BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Canadian singer Alan Doyle says his music is influenced heavily by the shores of Petty Harbour.
The island, with a population of fewer than 1,000 people in Newfoundland is in an area with strong ties to the Emerald Isle of Ireland.
"It's a small fishing town, along what they call the Irish Loop because it's pretty much exclusively settled by people of Irish ancestry," Doyle said during a recent phone call.
"That's where a lot of the music that I learned growing up, the sea shanties and accordions, whistles, fiddles and barons. It's from that old Celtic culture.
"It was a really lucky place to grow up because it had all these various influences musically."Canadian singer Alan Doyle
"It was a really lucky place to grow up because it had all these various influences musically. But it also was a very close-knit community where everybody's very supportive."
Now you, too will be able to "come sea" an intimate concert with one of Canada's most famous Celtic crooners.
Doyle, founder of Canadian folk and rock band Great Big Sea, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6, at Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks.
Tickets, at $25-$45 are available at the SteelStacks website or at the box office at the ArtsQuest Center, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.
In fact, the 55-year-old Doyle said he's the first generation Canadian in his family.
"There's parts of Newfoundland that are often called the most Irish places outside of Ireland," he said. "Not because they're big.
"Fisherman left Cork and Waterford in the south of Ireland and moved to southern shore of Newfoundland where I'm from. Those places remained sort of untouched and isolated for a couple of centuries.
"By the time the 18th century came around and the 19th and 20th century, the accents, dialects, of the music and culture that came into those Irish towns 150 or 200 years before was the same."
Sea life
For most of his youth, Doyle said, maritime life was all he knew.
It wasn't until he was in his 20s that his first fish, or rather kayak, out of water moment occurred.
"The fact that I grew up in a fishing town and I spent my whole adult life living in a larger fishing town in the city, I only have the internal compass of someone whose lived by a body of water," he said.
"I always get lost in Denver and in Calgary and those places because it's not by a big body of water. It freaks me out.
"The other thing I always love to tell about, because I grew up in a little fishing town and I spent my whole life watching small boats come and go, the first time I ever got to travel in Canada."
That was with Great Big Sea, a Canadian folk-rock Irish/Scottish band that from 1995-2012 had 11 gold or platinum albums.
The group's 1995 album "Up," sold four times platinum in Canada, and 1997's "Play" sold three times platinum.
"Play" also gave the group its highest-charting single, "Ordinary Day," which peaked at No. 3, and another Top 10 hit, "End of the World."
"With Great Big Sea, I was down in the harbor in Vancouver and saw a guy in a small sea kayak out on the ocean. I wondered what kind of fishing he could possibly be doing in a sea kayak.
"What was so confusing for me is that I was watching someone go onto the ocean, recreationally, for the first time in my life. I was 25.
"I never saw a single person drive around in a boat out on the ocean. It's unheard of where I'm from."
New music
Back on land at ArtsQuest's Musikfest Café, Doyle said he'll perform songs from 2024's "Welcome Home" — his fifth solo album since Great Big Sea broke up in 2013.
His solo debut disc, "Boy on Bridge," peaked at No. 11 on the Canadian albums chart, and crossed over to No. 20 on the U.S. Folk chart.
His 2015 album "So Let's Go" and 2017's "A Week at the Warehouse" both charted in the Canadian Top 30. "Welcome Home" was released in February.
"The evenings have all been great so far, and they're a collection of tunes from the new record of songs from my old band, Great Big Sea, and some Newfoundland traditional songs all designed to make for a great night out," Doyle said.
"It's the story of my lucky life. ... You know, you do a record every two years, and it gives you two years of touring and off you go, and I love it."Singer Alan Doyle
And perhaps some newer ones, as well.
"I'm sort of about two-thirds of the way through a new album that I'll finish over the summer, and it will come out early next year," he said.
"Ideally in 2026, we'll kickstart a whole new cycle that'll get us back out on the road again.
"It's the story of my lucky life. ... You know, you do a record every two years, and it gives you two years of touring and off you go, and I love it."
