Welcome return for singer-songwriter Alan Doyle.
Alan Doyle is a folk-rock singer-songwriter from Newfoundland in Canada. Doyle first found fame as part of Great Big Sea who were commercially successful in their home country. He produced his first solo album, ‘Boy On Bridge’ (2012) following their demise. In the years since, Doyle has released two further studio albums, the latest of which, ‘A Week At The Warehouse’ came out in 2017. A live album was released in 2022, but ‘Welcome Home’ represents his first record in six or seven years.
The album was recorded in Montreal with Marcus Paquin who has worked with a who’s who of Canadian acts (Arcade Fire, Stars, Sarah MacDougall, The Weather Station) over the years. Musical accompaniment comes from Doyle’s band The Beautiful Gypsies: guitarist Cory Tetford, bassist Shehab Illyas, drummer Kris MacFarlane, keyboardist Todd Lumley and fiddler Kendel Carson. Billy Sutton contributes bodhran and banjo on three songs.
The overall feel of the album is folk-rock with a significant traditional element in which Lumley’s accordion and Carson’s fiddle provide many of the highlights. As might be expected from a Newfoundlander, the sea features frequently in the lyrics. Doyle’s songs are mainly co-writes with a variety of contributors including Donovan Woods – with whom he also co-wrote on ‘A Week At The Warehouse’. Other co-writers include Josh Kelly, Oscar Isaac, Chris Trapper and, on the album’s final song, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor.
Opening track ‘Yours And Mine’ starts with a strummed acoustic and adds more guitars and synths as it emerges as a tight folk-pop song. The album really kicks in with the title track with its more heavily folkie rocker and nautical theme. Carson’s fiddle and Lumley’s accordion are prominent while Sutton’s bodhran drives the rhythm.
‘Dancing Like We Did Last Night’, with its slightly Pogues-ish feel, conjures up images of dancers in a village hall on a stormy night. The fifth track, ‘Hard Old Hands’, touches on how aging isn’t just about physical deterioration but also an accumulation of memories and experience.
The anthemic ‘Long Night’ sees Doyle describing the strengths and stresses of a long relationship. He returns to the theme in ‘How Did We Get From Saying I Love You’. This time the relationship drifts from close to distant. The song is a duet with Doyle and Carson whose voice adds to the poignancy: “How did we get from saying I love you to I’ll see you around someday”.
Unrequited lost love is at the centre of ‘Best I Never Had’ which features an unusual rhythm in the verse and Carson’s fiddle weaving in and out of Doyle’s vocal. The album’s closing song ’All For A Song’ starts with Doyle relating what may well be an autobiographical tale of leaving Newfoundland to find fame and fortune playing music over Lumley’s piano. As the song progresses the other players join. Carson’s fiddle solo leads into the extended final verse in which Doyle stretches out before reverting to the single piano/ vocal to finish.
‘Welcome Home’ is an enjoyable, distinctively Canadian-Atlantic folk rock record. The band sound they’d be a lot of fun to see live, but the songs work well on record too.
