Canadian musician Alan Doyle is so grateful to finally return to the Dakota Jazz Club on Saturday night. He has a residency and will be returning today (Sunday, May 1st) at the Dakota, to finally end his U.S. tour. Why is Doyle so happy? It’s because the show was two or three years in the making. The original show, booked in 2019, was delayed, and rescheduled, and reshuffled, etc. Every time he had to move the date, he thought people were going to want their money back – but they never did! So, it was just a long time coming.
Opening the show was Chris Trapper, who previously co-wrote some of Doyle’s songs. Trapper had a lot of stories to tell. For example, “Minnesota” was inspired about the time he fell in love with a girl from Minnesota… and they broke up the next day… or how “Skin” was his most requested wedding song. It’s a song about “staying in love”, not just about falling in love.
He ended his set with The Push Stars’ song, “Keg on My Coffin”, which he described as a Irish death drinking song. If you haven’t figured it out, Trapper is in the band The Push Stars.
Alan Doyle started his set with a solo, a cappella version of “Dream of Home”, before his band, The Beautiful Band, joined Doyle on stage. The Beautiful Band featured Cory Tetford (former member of Crush) on guitars, Kendel Carson (from The Paperboys) on fiddle, Kris MacFarlane (from Great Big Sea) on drums, Shehab Illyas (from Mir) on bass, and Todd Lumley (from Waltons) on piano / accordion. As you can see, each band members are accomplished musicians, but combined together, they are just amazing.
Songs on Doyle’s were about half Great Big Sea, which is fair enough, as Doyle is their lead singer and songwriter.
In the middle of the set, Doyle asked Chris Trapper to come back on stage for them to play one of Trapper’s song. According to the banter on stage, Trapper never know which song Doyle wants to play. For this night, it was “A Day Without You”.
Once Doyle took out the Irish Bouzouki, it was just, what seemed like a long medley of Great Big Sea songs, but with R.E.M.’s cover of “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” thrown in for good measures.
If you like Great Big Sea (one of the longest touring band in the world), if you like Irish pub songs, if you like traditional folk songs… you’ll love a typical Alan Doyle show.