Alan Doyle

Alan Doyle is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor who rose to fame as the enigmatic frontman for the acclaimed Newfoundland folk-rock band Great Big Sea. During their commercial peak from the late '90s to the mid-2000s, the group's energetic fusion of traditional Celtic fare and sea shanties earned them international success far beyond the shores of their island home. Doyle launched a solo career in 2012 with the release of Boy on Bridge. Since then, he has published two books, appeared in numerous films and television shows, and issued three more solo efforts, including 2024's Welcome Home. Born and raised in the small town of Petty Harbour just south of St. John's, Doyle learned piano and drums as a child, soon moving on to guitar (and eventually mandolin, bouzouki, and pretty much anything with strings). He joined his uncle's rockabilly-meets-traditional-Newfoundland band the New Standells at the age of 15, and while attending St. John's University, he was one-half of a duo (with John Benton) called Staggering Home. Following a series of informal jam sessions with members of the Celtic rock band Rankin Street (Sean McCann, Bob Hallett, and Darrell Power), Doyle joined forces with them, and Great Big Sea was born. Mixing traditional Newfoundland music with a fresh pop sensibility, and with Doyle handling lead vocals, the band released a self-titled album independently in 1992, and then signed with Warner Canada, which promptly reissued their debut. Some ten studio albums followed as Great Big Sea grew into one of Canada's biggest and most respected bands. In 2012, Doyle issued a solo album, Boy on Bridge, and it peaked at number 11 on the Canadian album charts and number 37 in the U.S. The album title refers to Doyle's lone cinema credit as the "boy on bridge" in the film A Whale for the Killing, when he was a child. The video for "Testify," the set's second single, was nominated for a 2012 Juno. Doyle and Great Big Sea guested on the song "It's Friday" by Canadian country artist Dean Brody on his 2012 album Dirt. Doyle is also an author, publishing a book-length account of his youth in Newfoundland and Labrador entitled Where I Belong in 2014. His sophomore solo effort, So Let's Go, appeared in 2015 and reached number 13 on the Canadian albums chart. Steeped in optimism and the communal nature of making music, the LP included the rowdy live favorite "1,2,3,4." Two years later, he not only guest-starred in the Murdoch Mysteries episode "A Murdog Mystery" but was awarded the title of Member of the Order of Canada, cited "for his contributions to the musical traditions of his home province and for his commitment to numerous local charitable initiatives." Recorded live in the studio, 2017's A Week at the Warehouse saw Doyle and his band deliver an energetic set of songs rooted in contemporary country with plenty of rugged, East Coast folk flair. His second book, A Newfoundlander in Canada: Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home, was published to coincide with the album's release. Doyle kicked off the next decade with Rough Side Out, his first solo EP featuring guest spots from country singer Jess Moskaluke and former collaborator Dean Brody. 2023 saw the release of "Welcome Home," the lead single and namesake of Doyle's fourth solo outing, which arrived in 2024.
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