"And Lessons Left To Learn" - Sure Things, Wise Words & Sweet Smiles (& New Hit Songs!)

 

 

I've got an early-morning flight and, as always, still need to pack. And watch the Habs beat the Wings (ever the optimist). This one is for the road. And from the heart. 

Alan Doyle, Winnipeg, October 2010

 

In a world tangled with uncertainties, each of us has our own handful of Sure Things; some big, some small, all Constants - those things that we know beyond doubt are True, would always be True, will always be True, no matter what the surrounding circumstances.

Alan's face is one of my Sure Things. No matter where I might have first seen that face, whether it was in a grocery store or on a train or in school or at church or in a bank or passing by on a crowded street - or at a hockey dance or on a museum tour or in a pub...or even on a television show - he would have caught my eye, my interest, all of my attention. And my heart. I would have thought his was a wonderful face, sweet and intelligent and gorgeous and filled with promise. 

I do think his is a wonderful face. Sweet and intelligent and gorgeous and filled with promise. A Sure Thing.

I really like that face. Constantly. 

 

 

During a GBS show some time ago (yes, I do recall which show it was and no, I'm not going to say), Alan was being particularly sweet, heart-meltingly so. But I wasn't buying it, not that night. When it came time for the break between sets (this was one of the two-set Evening With Great Big Sea gigs), I was out in the lobby with a friend, still not buying it.

"But he's being so sweet up there," my friend argued. "There's no resisting him when he's this sweet."

"It's from the Stage," I retorted, defensively indignant. "It's not Real."

My friend was silent for a few moments, thinking. Then she said something I will never forget: "I don't think there are very many places more Real to Alan Doyle than the Stage."

Those were the words of my Very Wise Friend. After she said them we went back to the show; all during the second set, I believed in each and every one of those sweet smiles. With all my heart. 

I still do. 

 

 

And just in case the title lyric was not recognised, here's a video of the Brand New Song from which it comes, a great song due out soon on Alan's upcoming Solo Album.  

 

 

 

I'm thinking this could very well be the First Hit off of that album.