Few Canadian musicians are as synonymous with their home province as Alan Doyle is to his. The lead singer of the iconic Canadian folk rock band, Great Big Sea, Alan’s new book, The Smiling Land, takes readers on a freewheeling road trip through Newfoundland, its history, and its culture — from Fogo Island to the Southwest Coast, Labrador to Ferryland, and everywhere in between.

Alan recently joined Global News Morning to talk about his new book and how it captures and celebrates the beautiful and resilient spirit of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

The Story Behind “The Smiling Land”

Global: I love the title, The Smiling Land, where does that moniker come from and what is the irony that it carries?

Alan Doyle: The Smiling Land is one of the lyrics from what we call the Ode to Newfoundland, which is a poem that was written by a gent named Sir Cavendish Boyle. It become this sort of national anthem of the dominion of Newfoundland before we joined confederation. It’s always been sort of a nickname for the place, and I always found it an odd nickname for a place on a frozen rock in the middle of the north Atlantic.

One of the questions I try to answer in the book is why did Sir Cavendish Boyle call the place the smiling land, alongside sharing my journey around my own backyard and to learn about Newfoundland and Labrador. I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Newfoundland over the last 30 years or so, growing up in a little fishing town. Many of the communities like mine in Petty Harbour have had to reinvent themselves since the cod moratorium in the early 1990s, so I wanted to explore what’s on the go in rural Newfoundland now? What’s St. Johns like now? It was a great little trip and a fun exploration into the place I thought I knew.

The Scale of Home

Global: What are some of the surprising things you found as someone who was born and raised and lived their whole life in Newfoundland and Labrador?

AD: I’m embarrassed to tell you, even me, I was shocked at how big the place is. We left St. John’s here and we traveled all the way over to Gros Morne on the west coast, then we traveled all the way up the northern peninsula and got on a ferry and drove across southern Labrador to get to to a place called Battle Harbour. By the time we got back, we had almost done 4000km in that one trip, and that was just one of the trips we did for the whole book.

It’s a territory of a province, it’s enormous, without a lot of people in it. It’s wonderfully vast and delightfully far from everything, and the challenge of travelling it is one of the wondrous parts of it in my opinion.

A Resilient Land

Global: You write a lot about the resilience that’s at the core of Newfoundland. What is your takeaway from that and what surprised you on that front?

AD: It confirmed for me what I’ve been talking about for a long time, and what many have heard about Newfoundlanders, we have a great attitude during hard times. We’re famous for that, and I think it’s because we’ve had lots of them.

As I said it’s a challenging place to live, challenging place to spend the winter, challenging place to get from part to part, and all of that makes the people hearty. We learned at a very young age to appreciate good times and not to get too down during the hard times, because you’re going to get a lot of them.

A Newfoundland Must-See

Global: What’s one thing someone has to see when visiting Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time?

AD: Walk around Signal Hill right away. As soon as of you get off the plane in St. Johns, walk around the North Head trail in Signal Hill and you will understand completely and instantly where you are in the world.

Hire Alan Doyle to Speak at Your Event

A multifaceted singer, songwriter, actor, author, and storyteller extraordinaire, Alan Doyle shares essential life lessons in his keynote presentations drawing upon his illustrious career in music that has spanned over 30 years. He offers captivating anecdotes, along with a song or two, to distill his expertise on how we can be more open to the opportunities that surround us and cultivate a mindset for excellence in the process.

Contact us to learn more about Alan and how to book him to speak at your next event.