet again. To each her own.

Oh Yeah was even getting positive reaction along Delancey Street during soundcheck; as people walked by and heard the music blasting out from inside the venue, quite a few of them (especially the oh-so-fashionable young ladies, I noticed) began to bounce along to the beat as they walked, almost without even realising they were reacting to it. I do like seeing passers-by on a NYC street bouncing along to the driving beat of a Great Big Sea rock song, listening to a sexy Rock And Roll Alan Doyle growling out the song's lyrics, out-doing Bon Jovi altogether. This is very good.

Straight To Hell just finished uploading; it's time to upload Oh Yeah.

More later. 

"Every Reason Why" Part 4.2 - Dreaming In Black And White & 'Southern Shore' Praise

Some things are indisputable, clearly a matter of black and white. Alan as the hottest of Rock Star Guitar Gods is one of these things. 

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This entry is the companion piece for the preceding entry. Most of the pictures appear in both entries, though not all, a few being so much better either in black and white or in colour that the picture appears one way only. Several of the Paddy Murphy photos appear only here; it was frustration with the Paddy photos that got me to fooling around with the black-and-white editing options; the lights during this song were very low and even more Very Red and the photos were impossible...Sean and Bob looked like a pair of tomatoes. I liked the look of the black and white for these photos and decided to try it on a few more pictures. I found I really liked the look on Alan's Rock Star shots, and the Walk On The Moon photos looked pretty darn good too.

Of course, I couldn't decide which versions I liked best of which shots, as always. Alan looks great to me in every format. I was going to put them all up in one entry, but there were too many. Then I thought about waiting on both versions of the When I Am King photos until after the weekend, but it made no sense at all not to put those pictures up before the New York show at the Bowery Ballroom. When I Am King is Alan at his hottest, and what better way to head out to New York City than with images of the Most Gorgeous Sexy Rock Star Guitar God strutting his stuff...in colour and in black and white? More of the wonderful is always better, and the timing is impeccable. To see The More, The Better, The Wonderful in colour, simply scroll down to the companion entry.

Closeups from When I Am King and Walk On The Moon.

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Walk On The Moon.

Paddy Murphy - these first two photos were impossibly red in colour and just too cute not to find some way to use.

WIAK Intro - Alan talks about his "most shameful" song.

Lead guitarist on fire. 

Winning wars and fighting fights.

Sexiest lead guitarist, sexiest pick slide.

Dream in black and white.

Now I'm ready to head to New York. Assuming we get out of the airport in the morning; if the weather really goes to shit, I might wind up with only these photos to take solace in this weekend, these photos and the assurance that my favourite Rock Star Guitar God is going to set New York on fire. Another one of those black-and-white, indisputable matters.

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One last bit of black and white, this time in the form of words in print. This is a review of Southern Shore, the new Irish Descendants CD that was produced by Alan Doyle. I've already written several times about how highly I think of this CD and why (here, for starters), and as time passes, I find I am enjoying this music even more. It's very good to see such a deserving work (which has just garnered an ECMA nomination) being appreciated by others. I was especially glad to see particular note being made here of Not For The Money Alone, the excellent song co-written by Con O'Brien and Alan, the song I think is the most impressive in an overall strong group of tunes.

From the January 10th online edition of the Cape Breton Post

Irish Descendants new CD should put them in the spotlight again

DAN MACDONALD 
The Cape Breton Post

The Irish Descendants have been around the East Coast music scene since the early 1990s. Coming out of the rich Newfoundland cultural circuit, they were playing, recording and winning awards before Great Big Sea and The Fables ever arrived.

The latest musical project from the ever-evolving group is called Southern Shore, a nod to the fishing community heritage of many of the band’s members, including leader Con O’Brien. This 12-cut CD contains a collection of traditional material, (some brought from Ireland), mixed carefully with new (and not so new) material from some well-known composers.

There are songs from contemporary Newfoundland wordsmiths Jim Fidler and Francis Aspell, as well as a tune co-written by O’Brien with Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle. Included in the list are two Tommy Makem songs (including Four Green Fields), as well as one from Art Scammell (The Six Horse Power Coaker), a pair of writers with a longstanding influence on Newfoundland music. I’m particularly taken by their musical version of J.M. Devine’s original poem that has become popular as the song Pat Murphy’s Meadow, as well as Not For The Money Alone, O’Brien and Doyle’s fond memories of the lost art of cod tongue cutting.

One song stands out more for the message then the melody. We Laughed, written by Billy Bragg and Maxine Edgington (a cancer victim), celebrates the power of laughter between a mother (who has cancer) and her teenage daughter. This powerful song was originally recorded as part of England’s Rosetta Requiem project.

Southern Shore is a very listenable recording, with an interesting mixture of styles, sentiments and textures of material. All together, this is a most enjoyable CD, something to push The Irish Descendants back to centre stage.

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Off to check the Weather Channel and cross my fingers. I really do want to see the Rock Star Guitar God and the Best Newfoundland Band conquer New York. Again. 

"Every Reason Why" Part 4.1 - All The Colours Of The Palette (Great Big Christmas Show Pictures)

Who needs Christmas presents when there's a face this sweet to be seen at the Great Big Christmas show?

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This entry is the companion piece to the one of black-and-white photos from the same three songs during the gift - a gift both to Daffodil Place and to each person there at the Delta on a snowy St. John's night who loved what they saw and what they heard - that was the Great Big Christmas show. The songs are Walk On The Moon, which was performed with heartfelt passion; Paddy Murphy, which provoked the crowd into a burst of celebratory exuberance; and then there was When I Am King, which began with a sultry smoulder and then flared up into a sensuous sizzle.

Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea have come a very long way since the first time a clearly nervous (and lovably dear because of that nervousness) Alan Doyle somewhat defiantly strapped a little black Les Paul Gibson on at a Delta Christmas show in 2003  - "Electric guitar at a GBS show?" a woman behind us had queried, a startled look on her face. "Isn't that sort of sacrilegious?" -  and determinedly launched into When I Am King for a crowd that reacted to the great big sacrilege with an air of good-natured bemusement at something they had certainly not expected.

Fast-forward to the same place, in 2007. By doing it that way, you will pass quickly and lightly over the often-difficult terrain that lies between then and now, though you will also miss much that is worth remembering and treasuring. For those who lack the luxury of that fast-forward option, those whose only choice was to traverse each bumpy road along the way, how this crowd reacted to that same song - how this crowd now so enthusiastically embraced what had seemed so new and different to the crowd then - will, I hope, help to give a sense of point and purpose to some of those intervening challenges.

On this night, Great Big Sea rocked the hometown house with When I Am King, the hometown crowd that came to their show expecting to be rocked just this way by a song that they have come to accept over the past four years, a song that is now familiar and loved. And when it came time for Oh Yeah to rock that hometown crowd much harder and more gloriously than they had could have ever expected Great Big Sea would or could rock them...this time, the crowd was ready to have their expectations changed yet again.  From "sacrilege" to "Holy Shit!" in four years. Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea have come a very long way.

How much further could they go, if they chose to continue travelling along those bumpy roads? Together or separately, the sky (which can be pretty darn bumpy too) is the limit; it has to be the sky...otherwise, how else would Alan be able to take his walk on the moon?

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Walk On The Moon and When I Am King, up close and in colourful beauty.

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Walk On The Moon, which had this hometown crowd firmly in hand.

Too bad about losing Sean's nose behind the mic, but at least I got a bit of a view of Bob's concentration.

Paddy Murphy, performed with grinning, slightly manic, glee by Sean.

Still gorgeous even in the Dantesque lighting, and always with that uncanny knack of knowing just where he most belongs on any stage....in the spotlight, both fore and aft.

Lovely view, interesting lighting.

Sean and Alan rock out to Paddy Murphy.

Assuming the position that suits him so well  and looks so lovely at the end of Paddy.

Intro to When I Am King, which always has an especially wicked, delightfully sexy edge when done at home. When Alan gets to his "best damn kisser" line in the song, he's emphatic, and completely convincing.

WIAK, full of shameless delight, breathless sensuality, and pure guitar glory.

The moon, then the stars...with a long reach and an eager grasp, almost anything is possible.

"Every Reason Why" Part Three - Making Progress Facing The Lie

I suppose the other side of the coin of "facing the truth" could very well be "facing the lie". So for this entry, I'll call "Tails"...or "Tales"  - either way works, and I'm not fussy.

A  person who is being harrassed and harangued about her fan behaviour circulates a tired old lie in the hopes that the terrible actions of another - even the fictional terrible actions of another - will somehow make her own actions acceptable by comparison. What odds. It's not as if she's creating this lie; culpability for that belongs elsewhere, and God knows the tired old lie has since been circulated around by a multitude of guilty-conscienced self-excusers who have their own ulterior motives for wanting that tired old lie to be true, those who have their own bad behaviour - actual and wishful - to justify and redeem by false comparison.

And all of those who know that this is a tired old lie stay silent, as ever. The loudest thing ever heard. Again, not as if this is any change in customary behaviour or sudden betrayal of expectation. Just an old wound with a ragged scar; subsequent battering and bruising might be painful, but not unbearable.

Nothing new here, neither good-new nor bad-new. Every reason for remaining that was valid an hour ago - every good thing worth caring about and believing in and hoping for - abides, merit unaltered and worth unchanged. The tired old lie is still exactly that and nothing more...sad when those who should know better choose to believe, painful when those who do know better hold their tongues. Lessons to be learned in both instances, as well as choices to be made. As ever. Again, bearable. A choice between either love, faith, and hope or sad, hurtful, and false is no contest at all, not in my normal, sensible, and healthy world.

This is progress. It used to take days to get to the point that was arrived at in less than a half-hour today, and this time with not one moment wasted on idiotic nonsense about going away to any place other than right here, not a bit of foolish howling about leaving what is dear. Next time it might take only ten minutes, and one day perhaps no more than 10 seconds will be wasted before what is sad and painful gets shrugged off for getting in the way of what is wonderful and loved.

The day when the tired old lie means so little to me that I do not even think about bothering to write about how little it means to me will go beyond "progress"; that day will be the arrival at the destination, the goal toward which hope is focused. Hope, but no expectations. Well, I guess I can at least expect that there will indeed be a "next time"; there is apparently no end to guilty consciences and to bad behaviour that needs self-excusing by false comparison. There really are some things you can count on in this beautiful life, I suppose.

Still, progress is a very good thing in the face of such expectation. The hope will be for that progress to continue on at a steady pace, eventually reaching the destination. The Wonderful and the Loved deserves nothing less.

I'll have more pictures fron the GBS Christmas show up for sure before I leave on Saturday for what's shaping up as a great weekend in New York City, where I will be showing the Big Apple to a townie visiting there for the very first time: The "best pizza in New York," a Staten Island ferry ride , a carriage ride through Central Park, a wander through the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, a jaunt down Broadway and around Greenwich Village and SoHo and Little Italy and Chinatown, the obligatory shopping/gift-buying for the little ones, and perhaps a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge if the weather is decent.

She might even be able to finally persuade her claustrophobic tour guide onto the subway for the very first time. Oh yes, and two shows this weekend: Guy Forsyth (who we saw perform at Tønder and who is frigging amazing...there's a video download link for him at the Tønder SC in the Other Artists category here) in a C&W railroad-car rodeo bar on Saturday, and on Sunday  a show by some Newfoundland band I hear is fronted by the best songwriter/guitar pounder/performer, and most beautiful man, I will ever see. He sounds wonderful to me. He has always sounded (and looked) wonderful to me. He always will.

Tonight, I am going to be taking my pleasure and delight in Portugese waltzes, either before or after (perhaps during) pints and chocolate. It's going to be a very good night. The tired old lie will not be joining us. It will have to find company more suitable to and deserving of its merit and its worth.

"Every Reason Why" Part Two - Facing The Truth & GBS Great Big Christmas Show Photos

The context of this picture is that it was taken after Lukey and before Walk On The Moon at the Great Big Christmas Show at the Delta Ballroom in St. John's nearly two weeks ago. Alan and Sean have been talking between these two songs, the topic of that conversation being the new GBS CD that will be coming out "some time in the first part of next year". Alan has just said what a huge hit this new CD will be.

That's the objective context. The subjective context is that if ever there were a photo that gives a clear view of a complicated man - a view that reveals the essence of who that man is in all of his resolve, anger, intelligence, hope, frustration, need, vulnerability, capitulation, triumph, stubbornness, fear, strength, humour, disappointment, desire, indomitability, and courage - this would be that photo.  There is an entire world of truth - a world  well worth knowing and respecting, loving and treasuring - to be discovered in the face in this photo.

It's who Alan is. It's who he's always going to be.

Which is not to say that the sum total of any man so variable and complex could be completely summed up by any single revelatory photo or sole enlightening view. Even after all the photos taken and all the views seen, he still has once-hidden facets that blaze forth suddenly like a precious jewel fresh-cut by the hand of a Master.

First few moments of the show, during Seven Joys Of Mary, with Alan at his most expressive.

Two shots from Jack Hinks, with Alan working the crowd like the Master he is.

That incredible charm and irresistible power at maximum effect on When I'm Up.

I love this expression. Murray is up front doing Maximum Bass during Lukey, and Alan is watching Murray play with an expression as wonderstruck as that on the face of an eight-year-old boy on Christmas morning. I'd love to see Alan spend as much of his life as he chooses with exactly this expression on his face.

There are times a photo is bad for wonderful reasons. This one - the black-and-white version right below is an attempt to edit out a few of the technical flaws (there's another version all the way at the end of this entry that's just for fun because I think it looks cool) - and the full-size version a bit farther down are both technically "bad" photos...backlighting glare, fuzzy focus, all sorts of problems.

But there's context here too. The reason the photo is technically bad is inextricably linked to the photo's content: When I saw this achingly sweet expression on Alan's face - another one of those expressions that has so much to say about what is true of the man - I forgot about the photo even as I was still clicking the shutter; the blur is because I reacted to the irrefusability of that sweet expression, instantly looking up over the camera and smiling in response. The technical weakness of the photo is persuasive testimony to the powerful impact of content upon the photographer. I doubt that I will ever get a sharp, clear photograph of this expression on Alan's face, and I don't mind that outcome one bit.

The original clear view of the complicated, and now also the colourful, man.

For all the times the truth is hard to face, there are also the times when facing truth, the Face Of Truth, is something wonderful, as well as something beautiful, to behold.

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When I was 8 or 9, my family had to move out of our house in a hurry, a hard task, but not all that uncommon an occurrence in a pre-renters'-rights town, where three days' grace was sometimes all that stood between a family and the street. Haste turned packing into a Family Affair; my Dad went out to find a new house (never a  new"home," since home was always the people, never the place - no capricious Landlord could ever take home away); we children and my Mom were responsible for the packing up. While helping my Mom sort a stack of papers and photos into a box, I came across a picture of my parents I'd never seen before. It was an old black-and-white shot, small and a bit battered around the edges, and in it the two of them looked so different, so young, that it took me a few seconds to be sure this really was the two people I thought I knew the best of all the people on the planet.

It was them, and it wasn't - not them the way I was used to seeing them: In the picture, my tough-as-nails Mom was nestled up against my Dad's shoulder, looking starry-eyed and loveswept straight off her feet; my don't-get-caught-taking-it-seriously Dad had a intensely determined look on his face (partly because he was concentrating on taking the shot as he was holding the camera out at arm's length), a expression of being completely absorbed in his task to the exclusion of all else, except for the  protective arm that was wrapped around the adoring woman whose head was resting on his shoulder.

The picture fascinated me. I was lost in gazing at it, and eventually my Mom noticed I wasn't being of much use with the packing. She looked up to see what was distracting her youngest child this time, and when she glanced at the picture in my hand, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh Lord, that picture!" she snorted disdainfully. "I look sappy and your father looks pissed...that picture's awful. Just toss it in the box and get back to work."  Or something to that effect.

Not for the first time, and even more not for the last time, I disagreed with my Mom. I thought it was a wonderful picture, though for the life of me I could not have explained why. I asked her if I could have it, which surprised her, but not so much as to interfere  with the necessity of packing up her life on 72 hours' notice. She shrugged and said yes and the battered little black-and-white picture became mine. I put it in a photo album and kept it there for years, and when I was packing yet again a decade or so later, this time for the move out of my parents' house, the battered little picture went with me again, eventually winding up in a frame on my desk. I was still a few years away from growing up enough to understand why the picture was so signficant; all I knew then was that it was dear to me.

By the time I reached that point of understanding why it was this picture meant so much to me - by the time I was capable of seeing my parents for the people they were, separately and together, and realising that this battered little photo had caught a single blissful moment in time where the essence of who and what they were showed through with clarity and truth - my Dad was gone.  On the first of their wedding anniversaries my Mom had to face alone, the gift I gave her was an enlarged, professionally restored print of that picture. She'd seen my small framed copy  on some shelf or desk or table or wall in every place I'd lived for more than a decade, seen it to the point of ceasing to see it, but on this day, she held the frame between trembling hands, staring at the black-and-white photograph inside it as if she were lost in it, the woman even more fascinated than the child had been.

I waited. I wait well for those whom I love much. Finally, she was ready; she looked up at me and smiled. "It's us," she said, in soft, quiet voice. "It's who we always were."

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After having heard both the new songs - the heart-melting Tonight and the pulse-stirring Oh Yeah - in soundcheck, I was so eager to see the songs performed during the main show that I didn't think I could bear to wait for the GBS set to begin. Quite a bit of credit is due to The Novaks for playing their opening set so well that even if I never forgot about the two new songs I was awaiting with such excited anticipation, at least the time spent waiting was made quite enjoyable.

Mick Davis demonstrates his own spin on multi-instrumentality, playing the harmonica while his electric guitar waits its turn.

Davis rocks out on guitar while Elliot Dicks tries to demolish his drum kit.

Mark Neary showing his cool-bass demeanour while Davis holds his instrument aloft.

Chuck Tucker (apparently the lone Novak to show up on time - either that, or damn early - for soundcheck, leaving hinm wandering forlornly alone around the Delta lobby for awhile until the others showed up) takes a turn at singing lead, while Davis and Dicks play hard.

This was my third Great Big Christmas Show. I was lucky (I might go with "blessed" in this instance) to see Fergus and Dermot for the first time as the openers for GBS at my first Delta show; that was context in all of its glory. At the second GB  Christmas Show, The Punters opened; that had potential that wasn't  quite realised...context again, in its own way.  While I realise that the several GBS business-world connections with The Novaks probably played a big role choosing that band as this show's openers (along with, I am assuming, their willingness - quite laudable, considering none of these guys is  exactly making the big bucks - to forego being paid for playing so all the proceeds could go to Daffodil Place), it still made for an excellent pairing on purely artistic grounds, a great evening of Newfoundland music and a spectacularly fitting intro for Oh Yeah - musical foreplay, as it were.

And come to think of it, perhaps some of those fans/bimbos/hangers-on/pursuers/whatever-you-wills who incessantly suck up to any band no matter if they really like that band or not  just because of some tenuous GBS connection the sucker-uppers hope will one day become their "free pass onto the GBS tour bus" (direct quote there from members of one current great big group with great big hopes) could turn a bit of CD-purchasing and show-attending business these guys' way because they're really quite good. And they were also damn funny with the witty one-liners about the headliners.

By the time of the break between the opening and main sets, it was clear enough that the snowy weather and shitty road conditions were going to impact the attendance at this sold-out show; the ballroom was maybe two-thirds full at most, and I don't think many people who had to drive much of any distance to get there showed up. That was certainly what happened to our group of showgoers, all of whom had to drive from various distances, while we had the option of walking if the weather began to suck even more.  Their bailing-out on the show wound up making nine members of a wedding party staying at the Delta very happy when we sold them our party's unused tickets, and the larger bail-out made this a show where the townies and the hotel-staying visitors had plenty of elbow room.  It was one of the nicest crowds I've been in at a GBS show in quite some time, and it made the recent Glacier show feel like it took place in an unpleasant alternate reality I really would rather not have to return to