Safe upon the shore

Alan Doyle loves his home province, and he wants you to love it too.

The former Great Big Sea frontman and pride of Petty Harbour, N.L., has long woven stories of Newfoundland and Labrador into his music — and, since 2014, into his autobiographical works of non-fiction.

His latest and fourth book, The Smiling Land: All Around the Circle in My Newfoundland and Labrador, is no exception, as Doyle explores the Rock, revisiting old haunts and new frontiers, bringing into focus just how much he knows, didn’t know or thought he knew about the sprawling Maritime province.

Doyle launches The Smiling Land at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location tomorrow at 2 p.m., where he’ll be joined in conversation by Virgin Radio host Ace Burpee. (You’ll have to excuse him if he’s not at his best, to paraphrase Spirit of the West, as he’ll be coming off a headlining spot at tonight’s Grey Cup festivities at the convention centre.)

After Winnipeg’s launch, Doyle hits the road on a cross-country book tour; after a short break, he and his band will embark on a North American tour in 2026.

The book events come after a quick week at home following a Toronto run of the musical Tell Tale Harbour, in which Doyle stars and which he co-wrote.

“It’s the greatest thrill of my life to have a couple of things going on at the same time — I love that,” Doyle says from his brief stop at home in St. John’s before the book tour kicks off.

“But this is a bit of a bit of an extra crunch because the musical did so well that we added some shows, which ran right up against when we’re doing the book tour.”

The Canadian cultural landscape — in music, TV, books and beyond — sees Newfoundlanders and Labradorians punching well above their weight when it comes to sharing stories of their province.

“We love telling stories out this way. For a small population, we’re disproportionately represented in the national broadcasting and arts scenes. We’re from a storytelling part of the world, and so it just lends itself to books and songs and plays and television shows,” says Doyle.

“And, of course, we’re performers. We love getting onstage, whether we’re singing or hosting or acting or doing comedy or whatever.”

Doyle set about writing The Smiling Land in 2023 after undertaking a series of treks back and forth across Newfoundland, with a brief foray into southern Labrador, over the course of three or four months.

He chronicles the province’s rich history, its diverse landscapes, its food and drink and, of course, the people and their music.

While Doyle took some of the road trips on his own, most of the forays across the province in his Honda Odyssey minivan included wife Joanne and teenage son Henry.

“We had no idea if it would be fun or not. Henry was 18 years old when we did most of this stuff, and my wife and I knew this might be the last chance we ever get him to go anywhere with us,” Doyle says, laughing.

“It was a cool learning experience for all three of us, and part of that learning was me wondering if I’d still be enthusiastic about talking about it all — and I am.”

And while Doyle knew the province was big, he didn’t comprehend just how large until they hit the road.

“The size of it even surprised me — that’s a little embarrassing to admit. I didn’t quite have an understanding of how big the place is, how sparsely populated it is and how impractical the road is to go around Newfoundland on roads. It was settled by boats for a reason,” he says, laughing.

Just how big is Canada’s most easterly province? Doyle reckons the trek the trio took from St. John’s to Gros Morne National Park on western Newfoundland, then north to Point Amour, Labrador, back to St. Anthony on the island before heading back to St. John’s added 4,000 kilometres to the Odyssey’s odometer — and that was just one of the trips taken in writing The Smiling Land.

An underlying theme of the book is how the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have had to adapt to uncertain circumstances, particularly after the 1992 moratorium on cod fishing, which devastated one of the province’s main industries.

“I was born in 1969 — I grew up in the in-shore fishery in the late 1970s, early ‘80s. Places like Petty Harbour were still very much like they were in 1969. When I became a young adult, the cod moratorium hit, and so many of Newfoundland and Labrador’s smaller towns like Petty Harbour had to redefine themselves. Part of the reason to do this book was to go around and find out what people decided to do, and if I could find examples of places in the province that have paved the way forward despite the cod moratorium,” Doyle says.

And throughout The Smiling Land, the resilience of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians shines through.

“Maybe one of the things that makes us special is that we don’t wake up in the morning and expect anything to be easy. We’re not put off when stuff is difficult or challenging because we assume it will be,” he says.

“And when it’s not, well, sure, that’s great, you know.”

With the recent World Series perhaps lingering in Doyle’s mind, he describes his hopes for The Smiling Land and his depiction of Newfoundland and Labrador with baseball metaphors.

“It’s far, so far, from everything, and that’s a good thing — it’s a special trip,” he says.

“The home run is that people read this book and like it — that’s great. If people read it and want to come visit Newfoundland and Labrador, that’s the grand slam.”

books@freepress.mb.ca

@bensigurdson