Alan Doyle
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Alan Thomas Doyle Template:Post-nominals (born May 17, 1969)<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref> is a Canadian musician and founding member of the Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea.
Life and career
Alan Doyle was born and raised in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland,<ref name=CTVNewman>Template:Cite web</ref> in a Roman Catholic family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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 formed Great Big Sea. He primarily plays electric and acoustic guitars, and the bouzouki for live performances, but he has been known to play mandolin and banjo.
He is married to Joanne; they have one son.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Doyle has also been involved with a handful of stage, television and film productions. As a child, he appeared as an extra in the movie A Whale for the Killing, based on Farley Mowat's book of the same name, which was filmed in his hometown. He has also hosted regional arts awards shows in Atlantic Canada, appeared as a presenter on the Juno Awards and done a turn onstage in his hometown's "24-Hour Musical" performance of Grease. In 2005, he composed music for the CBC comedy Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, which stars Mary Walsh. In 2006, he worked on scoring the film Young Triffie's Been Made Away With, directed by Walsh.
Doyle has been linked to Russell Crowe and his bands 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and The Ordinary Fear of God, having produced and co-written several songs on Crowe's album, My Hand, My Heart, and played several shows with Crowe. In 2011, they released The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol.III with nine songs in both acoustic demo and finished format, for 18 tracks total. This friendship also led to Doyle's casting as Allan A'Dayle alongside Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Durand, and Scott Grimes in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, released May 14, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He played Dingy in the film Winter's Tale, also with Crowe and Durand, as well as Will Smith and Colin Farrell.
He collaborated with Law & Order music composer Mike Post and wrote and performed a song named "Middle of Nowhere", written for the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Broad Channel".<ref>"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" episode, "Broad Channel" (9.3, originally aired April 13, 2010)</ref>
Doyle has guest starred on three episodes of the CBC Television series Republic of Doyle as the character Wolf Redmond. Season 2, episode 2 introduced him as an inmate sent to prison on charges of B&Es and a few robberies. Doyle guest starred with Russell Crowe, Kevin Durand, and Scott Grimes on the first show of Republic of DoyleTemplate:'s third season after the four had costarred on Robin Hood. His third appearance – the second with Grimes – was on season 4, episode 6. He appeared in an episode of Murdoch Mysteries' tenth season.<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref>
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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> directed by Joel Stewart and John Vatcher.
Doyle, with Great Big Sea, was featured on Canadian country artist, Dean Brody's 2012 album titled Dirt, singing on the track "It's Friday".
In 2014, Doyle released a book entitled Where I Belong, about his youth growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Doyle's second solo album, entitled So Let's Go, was released January 20, 2015.<ref name="alandoyle.ca">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="youtube.com">Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Template:Multiple image In 2017, he guest starred in a Murdoch Mysteries episode, "A Murdog Mystery" as a man who claims to be a time travelling historian. Doyle reprised the role in the web series Beyond Time.
Doyle's third solo album, A Week at the Warehouse, was released on October 13, 2017. His second book titled A Newfoundlander in Canada: Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home, was released on October 17.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, Doyle started remotely collaborating with several Newfoundland-based artists to create a special "isolation edition" EP entitled, Songs from Home, which was released in November 2020. Contributing artists included Fortunate Ones, Rachel Cousins, The Ennis Sisters, and The Once. Per Doyle, Songs From Home is all about making and keeping connections at a time when it was so difficult to be connected.
On June 14, 2022, he began starring in a musical comedy called Tell Tale Harbour at the 2022 Charlottetown Festival.<ref name=tth-news>Template:Cite web</ref> The story is based on the screenplay La grande séduction by Ken Scott that was made into the 2003 award winning<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> film Seducing Doctor Lewis. Doyle was co-writer of the production as well as co-writer of music and lyrics with Bob Foster.<ref name=tth-credits>Template:Cite web</ref> Also credited as one of the authors for a book of the musical with award-winning writer Edward Riche.<ref name=tth-news />
Doyle, with Keith Power, writes the music for the Canadian comedy series Son of a Critch, for which they have received Canadian Screen Awards nominations for Best Original Music, Comedy in 2023 and 2024.
Discography
Albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> |
US Heat <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> |
US Folk <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | |||
| Boy on Bridge |
|
11 | 37 | 20 | |
| So Let's Go<ref name="alandoyle.ca"/> |
|
13 | — | — | |
| A Week at the Warehouse |
|
26 | — | — | |
| Welcome Home |
|
— | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
Extended plays
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAN <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |||
| Rough Side Out |
|
2 |
|
| Back to the Harbour |
|
— | — |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAN Country <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |||
| 2012 | "I've Seen a Little" | — | Boy on Bridge |
| "Testify" | — | ||
| 2014 | "So Let's Go"<ref name="youtube.com"/> | — | So Let's Go<ref name="alandoyle.ca"/> |
| 2015 | "The Night Loves Us" | — | |
| 2017 | "Summer Summer Night" | — | A Week at the Warehouse |
| "Bully Boys" | — | ||
| 2019 | "We Don't Wanna Go Home" Template:Small |
43 | Rough Side Out |
| 2020 | "What the Whisky Won't Do" Template:Small |
— | |
| 2023 | "Welcome Home" | — | Welcome Home |
| 2025 | "Hey Moon (A Campfire Song)" | — | Songs from the Gang |
Guest singles
| Year | Single | Artist | Peak positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN Country <ref name="Canada Country">Template:Cite magazine</ref> | ||||
| 2017 | "Soggy Bottom Summer" | Dean Brody | 18 | Beautiful Freakshow |
| 2020 | "A Tennessee Whisky and a Newfoundland Song" | Various | — | Songs From Home |
| "It's OK" (isolation edition) | Various | — |
Music videos
| Year | Video | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | "I've Seen a Little"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Margaret Malandruccolo |
| "Testify" | ||
| 2013 | "My Day" | Shehab Illyas |
| 2015 | "So Let's Go" | Margaret Malandruccolo |
| "The Night Loves Us" | Shehab Illyas | |
| "1,2,3,4" (with Ed Robertson)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Sean Smith/Joel Stewart | |
| 2017 | "Summer Summer Night" | |
| 2018 | "Beautiful To Me" | Steph Young |
| 2020 | "It's OK" (Songs from Home) (with Fortunate Ones, Rachel Cousins, The Ennis Sisters, and The Once)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Alan Doyle |
| 2021 | "Back Home on the Island"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Cody Westman |
Honours
- Canadian Version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Member of the Order of CanadaTemplate:Broken anchor (CM) on May 10, 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Member of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador on October 4, 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Template:IMDb name
- Photo portrait Alan Thomas Doyle on greatbigsea.com retrieved November 23, 2011
- Official Biography
- Official site for the album My Hand, My Heart
- INTERVIEW: Robin Hood's Merry Men | Rip It Up Magazine
- Template:Discogs artist
Template:Great Big Sea Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- 1969 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Canadian male singers
- 21st-century Canadian male singers
- 21st-century Canadian singers
- Canadian folk rock musicians
- Canadian folk singers
- Canadian male guitarists
- Canadian male singers
- Canadian rock guitarists
- Canadian rock singers
- Canadian male songwriters
- Great Big Sea members
- Male actors from Newfoundland and Labrador
- Members of the Order of Canada
- Singers from Newfoundland and Labrador
- People from Newfoundland (island)