Alan Doyle: So Let's Go Tour, tonight, Friday, March 6 at 8 p.m. at the Vogue Theatre, part of the 11th annual CelticFest Vancouver, March 6-17. Tickets: $35, visit northerntickets.com. Info: celticfestvancouver.com.
Touring is what singer-songwriter Alan Doyle lives for.
"It was my favourite thing to do when I was 23 and it's still my favourite thing to do: get on a bus with a gang of gypsies and go roll into a town that you either know or don't know, and either play for a bunch of people who love your every step or try to win over a group of people who've never heard a chord from your guitar or a note from your voice in your life. I just love that idea of being a minstrel that's wandering and bringing a little piece of you everywhere you go," says the Great Big Sea frontman, reached last week. He had just pulled into Durango, Colo., a couple of hours later than planned due to a nasty snowstorm, just in time to take the stage for a performance that evening.
The St. John's, NL-based performer is currently in the midst of a North American tour in support of his new sophomore solo record, So Let's Go. The tour kicked off in January and, according to Doyle, has been "huge fun" thus far, seeing many of the dates sold out.
Supporting Doyle for the venture is a backing band recently dubbed the Beautiful Gypsies. "It's become the unofficial, official band name now. It's filled with friends of mine," he says. Members include: Vancouver-based Kendel Carson (The Paperboys and Dustin Bentall), on fiddle and guitar; Great Big Sea drummer Kris MacFarlane; Cory Tetford (Crush), on guitar, mandolin and vocals; Todd Lumley (Hawksley Workman), on accordion and keyboards; and Shehab Illyas (Mir), on bass.
The group performs songs from Doyle's solo and Great Big Sea catalogue, as well as tracks he's written for film and television. Doyle et al are set to play Vancouver tonight with a show at the Vogue Theatre, kicking off the 11th annual CelticFest Vancouver, which runs until March 17, offering a host of performances, workshops, a two-day free Celtic Village street fair, and the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
So Let's Go is a follow to Doyle's debut solo release, 2012's Boy On Bridge. Doyle worked on the project simultaneously with what was to become a best-selling musical memoir, Where I Belong. Released last year, his book profiles his journey from growing up in a small Newfoundland fishing village to taking the world stage with Great Big Sea, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. "I learned a lot about my young life while I was writing the book. I learned that it was even more influential in my adult life than I'd thought.. .. When I was writing the songs for the So Let's Go record I wanted to pay tribute to my younger life growing up in Petty Harbour and learning folk music. I just thought it would be cool to have these big pop production kind of songs centered around something really small and folky, like a guy from Petty Harbour whistling and playing the mandolin," he says. To bring his vision to fruition, Doyle called on Thomas 'Tawgs' Salter (Lights, Walk Off The Earth), Jerrod Bettis (Adele, Serena Ryder), Gordie Sampson (Keith Urban, Willie Nelson), and Joe Zook (OneRepublic, Katy Perry). "I'm kind of a breath of fresh air for those guys," says Doyle.
"I think they spend a lot of time working with single artists who are probably much younger and probably in many cases, maybe just sing. Or if they play, they probably play rock 'n' roll instruments whereas, of course all my apprenticeship is playing bouzoukis and mandolins and singing shanties. So I kind of bring something to that world that those guys don't see every day," he says.
Doyle was pleased with the results, grateful for the fact that the record still sounds like him.
"I was worried when we started experimenting bringing that much of a fusion of pop and folk that I might get lost in it somewhere. But I listen to it and it still just sounds like me playing the mandolin and singing a song," he says.
The album's title track, a common phrase of Doyle's, is intended as an optimistic rallying cry.
"I've been saying that forever: So let's go. I find that so many of people's complaints and regrets can be fixed by action - your biggest regrets will always be the things you didn't do, way more than the things you did. I think that's true of a lifetime, and I think it's true of a weekend and I think it's true for a day, and I think it's true for a moment. Just do it, let's go."
That optimism is something Doyle is known for, both personally and musically, something he says just comes naturally.
"I don't have a lot to complain about. I don't know many people luckier than me. I've always kind of felt that way because I was born into a nice family with mom and dad and brother and sisters who loved me. We didn't have tons of money, but we had enough. Then I got to play music and then gee, I got to be in Great Big Sea, which is like the greatest gig in Newfoundland history. So I'm generally a positive and lucky person," he says.
Doyle is looking forward to a potential fall release of his next collaborative record with friend and actor Russell Crowe, a follow to 2011's The Crowe/Doyle Songbook.
The pair met in the early 2000s when Crowe was shooting Cinderella Man in Toronto and have since appeared onscreen together in the Ridley Scott-directed Robin Hood, released in 2010. Doyle played one of the Merry Men, along with another continued musical collaborator, Scott Grimes (Justified, American Dad!). The trio also appeared in Republic of Doyle together.
Doyle and Crowe's pending release was recorded recently, and will also feature Grimes (who's featured in the video for "So Let's Go"), Samantha Barks and Carl Falk. It grew out of a series of concerts they've been doing called The Indoor Garden Party, a variety show of sorts.
According to Doyle, Crowe, born in Wellington, New Zealand, is a small town guy too.
"I think that's maybe why we get along. We're both still kind of wide-eyed about everything," says Doyle. Crowe and Grimes joined Doyle onstage Saturday for his Los Angeles tour stop. "I still think of myself as just a musician, some dude in a band.. .. and I'm so lucky to have friends who work in other parts of the arts and they call me every now and again.. .. All that other stuff... has come to me... I don't seek out that other stuff. So far in my life I haven't. I'm very happy to do my main gig playing music and to have these incidental things come and go, that's such a blessed career I figure," he says.
Before leaving B.C., Doyle and his band will play the Chilliwack Cultural Centre tomorrow night, Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m.
CelticFest good to go:
-A Tribute to The Pogues, Saturday, March 7 at The Imperial.
-Belmont Whiskey Tastings, Wednesday, March 11 at The Belmont 6:30 or 8:30 p.m.
-Delhi 2 Dublin with special guests, Troy MacGillivray and Mairi Rankin, Sunday, March 15 at The Imperial.
-April Verch Band with special guests, Elsay, Monday, March 16 at The Annex.
celticfestvancouver.com
