Book ~ "All Together Now: A Newfoundlander's Light Tales for Heavy Times" (2020) Alan Doyle

From Goodreads ~ Is there a more sociable province than Newfoundland and Labrador? Or anywhere in Canada with a greater reputation for coming to the rescue of those in need?

At this time of Covid, singer, songwriter and bestselling author Alan Doyle is feeling everyone's pain. Off the road and spending more days at home than he has since he was a child hawking cod tongues on the wharfs of Petty Harbour, he misses the crowds and companionship of performing across the country and beyond. But most of all he misses the cheery clamour of pubs in his hometown, where one yarn follows another so quickly you have to be as ready as an Olympian at the start line to get your tale in before someone is well into theirs already. We're all experiencing our own version of that deprivation, and Alan, one of Newfoundland's finest storytellers, wants to offer a little balm.

"All Together Now" is a gathering in book form - a virtual Newfoundland pub. There are adventures in foreign lands, including an apparently filthy singalong in Polish (well, he would have sung along if he'd understood the language), a real-life ghost story involving an elderly neighbour, a red convertible and a clown horn, a potted history of his social drinking, and heartwarming reminiscences from another past world, childhood - all designed to put a smile on the faces of the isolated-addled.

Alan Doyle has never been in better form - nor more welcome. As he says about this troubling time: We get through it. We do what has to be done. Then, we celebrate. With the best of them. 

I'm a fan of Great Big Sea and had seen them many times in concert over the years.  I discovered them in the mid 1990s when they were just starting out.  Alan Doyle was one of the members in Great Big Sea and this is his third book.  I had tuned in to his online chat last week with the Toronto Public Library so was looking forward to reading his book.

Alan's not used to not touring and admits that he needs to keep busy.  So he wrote this book telling stories as if he was sitting in a pub with his buddies.  They include meeting Jeff Healey and escorting him to the washing (and not knowing whether to turn the light on for the blind man), touching the Grey Cup AND Anne Murray in Toronto, digging a basement when he and his brother were kids (his parents like to keep them busy), his first visit to London, England, (and his first time out of Newfoundland) and thinking he got ripped off his last 20 pounds from a French busker, acting with Russell Crowe and more.

I liked the writing style ... it was humorous ... and I enjoyed this book as it was light and lively.  I bet Alan would be a fun guy to sit and have a beer with.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "A Newfoundlander in Canada: Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home" (2017) Alan Doyle

From Goodreads ~ Armed with the same personable, candid style found in his first book, Alan Doyle turns his perspective outward from Petty Harbour toward mainland Canada, reflecting on what it was like to venture away from the comforts of home and the familiarity of the island. 

Often in a van, sometimes in a bus, occasionally in a car with broken wipers "using Bob's belt and a rope found by Paddy's Pond" to pull them back and forth, Alan and his bandmates charted new territory, and he constantly measured what he saw of the vast country against what his forefathers once called the Demon Canada. 

In a period punctuated by triumphant leaps forward for the band, deflating steps backward and everything in between - opening for Barney the Dinosaur at an outdoor music festival, being propositioned at a gas station mail-order bride service in Alberta, drinking moonshine with an elderly church-goer on a Sunday morning in PEI - Alan's few established notions about Canada were often debunked and his own identity as a Newfoundlander was constantly challenged. 

Touring the country, he also discovered how others view Newfoundlanders and how skewed these images can sometimes be. Asked to play in front of the Queen at a massive Canada Day festival on Parliament Hill, the concert organizers assured Alan and his bandmates that the best way to showcase Newfoundland culture was for them to be towed onto stage in a dory and introduced not as Newfoundlanders but as "Newfies." The boys were not amused.

Heartfelt, funny and always insightful, these stories tap into the complexities of community and Canadianness, forming the portrait of a young man from a tiny fishing village trying to define and hold on to his sense of home while navigating a vast and diverse and wonder-filled country.

I'm a fan of Great Big Sea and had seen them many times in concert over the years.  I discovered them in the mid 1990s when they were just starting out.  Alan Doyle was one of the members in Great Big Sea.  I read his first book, Where I Belong, a couple years ago and enjoyed it.

This book is Alan's memoir and a collection of his memories, starting just after the band was formed in 1992.  He starts by giving a bit of history of how Newfoundland had joined Canada (or Canada joined Newfoundland, depending on your point of view) in 1949.  He then tells of his adventures in various cities and provinces across the country as Great Big Sea made their way from Newfoundland to British Columbia as their popularity and awareness grew.  He had lots of funny stories to tell such as finding accommodations and renting vehicles, partying with locals and the concert line-ups they were in (they have opened for Barney and Junkhouse!).

I liked the writing style ... I thought it was honest and humorous.  I bet Doyle would be a fun guy to sit and have a beer with.  The dialogue is great because it's written phonetically and I could hear Newfoundland accents when I read it (he devotes some time to acknowledging that Newfoundland has it's own dialect).  There is some swearing.

This was a fun and interesting book about a proud young Newfoundland band who played their version of traditional songs that started with not a lot but had dreams of making it big (which they have).  It would have been nice to include some pictures.  I'd recommend this book.

Book ~ "Where I Belong" (2014) Alan Doyle

From Goodreads ~ Singer-songwriter and front man of the great Canadian band Great Big Sea, Alan Doyle is also a lyrical storyteller and a creative force. In "Where I Belong", Alan paints a vivid, raucous and heartwarming portrait of a curious young lad born into the small coastal fishing community of Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, and destined to become a renowned musician who carried the musical tradition of generations before him and brought his signature sound to the world. He tells of a childhood surrounded by larger-than-life characters who made an indelible impression on his music and work; of his first job on the wharf cutting out cod tongues for fishermen; of growing up in a family of five in a two-bedroom house with a beef-bucket as a toilet, yet lacking nothing; of learning at his father's knee how to sing the story of a song and learning from his mother how to simply "be good"; and finally, of how everything he ever learned as a kid prepared him for that pivotal moment when he became part of Great Big Sea and sailed away on what would be the greatest musical adventure of his life.

Filled with the lore and traditions of the East Coast and told in a voice that is at once captivating and refreshingly candid, this is a narrative journey about small-town life, curiosity and creative fulfillment, and finally, about leaving everything you know behind only to learn that no matter where you go, home will always be with you. 

I've been a fan of Great Big Sea over the years and have seen them many times in concerts.

I first discovered them in the mid 1990s when they were just starting out.  Sister Sarah, my friend, Leanne, and I had gone to the Exhibition Grounds here in Toronto for an east coast show (Sister Sarah and I are originally from Nova Scotia) and Leanne is from Vancouver (she moved back there in 1997).  Cape Breton fiddler Sandy McIntyre played in the beer garden before the show at the bandshell.

Leanne (with Sandy McIntyre fiddling on stage behind her) - mid 1990s

Leanne and I - mid 1990s

The Irish Descendants were headlining and Great Big Sea was opening for them.  We'd never heard of Great Big Sea and they were good!  And cute!  And yes, the Irish Descendants were good too.  Alas, I didn't take pictures of Sister Sarah or the show.

Alan Doyle was one of the members in Great Big Sea.  He seems like a nice guy and I was interested in reading his story.  I figured it would be a good one and it was.

Doyle tells of growing up in a small fishing village just outside of St. John's, NF.  His family (dad, mom and four kids) didn't have much but they didn't realize that because they had what everyone else had (or didn't have what others didn't have) ... they didn't even have a bathroom for many years.  Most of Petty Harbour is related to them somehow ... kinda cramps your style when you're looking for a girlfriend because most of the girls are either your cousin or Protestant.

We hear what it's like working on the wharfs when the fisherman would come in and his job was to cut the tongues from the codfish and try to sell them for pocket money.  Things improved when he got a job when he was 16 in St. John's in a museum as an interpreter.  Plus he started picking up gigs in bands, which eventually led to him meeting Séan McCann and forming Great Big Sea.

I liked the writing style ... I thought it was honest and humorous.  I bet Doyle would be a fun guy to sit and have a beer with.  The dialogue is great because it's written phonetically and I could hear Newfie accents when I read it.  At times, there is a bit of swearing.  Throughout the book there are pictures of when he was younger ... with his oversized glasses and peach fuzz moustache, he was stylin' (NOT!).  Ha!  His mom's bread sounds and looks amazing ... I haven't seen "double" bread since I left Nova Scotia.

This was a fun yet interesting book about an east coast Canadian who started with not a lot financially and has done well for himself.  I'd recommend this book.

Update:  The author was recently at the reference library talking about his book and Gord and I went.  Nice guy!