ARTS EAST

2020 was supposed to be a busy year for Alan Doyle, with plans for both a book tour and a 5-leg international concert tour. Like all of us, COVID-19 forced him to reschedule his agenda. However, it did not stop him from working his arse off to bring people together with song and story. Recently we caught up with the singer/songwriter/author from his home studio in St. John’s, Newfoundland. How has 2020 been for you? When last we spoke, you were getting ready to go on tour. It was one of the most unique years of my life. We played a gig on March 8th in Vancouver, in the first of what was to be five legs of the Rough Side Out tour. We flew home the next day for 10 days off, with a plan to reconvene in Mississauga. Of course, none of that happened. I went from March 9th until just a couple of weeks ago without playing a gig - the longest span that I have gone since I was 11 years old. So, I turned my attention to things that we could do, including a bunch of charity work online for th...

For Nova Scotia’s Brad Reid, music has always been a way to connect with others. “It is an outlet for expression and for well-being. I also believe that this is not something that I am choosing to do - it is, rather, simply acknowledging my true self. It actually would have been a decision not to be a musician or an artist.” Reid first picked up music at the age of 11, starting with the saxophone in his school band. Other instruments soon followed, including the guitar, the piano, and - at age 14 - the fiddle. “I can tell you exactly when I decided that I had to learn the fiddle,” he recalls. “I was attending the Cape Breton Festival of Scottish Fiddling at the Gaelic College with my grandfather, who was a fiddler. Up until then, it was always just him playing at our family gatherings. All of a sudden, however, I saw people my own age with the instrument.” Reid’s father hails from St. John’s, the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador, while his mother’s family...