Alan Doyle

This week on Art of the Song, Canadian musician Alan Doyle is the featured artist.

From Wikipedia:

Alan Thomas Doyle (born May 17, 1969) is a Canadian musician and actor, best known for his work as one of the lead singers of Canadian Folk Rock band Great Big Sea.

Alan Doyle was born to Thomas and Regina Doyle in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, his mother was a piano teacher who taught him. Doyle attended St. Kevin’s in Goulds, NL just outside Petty Harbour. Doyle has a brother, Bernie, and two sisters, Michelle and Kim. He was raised Roman Catholic. He attended Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. It is also there that he met Séan McCann, Bob Hallett and Darrell Power with whom he helped to form Great Big Sea. He primarily plays electric and acoustic guitars, and the bouzouki for live performances, but he’s been known to play mandolin and banjo.

Before Great Big Sea Doyle played in a duo with John Brenton called Staggering Home. As a teen he played in his uncle’s band, the New Sandells.

In 2012, Doyle released his first solo album, Boy on Bridge. The title is a nod to Doyle’s credit as the “boy on bridge” in the movie A Whale For The Killing, when he was a young boy. The first single from the album is “I’ve Seen a Little” and the album features collaborations with Canadian musicians Hawksley Workman, Jim Cuddy, Ron Hynes, and actor-musician Russell Crowe, among others. The video for the second single, “Testify”, was nominated for a 2012 Juno. The creation of the album was captured by a film crew, resulting in a documentary also named Boy on Bridge ^[4] directed by Joel Stewart and John Vatcher.

Doyle, with Great Big Sea, was recently featured on Canadian country artist, Dean Brody‘s 2012 album titled Dirt. Singing on the track ‘It’s Friday’.

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