At home on the road

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This article was published 05/03/2024 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alan Doyle knows what Portage and Main can be like when people gather there.

The former frontman of Celtic pop act Great Big Sea remembers when a sea of people flocked to Winnipeg’s famous intersection on July 14, 2000 to see the band at a free concert put on by the city to bolster downtown spirit.

“There were talks of 10,000 or 20,000 people coming, which sounded insane to me, and then by eight or nine o’clock, there were 60 or 70,000 people, all jumping and singing and having a time,” says Doyle, who will be a few blocks away from Portage and Main tonight when he performs at the Burton Cummings Theatre.

“It was one of the most incredible experiences because we hadn’t played for anywhere near that many people in Winnipeg — or anywhere else for that matter. I remember it going extremely well.”

Portage and Main is back in the news — is it ever out of the news? — after Mayor Scott Gillingham on Friday called for reopening the intersection to pedestrians for the first time since 1979 after a report indicated it would cost $73 million to repair the corner’s underground concourse.

While the crowd at the Burt won’t be as huge as the one on that Friday night in July almost a quarter-century ago, Doyle, 54, remains a big draw in Winnipeg.

He’s performed at almost every venue in the city over the years, from smaller places such as the West End Cultural Centre to the downtown arena now known as Canada Life Centre.

According to Ticketmaster’s website, only a handful of tickets remained Monday for tonight’s show, where Doyle and his band will perform songs from his new album, Welcome Home, as well as past favourites from his solo career and his time with Great Big Sea, which disbanded in 2013.

The lyrics to his new album’s title track conjure up images of returning after a long voyage, but they also work in reverse. Like so many performing artists, Doyle is eager to resume a busy touring schedule after being held up by the COVID-19 threat.

“That phrase (Welcome Home), that’s the dream for Newfoundlanders,” Doyle says on the phone from St. John’s, N.L. “We’re always known for going away for work and everybody has this longing for coming home. It lives in the air out here, and even during the pandemic, one of things I missed the most was coming home.

“Somewheres around the middle of the pandemic, I swore if I ever had the chance to do a record again and get out on the road again, I would get out and wouldn’t look back for another month.”

Welcome Home is a mixture of folk, rock and country styles, which Doyle says comes from his love of John Mellencamp’s 1987 album Lonesome Jubilee. That record’s use of accordions, fiddles and whistles alongside rock ’n’ roll created hits such as Paper in Fire and Check it Out.

“Those things live here as well, so it’s an odd mix of influences that I’ve become comfortable with. I remember thinking if I was going to do my own songs and decorate them, that’s how I would like to decorate them,” Doyle says.

A Celtic flavour remains at the heart of his music, lending Welcome Home a far greater air of Newfoundland authenticity than a thoughtless television commercial aired during the Super Bowl in February that some have called a slur against the province.

Vrbo, an online vacation rental service, used the song I’s the B’y, a folk song synonymous with Newfoundland and Labrador, while tourists entered their accommodation only to find it filled with livestock.

Doyle, who has sung I’s the B’y countless times and has written three bestselling books about his home province, was more disappointed than angry about the depiction.

“We take songs very seriously in this neck of the woods, especially ones that are tied to our history, culture and identity,” says the singer, who was born in Petty Harbour, N.L. “Those kind of associations live in our past and whenever the Newfie joke book gets pulled out, it still stings like it did in 1968.

“We’ve done a lot to dig our way out of those stereotypes, so whenever they rear their ugly head, we probably come out swinging.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall