Again, what comes First...
Alan Doyle, GBS Clearwater show
I've managed to get myself thoroughly distracted by going back through this past year as recounted here; so many memorable moments - some painful, some sweet. Some painfully sweet.
I had been thinking of coming up with some sort of listing of such moments, something along the lines of those "The 10 Most [Whatever] of 2011" lists: Best Night (GBS - Halifax; Alan - St. John's Indoor Garden Party), Most-Loved Night (Clearwater, hands down and hearts handed over), Bravest Night (the whole run from Kelowna to Colorado Springs, when Alan's back was hurting him so badly), Most-Touching Night (the George Street Festival, of all unexpected places), Most-Thrilling Night (Canada Day, Parliament Hill, when Now-Prince and Future King William made everyone stand during Lukey's Boat, in awesomely obedient response to Alan's command) - that sort of thing.
Oh yes, Most Difficult Night too, of course...Hello, Belleville, with an also-ran nod to White River's Indifference Day. Sometimes the greatest progress comes, albeit at times slowly, from the most difficult experiences. The darker the night, the more brilliant the sunrise.
But as memorable as all these list-worthy nights inarguably were - several of them transcending Memorable to achieve the level of Pivotal, in that their events (again, some painful and some sweet) wound up playing a crucial role in shaping lasting decisions and chosen paths that will carry on into the Yet To Come - they still aren't what comes first to mind and memory when I look back on the Year That Was. They also weren't what held my attention in my blog posts for this past year, something I realised when I went back through those posts. Again and again, each time I tried to write about the shows, it didn't take long for the focus to be captured yet again by Alan's Solo-Album progress, by his reports and his actions. By the heartfelt songs of the Man and by the light in the eyes of the Boy.
It began with the cruise, the first openly announced work on his long-awaited Solo Album; as sweet as the Sailaway Story was, as delightful as was Alan's singing Jane with BNL, as impressive as was Sean's Son Of A Sailor album-release gig, this is what makes that somewhat silly cruise - that odd cross between a slumber party and a high-school reunion, with the GBS travelling party reminding me most of all of a group of longtime gravel-pit campers - into Something Significant.
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So it began, finally and at long last. And so it has continued, throughout this whole year, writing and recording sessions at home, in Ontario, in Vancouver...in Nashville and in California. Another set of new music - the Crowe/Doyle Songbook, written with Russell Crowe, performed with Russell and his wife, Danielle Spencer - came out while the Solo-Album music was still being created. The sweet promise of his solo shows to come, at the same time Sean's own solo shows - done with a brand new and admirably non-GBS band he so courageously (and successfully) put together, with all the excited hopes that Alan will do the same, will do it even better - have been taking place.
All of it, absolutely all of it, leading toward the Year To Come, the Year that is going to be Something Wonderful, Something Amazing. That's my take on the Year That Was; that's why I decided against making any list of Memorable Moments. You don't need to make a list when there's just one item - a sole and single Number One - that has a rightful place upon it.
Though I sure don't mind one bit saying again (and again!) that I really loved Clearwater.
Pivotal. And Beautiful.
One final toast then, to the Year That Was, the year that is going to make it possible for the Year To Come to be that much-desired and most-deserved Dream Come True.
Followed by the first of many raised glasses in Anticipation of, in Celebration of, all the Wonderful and all the Beautiful that lie ahead.
As always and as ever, with Love.
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