AlanDoyle@alanthomasdoyle 1/2 Still reeling from the amazing weekend in TO and St. John's. Sold Out show at Danforth with @JimCuddy @thestepcrew and Gordon Pinsent. 9 February, 2015.
This week Alan Doyle and The Beautiful, Beautiful Band began the second leg of the 'Come Out With Me' Tour in Canada. There have been sold out shows in Canada in Peterborourgh, Kitchener, Kingston, Montreal and Toronto. Congratulations to Alan and the band. It is always great to hear that concerts are sold out and people love the music.
As I have said on many occasions my blogger statistics show me posts written long ago about events often forgotten. This time a reader had located a blog I had written about a sold out concert Alan Doyle and his band did at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto at the beginning of the 'So Let's Go' Tour in February, 2015. So I thought I would revisit this concert.
In the post from 2015 titled 'Alan Doyle from Petty Harbour at the Danforth Music Hall' on the 23 February, I included links to some awesome black and white photographs from an online music magazine called 'A Music Blog, Yea?'. I have included three screen shots of photographs from the selection including Alan Doyle and the band, performing with Cara Butler from The Step Crew and a solo Alan Doyle alone stage with Stickman Tak. I have circulated the post on my Google + page for those interested. I have also included a copy of a review from the Toronto Sun copied below. As always no copyright infringement intended.
Talented Canadian dancer Cara Butler recorded with Alan Doyle for the song 'Can't Dance Without You' on the 'So Let's Go' album. This was followed up with a performance at the Danforth Music Hall. The Step Crew circulated a video of Cara Butler performing with Alan and the band for the song 'Can't Dance Without You' recorded from backstage. I have circulated a copy of this video on my Google + page for those interested fans.
One of my favourite bootleggers Larry Steves recorded four videos from the concert. I like his bootlegging because he only records songs he likes. One of those was Alan Doyle singing the song 'Northern Plains' with Blue Rodeo lead singer and Canadian music legend Jim Cuddy. Larry also recorded a song that I haven't heard in a while including 'The Night Loves Us', an awesome interpretation of 'Wave Over Wave' and 'Shine On' with Cory Tetford and Kendel Carson. These videos have also been circulated on my Google + page for interested fans.
For fans of Alan Doyle and The Beautiful, Beautiful Band they will never know what to expect at any concert.
Concert Photos: Alan Doyle @ The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto. 8 February, 2015 at A Music Blog Yea? http://amusicblogyea.com/2015/02/08/concert-photos-alan-doyle-the-danforth-music-hall-toronto
'Solo Alan Doyle concert has a lot to offer' by Jane Stevenson in the Toronto Sun on 7 February, 2015.
In his mind, the sometime co-lead singer of Canadian folk rockers Great Big Sea, is still “Alan Doyle from Petty Harbour” despite a successful 20 year GBS career and now rising solo stardom.
And always will be I think.
So when the 45-year-old Doyle was in front of a sold-out crowd at the Danforth Music Hall on Friday night, in support of his just released second solo album, So Let’s Go, you could tell there were times when his mind was being blown.
Like when Blue Rodeo co-lead singer Jim Cuddy walked on stage to sing and harmonize sweetly with him on Northern Plains from Doyle’s first solo album, 2012’s Boy on Bridge.
“I don’t know what you were doing in high school, but I was in Petty Harbour wishing I could sing on a record with Jim Cuddy,” he said afterwards genuinely in awe of the moment.
Or when actor Gordon Pinsent walked down the aisle to give him a friendly wave.
You’d certainly be hard pressed to find a Canadian musician with a sweeter disposition.
He never seems to take any of his success for granted and is very likeable as a result.
To wit, Doyle wisely bookended his show by singing alone a capella, beginning with Dream of Home and ending with Where I Belong, showing off his biggest strength – his big, open-hearted presence.
Then he was joined by a five piece band – with special mention to MVP and west coaster Kendel Carson on fiddle, guitar and backing vocals “she all makes us stand up a little straighter,” said Doyle by way of band intros – and occasionally a dancer of two, starting with (appropriately), I Can’t Dance Without You.
Doyle also has loads of passion that was on full display when he tackled I’m A Sailor with just him and keyboardist Todd Lumley kicking off the encore.
And while it was the more animated songs of both the GBS and solo variety like When I’m Up, Dance Dance, I’ve Seen A Little, Sins of A Saturday Night, Old Black Rum, Run Runaway, Testify and Ordinary Day, that got the crowd up on their feet and singing and dancing for most of the evening – divided into two sets separated by a half-hour intermission – Doyle could handle a ballad too like When The Nightingales Sing or Laying Down To Perish.
He also covered John Mellencamp’s Paper In Fire and knew how to deliver a line, like recalling how he and actor Russell Crowe wrote Hit The Ground for a scene in a film about a shotgun wedding on the Australian actor’s farm; “We MAY have been drinking.”
But he let the audience know by the end that “on a night like this, in a place like this, with people like you,” meant a lot to him.
In his mind, the sometime co-lead singer of Canadian folk rockers Great Big Sea, is still “Alan Doyle from Petty Harbour” despite a successful 20 year GBS career and now rising solo stardom.
And always will be I think.
So when the 45-year-old Doyle was in front of a sold-out crowd at the Danforth Music Hall on Friday night, in support of his just released second solo album, So Let’s Go, you could tell there were times when his mind was being blown.
Like when Blue Rodeo co-lead singer Jim Cuddy walked on stage to sing and harmonize sweetly with him on Northern Plains from Doyle’s first solo album, 2012’s Boy on Bridge.
“I don’t know what you were doing in high school, but I was in Petty Harbour wishing I could sing on a record with Jim Cuddy,” he said afterwards genuinely in awe of the moment.
Or when actor Gordon Pinsent walked down the aisle to give him a friendly wave.
You’d certainly be hard pressed to find a Canadian musician with a sweeter disposition.
He never seems to take any of his success for granted and is very likeable as a result.
To wit, Doyle wisely bookended his show by singing alone a capella, beginning with Dream of Home and ending with Where I Belong, showing off his biggest strength – his big, open-hearted presence.
Then he was joined by a five piece band – with special mention to MVP and west coaster Kendel Carson on fiddle, guitar and backing vocals “she all makes us stand up a little straighter,” said Doyle by way of band intros – and occasionally a dancer of two, starting with (appropriately), I Can’t Dance Without You.
Doyle also has loads of passion that was on full display when he tackled I’m A Sailor with just him and keyboardist Todd Lumley kicking off the encore.
And while it was the more animated songs of both the GBS and solo variety like When I’m Up, Dance Dance, I’ve Seen A Little, Sins of A Saturday Night, Old Black Rum, Run Runaway, Testify and Ordinary Day, that got the crowd up on their feet and singing and dancing for most of the evening – divided into two sets separated by a half-hour intermission – Doyle could handle a ballad too like When The Nightingales Sing or Laying Down To Perish.
He also covered John Mellencamp’s Paper In Fire and knew how to deliver a line, like recalling how he and actor Russell Crowe wrote Hit The Ground for a scene in a film about a shotgun wedding on the Australian actor’s farm; “We MAY have been drinking.”
But he let the audience know by the end that “on a night like this, in a place like this, with people like you,” meant a lot to him.
