• A Newfoundlander in Canada

  • Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home
  • By: Alan Doyle
  • Narrated by: Alan Doyle
  • Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (108 ratings)

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A Newfoundlander in Canada  By  cover art

A Newfoundlander in Canada

By: Alan Doyle
Narrated by: Alan Doyle
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Publisher's summary

Following the fantastic success of his best-selling memoir, Where I Belong, Great Big Sea front man Alan Doyle returns with a hilarious, heartwarming account of leaving Newfoundland and discovering Canada for the first time.

Armed with the same personable, candid style found in his first book, Alan Doyle turns his perspective outward from Petty Harbour toward mainland Canada, reflecting on what it was like to venture away from the comforts of home and the familiarity of the island.

Often in a van, sometimes in a bus, occasionally in a car with broken wipers "using Bob's belt and a rope found by Paddy's Pond" to pull them back and forth, Alan and his bandmates charted new territory, and he constantly measured what he saw of the vast country against what his forefathers once called the Daemon Canada. In a period punctuated by triumphant leaps forward for the band, deflating steps backward, and everything in between - opening for Barney the Dinosaur at an outdoor music festival, being propositioned at a gas station mail-order bride service in Alberta, drinking moonshine with an elderly churchgoer on a Sunday morning in PEI - Alan's few established notions about Canada were often debunked, and his own identity as a Newfoundlander was constantly challenged. Touring the country, he also discovered how others view Newfoundlanders and how skewed these images can sometimes be. Asked to play in front of the queen at a massive Canada Day festival on Parliament Hill, the concert organizers assured Alan and his bandmates that the best way to showcase Newfoundland culture was for them to be towed onto stage in a dory and introduced not as Newfoundlanders but as "Newfies". The boys were not amused.

Heartfelt, funny, and always insightful, these stories tap in to the complexities of community and Canadianness, forming the portrait of a young man from a tiny fishing village trying to define and hold on to his sense of home while navigating a vast and diverse and wonder-filled country.

©2017 Alan Doyle (P)2017 Penguin Random House Canada

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A Newfoundlander

Alan Doyle is always entertaining.He tells the stories of the early days of Great Big Sea in this new book.It's great!

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never better

wicked, touching, and simply honest. Alan makes you want to explore Canada. But at the same time know that home is always the best. thank you for sharing your story, Alan, please write more.

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Wonderful and entertaining!

Have bought and listened to Allen’s books,absolutely loved every entertaining minute of them.I’m hopeful there are more to come.

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A great listen

Almost makes me wish I was from the Rock!
The stories were funny and heartwarming and read by the author!

I’ve listened multiple times and I’m sure I’ll listen again!!

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Absolutely a must for Canadian pride

I am so glad we listened to this over reading it. You feel completely immersed in Alan’s life. He is a fabulous story teller.

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what a you at?

Loved hearing Alan's story in his own voice and actually laughed out loud in several places.

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A World Class Storyteller

Alan Doyle is that buddy you have who ALWAYS has the best story when you're out for a beer. This is a book full of them. Some outrageous, some hysterically funny, some heartwarming, some comic misunderstandings. Doyle celebrates the variety of people and cultures he meets and shares his love and respect for his Newfoundland heritage. All with a genuine awe and appreciation for the author's good fortune, an authentic humility that isn't afraid to poke fun at himself. I've thoroughly enjoyed all his books and it's a great bonus that he reads his own memoir as much fun to listen to him tell tales as it is to listen to him sing!

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A wicked blend of “cheeks and tongue” served up with tongue in cheek

Alan Doyle does a fine job of sharing the hard knock life of making it as a Canadian artist. This book could very well be the Canadiana love child of Jack Kerouac and Gordon Pinsent.

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A funny & poignant memoir of a Newfoundland legend

Alan Doyle was the leader singer of Great Big Sea for more than twenty years. In this book, he recounts the band's early days traveling across Canada on their first national tour. With a dry wit and folksy storytelling voice, Alan does well in putting listeners into the often hilarious situations that GBS found themselves in as they went from pub to pub trying to make a name for themselves. Highly recommended.

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Loved everything about this!

LOVED this memoir of a natural born story teller on the road with his band discovering his country for the first time. The stories were hilarious, honest, warm, insightful and make me want to meet every person and see every site he described along his way. And nothing beats hearing him read it himself!

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