Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Alan Doyle: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1804

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

In this 1804th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Alan Doyle about Newfoundland, The Smiling Land, Great Big Sea, Russell Crowe and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, Blue Sky Agency, Kindling, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey, it's Alan Doyle, and I like to be on Toronto Mike right here in downtown Etobago. I'm loving it so much. Let's get it on. Yeah, I know, South Etobico. This is, you're in the big leagues now, man. I love it. I'm in Toronto where you want to get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you want to get the city love.

I'm in Toronto, like you want to get the city love. So my city love me back for my city love. Welcome to Episode 1,804 of Toronto Miked, proudly brought to you by Retrofestive.C.A., Canada's pop culture and Christmas store. Great Lakes Brewery, order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Blue Sky Agency. Ask Doug Mills about how Silen delivers the space to focus, collaborate, and recharge. Nick Aienes, he's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to.

Kindling, go to shopkindling.ca for free one-hour cannabis delivery. Recyclemyelectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his highly anticipated Toronto mic's debut. It's Alan Doyle. I love it already.

I love everything about it. Thanks for having me. Fantastic. And you were saying just before I press record, Alan, that you have a basement studio. I do. And I do a ton of work down there. It's like a little getaway.

And I love basement studios. I love the fact that people have carved out a part of their house to that's just for them you know what I mean like I love like in Newfoundland like in modern Newfoundland it's the shed right people like like the typical thing is for the for the dudes to have a shed you know where there's like workshoppy type business is that like a man cave like a man cavey type situation and then the ladies have responded with with what they call a she shed I know have you heard about that no tell me about a well that's like I guess whatever whatever ladies would do in a shed I suppose goes in there whatever crafts or or you know typical woodworking

whatever they would do I don't know I've never been in a shed i confess you've never been invited but shed parties have become a popular thing back home and and like so but the whole thing about like that people have a um work or um a past time or a hobby or whatever that would that sort of they've carved out a part of their house for them i always want to go there even if i have no idea what people are doing in there even if it's like you know if someone's got a pool place or a you know a like a billiards you mean like uh yeah anything or like like You know, whatever spot that they go to, that's sort of, that tells you all you need to know about them. And I think that's very cool.

You're in the right place, Alan. You're in the right place because, you know, I said, watch your head. Everybody watches their head. Scott's with us and he says, watch your head. He knows. He's had a few guests down here. And it's because we're in like a little, little hovel here. I don't know, like Hobbits or something.

The last remaining space in the house that I took it. I said, this is mine. I need a studio. I love it so much. And like for your listeners there, who probably, can't look around as good as I can right now. Yeah. Describe what you see. Well, there's all kinds of hockey stuff and Leaf stuff and Jay's stuff.

And there's a cool old Jerry Cheever's e-goly mask kicking around there. And there's, you know, a jacket with 102 the edge on it over there. And I think there's another swag jacket. Oh, yeah. That's like a Blue Jay World Series. And there's like, you know, there's a bunch of beer stuff, I guess, from the Great Lakes place that you mentioned. And yeah, I even see a cherry blossom. It's pretty good.

Well, that cherry blossom, the cherry blossom was gifted to me by Rob Pruse, who was the keyboardist for the spoons and honeymoon sweet. Oh, yes. I met Rob. Okay. Well, Rob heard I had never had one. Like, they discontinued these. I had never had a cherry blossom. Have you had a cherry blossom?

Oh, I have so many in my youth. Yeah. My young life, I had lots of cherry blossoms. And not my thing. I don't like that kind of. Well, I don't think I like it either, which is why I never had one. But I have this sitting here in the studio and I have to make a decision. I know Scott's a big fan.

Like, do I keep it just preserved for all eternity? or do I at some point actually eat? Oh, you got to neck that. You've got to get that in you sometime. Do it like the last day before Christmas or something. Thanksgiving or something, you know. Yeah, and live stream it, right? You got to film it.

You got to film anyone's first reaction to a cherry blossom. Wow. Because, you know, you, as you can see from the box, you know, it's got like a fairly hefty liquid center, right? Yeah. And you think you're ready for it. You ain't ready for it. You know what?

You could sell, you could sell me on this table. It's a surprise, man. And you should really do it. tight, close, you know, a close up on your face when you have your first good dart into the cherry blossom. I'm not surprised you could sell me on the cherry blossom because you have made another sale. Let me tell you what you've done. You've convinced me I absolutely must. This is absolutely like a bucket list.

I'm going to make it happen. I have to visit Newfoundland. Oh, that's the Grand Slam. I've been saying since the book came out, like the home run is if people like it. And the grand slam is if people read it and go, I think I've got to go to Newfoundland. And, you know, it's because it's really, you know, a love letter to my home province and that's given me so much, you know, and I'm not, you know, on the payroll or anything of provincial tourism, but I do like talking about it. And I do like, and I think I share something with a lot of people from Newfoundland and Labrador on that we love hosting, do you know what I mean? And we have that sort of provincial compulsion that if somebody comes to visit us, we got to make sure they have the greatest time of their lives.

or we're deeply offended, you know. It's kind of like I would say, it's like the opposite of Paris. Right, like, yeah, right, right. Yeah. So when I do finally make my, my, uh, my voyage to Newfoundland, am I welcome at your home?

Yeah, of course. You can come to my basement studio and we'll do, what do we, what don't we come and, I'm dead serious. You come and we'll do a Toronto mic'd St. John's edition. You had me at hello.

Like, that'll be laugh. Okay. I've got a couple, I got a couple of decent, you know, Mike's in a little setup, and I bet we could do it. A bit of be fun. Okay, well, listen, I just heard footsteps upstairs. That's my wife.

I'm going to picture on this whole idea. I want to do this. So I want to also tell the listenership. The book you referred to is called The Smiling Land all around the circle in my Newfoundland in Labrador by Alan Doyle. So, I mean, it's going to sound like a silly opening question, but why did you decide to write this, what I consider, like a beautiful long love letter to Newfoundland? Oh, it's really two things.

I've always been a fan of books that take a listener or sorry a reader, I suppose, in other case with them, with the author, and Bill Bryson is one of my favorite writers, and Bill has written some famous sort of travel books, I guess you would call them in that, you know, but they're not sort of just, you know, streams of facts about places that he's visiting. It's really, you walk into a pub with him and you see what he sees and you discuss what he what it reminds him of and perhaps some of the stuff you end up listening to or talking about have nothing to do with the pub that is standing in but it's just the the travel becomes this sort of catalyst for just an observational chat you know and I always like that kind of book

and I just wanted to give it a go and then I you know a not so dirty secret about me is my first real job was a tour guide at the Newfoundland Museum I was like 16 or 17 and I loved it And I love talking about Newfoundland and I loved hosting people and like trying to, you know, I'm not just about showing them, I was in the museum, but also, you know, trying to help them make sure they had a good time while they were visiting our rock in the middle of the ocean. So obviously you're a proud Newfoundlander. You were born there, but you actually live there now. I think that's a fun fact. Like, will you only ever live in Newfoundland and Labrador?

Well, I would say, I mean, I've been saying one of the questions I try to answer in this book is, why do I why do I still live there but more importantly and perhaps more to the point why has it never occurred to me to live anywhere else and it's certainly not

because it's easier for me I mean I get on 120 airplanes a year or it's certainly not because you know the economy is so awesome out on a frozen rock or the weather you know or whatever it's just like but I feel you know

and I've always felt like it's home right and and I heard a friend tell me one time. I said, you're not really lucky to get to live where you belong, but you're even lucky to know where that is, you know, and because so many of us don't even know if he gave us, said, move home. Well, where's that? You know, and, and, and so I feel, of Abbas felt, um, fortunate to have that sort of connection that none of us know how to describe very well, but we just no, it's sort of organic and visceral and important. There's a series I love called The Wire.

Did you ever see The Wire? Yeah, I watched a couple of seasons of it. It's one of the ones that on the list of the greatest television series of all time. In my opinion, it is the greatest television series. And I never liked it. Well, you know what? Yeah. Maybe it's not for everybody, right?

Isn't that weird? And I've tried to watch it because I want to watch all the good television shows. And I've tried to watch and go like, I don't like the show. I don't know why I don't like the show. Well, you know, there's some great shows I don't like either. But the wire, I've seen it a few times now. I absolutely love it. I'm going to try again.

I've got to watch it. Listen, let's watch it together in Newfoundland. There you go. When I come visit. We'll watch it in the studio there. We'll live stream that too. But there's a character named Bodie, and he lives in Baltimore. But not only has he only ever lived in Baltimore, he actually has never left Baltimore.

And there's a scene where he has to drive to New York. And he realizes the radio stations, the Baltimore radio stations are no longer coming in on the FM dial. And someone, I think someone's with him and explains, like, we're too far. far away from Baltimore now to get their stations. And Bodie says this line, he says, why would anyone ever want to leave Baltimore? Like, that's the question. And I feel when I read your book,

it's like I can hear your voice saying, why would anybody ever want to leave Newfoundland? Yeah, and I was surrounded in my young life in Petty Harbor with people who would ask that same question. And the, funny, I just finished this run of a musical that myself and a few buddies created. And I play this guy named Frank, and Frank is one of those people who would like, why, the musicals called Telltale Harbor.

And Frank would be terrified at the thought of leaving Telltel Harbor ever. And why would you even want to? Like, why would it even occur to you to even leave, you know? And Newfoundland is filled with people who've never been to St. John's, you know, in my dad's generation and my grandfather's generation for sure. Wow. And, you know, because I think living in some of the communities is so challenging and hard that you get so invested in it

that you feel like you're cheating on it or something if you like something that's in the neighboring community or whatever. And it's one of the things that makes traveling from one little community to another in Newfoundland, Labrador are very interesting because they're filled with people who look

like around them and only around them for great stuff, you know, and so it makes for a very interesting run in. When I was reading your book, I laughed out loud at this one part you're writing about. It's 1987 and you tell your father, you're moving to St. John's.

So what was your father's reaction when you told them, you're moving to St. John? Yeah, he said, I thought you already did. Well, because I lived in Faddy Harbor, of course, right? And I was born in 1969. And when I turned, my birthday's in May and I turned, I turned 16 in the summer of 1985.

And I got a job in 17. in St. John's. I got a job as a tour guide at the New Fly Museum, but we didn't have a car. You know, so those 20 kilometers or whatever were too far to walk, so I hitchhiked every day. I hitchhiked to St. Johns, and I did my job as a 16-year-old, and then I did it. I kept that job all through 17 years old, and then I got a, like, a temporary job in the winter there, and I worked there. And by the time I started going to university in September of 1987, you know, I said, I think I'm going to move the town and get, like, one of the guys I knew at the museum had to spare an extra room in a house he was renting. Right.

And he would rent it to me for, like, I don't know, $150 a month or whatever I would have paid at the time. And so I said to dad and mom, I think they're going to move out there. And they were very confused looking because they were like, well, where have you been for the last two and a half years? I got that. You certainly haven't been here. That you had already left. That's funny. By the way, shout out to FOTM, Heather Bambrick.

FOTM, Allen, means friend of Toronto, Mike. You're now in FOTN. I know Heather very well. Well, she brought me screech when she came over. So is this a real deal? Like, would a true Newfoundlander like you, like sort of scoff at this whole tourist idea of screech? Well, a few things about it.

The screech in is a tourist hazing without question. And it's a pretty good one, if you ask me. Yeah. I think it's as good a tourist hazing as you have around. The history of the rum itself, right? I always get a kick out of when people say, so it's Newfoundland rum. And I go like, just think about what you just said.

What is rum made of? It's from Jamaica, right? Yeah. Like, how could we possibly make rum in Newfoundland? But one of the earliest trade routes that was ever set up by the British government in the new world was between Newfoundland and the West Indies.

Because they, you know, they came to Newfoundland and the lake and they caught and they salted it and they brought all the good stuff. grades one, two, and three, back to the UK. And all the worst stuff they sent to Jamaica and other parts of the West Indies. And, of course, they traded it for sugar cane, rum, molasses, right? And so that's how Newfoundland, like a lot of British sailor places, became rummy towns. And so Screech is one of the ones that the Newfoundland government kind of labeled

and it would come in bulk and they would basically label and bottle their own rum and it called it Newfoundland Rum and Newfoundland Screech and it's and here's the one thing I would say about it because I am a rum drinker as well Newfoundland Screece is very good

it is a touristy thing but it's also a very good product it is a I would drink it all day long no problem okay listen well when I'm at your place in St. John's we're gonna enjoy some screech for sure by the way I want to send you home of alcoholic beverage that is

brewed right here in southern Atobico okay so it's like an exchange Great Lakes beer sent over some fresh craft beer for you to take out look at this we have a mild Monty or Monty mild we got something burst

yeah that's an IPA an IPA we have oh yeah mild you got the the logger the famous Great Lakes Lager I appreciate it thanks shout out to Great Lakes brewing and real quick before I get to a question

from Kevin and Alberta. Everyone listening is invited. Scott, you're invited. I hope you're taking notes over here. I don't know if Alan's available. He, of course, is invited, but on Saturday. This Saturday coming up, it's TMLX21 at Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. So everyone is invited.

Second floor, Palma's Kitchen, Mississauga, this coming Saturday, November 29, noon to 3 p.m. There's a live recording, but you get to eat for free. Thank you to Palma Pasta. You get to drink for free. Thank you to Great Lakes Brewery. Retrofestive.ca is given a gift to the first. 75 people who show up so you're getting a festive gift you're into this right alan well i mean when you were reading out the list of uh you know of partners and sponsors before we started talking

i was just i thought it was fabulous it was like an old tonight show like intro or something where and and so what about the funeral home are they involved in this thing or well they said they absolutely they sent oh brad jones from ridley funeral home's going to try to be there and he brought he sent over a measuring tape for you allan that's courtesy of ridley funeral home you're bringing that back rock with you. It takes a village, my friend. You know, it takes a village. Just to be clear, I want to make sure I'm not going to show it to the camera.

The funeral home swag is a measuring tape? Yes, sir. That is absolutely. Insert joke here. That's fantastic. Well, of course it is. Oh, look at that. Well, yeah, one more shout out for, uh, sorry, what's it called?

Ridley funeral home. 14th in Lake Shore. Good spot. people are dying to get in there people are dying to get in there that's the tagline people are dying to get in here I gotta thank

Kevin and Alberta who said I work with a buddy of Allen's tell him Darren Dernford says hello yeah yeah Dernford's a guaranteed are from the south coast

in in France way that's where I met all the Dernford's down that way and guaranteed if it's the Darren I think it is yeah he's quite a good musician too all right Speaking of music here, we're going to bounce around.

I'm not quite finished with New Finland yet, but apparently you're in a big fucking band we've got to talk about Alan. So I want to just shout out something coming up. Okay, not a sponsor, not a pain sponsor, or anything like that. But this song will be a nice intro. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, I know what this is. Hey, moon. Have no fear. If you're getting lonely, sure we got room down here. I know you're trying to catch a little sunshine,

but come on down if you change your mind. And hey, moo, are you full yet? Can you light up my silhouette? in a cruel world on a cruel night could you make everything all right because we're right where we belong come on love sing me a campfire song when the clowns rolling and the stars are gone

Put your arms around me And sing a gift of a song Dave Hodge says hello Oh sweet Dave Thank you Dave He'll be here Wednesday in this basement He's the best He'll be watching his head

And he's going to share with everyone His 100 favorite songs of 2025 Oh that's sweet 100 favorite songs He can do it He's such a music guy It's fabulous I've seen the list

And you make the list with this cover of a Joel Plaskett song for Moon. Yeah, this is a wonderful project that was put together for, I believe, for Joel's 50th birthday party, and his manager, Sherry, secretly got a bunch of bands and friends of Joel to record his songs,

and then she gave it to him on his birthday. Wow. He didn't know about it. And so it's a wonderful project. Good on you for doing that. Yeah, and it was fabulous covers of Joel's songs. And this one that we're listening to, called campfire song.

I thought it would be really cool to record, to record it a lot. This is live around a campfire in Hubbard's Nova Scotia. Like those, that crackle I hear. That's the real, that's the fire. Yeah. I thought it was added in post.

No, no, we did it. And we filmed it as we did it. You can watch it on, you know, YouTube or what have you. The, um, we sat around a fire with a bunch of microphones up and open and you can hear seagulls in it and boats coming and go and then it was in Hubbard's Nova Scotia and a lovely summer night. a couple summers ago.

So we're going to be learning about this on Wednesday when Dave Hodge comes over and very cool. But it's interesting that we picked that campfire song, Hey Moon, because I was enjoying your thoughts on camping in your book. So in The Smiling Land, it sounds like you love everything about camping except sleeping outdoors. Yeah, I don't know. Well, there's a couple of things. My wife loves this romantic idea about sleeping in a camper and or in a tent or whatever. And, of course, you know, I never did a lot of that when I was a kid

Because when the summer came, if you were a kid in Petty Harbour, that's when you went to work, right? You went to work on the wharf cutting out cartons and helping the fishermen and all that you didn't go on vacations in the summertime, it'd be crazy And that's how you got enough money to pay for hockey and guitars and stuff. And so that was never a part of my childhood camping. And then, well, of course, it's lucky for me in my adult life very quickly. I got in a band, you know, and we didn't. ended up on a tour bus, right? Which, you know, is one of the greatest things that can ever happen to you because you don't have to drive across, you know, the prairies in February and the back of a cold minivan.

But the reality of tour bus travel, of course, which I've lost to mentalized, is your camping, you know, your urban camping with 11 other sweaty dudes. And so when it came to vacation, it's like, let's get a camper and go, like, I don't want to, I don't want to do that at all. but my wife and son loved it so we did part of the trip um that made up the smiling land was us towing our little vintage bowler bowler trailer around newfoundland that's funny do you mind if we just change the channels yeah do it oh i know what this is thought we go back a little bit here yeah this is dermot o'reilly's basement in 1993

it's always a basement yeah what do you do with a drunken sailor what do with a drunk and Sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor Early in the morning Way, hey, and upstrizes Way, hey, Upstrizes, way, hey, upstrizes, Way, hey, upsurize her, lie in the morning. I think this is the first great big C song I ever heard. Yeah, old traditional song, of course,

that's, drunken sailor, it goes by many names, but it's one of the things that has a Newfoundland versions of it, and then Irish versions, English, and French, and everywhere that has a sailing culture has a version of this song. And it was just one of the ones that we did, we put together when we wanted to sort of demonstrate that there was probably a new way in a more sort of contemporary or modern way, if you will, to do some of those songs. And so Sean, who's singing there now, along with Bob and Darrell, who were the three other guys in Great Big Sea, they had a band called Rankin Street.

And they were the best pub band in the early 1990s in downtown St. John's. They asked me to join up with them and make a new band that did some original music as well. And so I could play, I was more from like a songwriter, rock and roll background than they were. So they knew how to play traditional music really, really well. And I had a clue how to do some rock and rolly stuff. So the combination of it was what we all found interesting. And this is a good track for an example,

because it's Wei He, and there's an electric guitar part in this song. And we're like sort of, I guess we're so heavily influenced by Spirit of the West and stuff. that whole thing of playing like minor, what I call Eye the Tiger shots. But I think I have an electric guitar soul in this song. I think it's here, yeah. Yeah, here we go. Look out.

Moose Grumpy is on the live stream. I'm going to see Moose on Saturday because she'll be at TMLX21. excited you're here, she's a big fan of yours, and she says, this song got her through many drives of her son when her son was an infant, because it instantly made him quiet and then made him laugh. Oh, amazing. Yeah, little kids have always liked it because it's so fast or something or whatever, and thanks for always having us in your drives. But, you know, the whole thing about this is an excellent example of what Greek Sea wanted to do so early was, like, combine these

our two main influences between us all, which was like traditional, you know, Newfoundland and Celtic music and like 80s rock and roll you know and and and they're all they're all mixed together in that one is it true the original name of Great Big C was NRA or Newfoundland Republican Army

it was that that was one of the names that the band that preceded Great Big C went on it they went by Rankin Street for the longest while but for a little while yeah that that gathering of Sean and Bob I'm not sure Daryl was in that one but the history of the yeah there was the Newfoundland Republican Army which of course Newfoundland

because we joined Canada you know in our parents lifetime. Then there was, there's this every now and again, there's this like, you know, rising university a little fun thing to do where we all imagine the Republic, the rise of the Newfoundland Republic. And no one's ever really

taking it seriously, to be honest. The, yeah, the Newfoundland Republican Army. And then the original name for a great big C for a few weeks was Best Kind. Oh, really? Yeah. And that was my idea. And Bob Hallett talked me out of it and I was really upset. I thought Best Kind was such a great thing. And then two seconds

after we changed it to the Great Big Sea, I was like, oh my God, thank God. Thank God, Bob was smarter than me. It's funny looking back. It's like scrambled eggs. It's like, no, yesterday is better for that song, Mr. McCartney. But yeah, better name for this band is Great Big C. Yeah, so true. It was like, it made such sense. All right, playing another Great Big C jam on our way to what I consider the huge breakthrough. But this is another one. I got to say, as a much music viewer, because I listen to, you see that Jackets from the Edge, because I listen to the Edge. didn't hear a lot of great big sea on the edge

no we never got on the radio a lot we got on much music a lot and this one with this yeah I would because we didn't fit any format right and it's still the story of my life like you know like the spirit of the west was played on edge not really not a lot no one wait there's a few

venison sinking probably yeah and one free minute for myself I can't remember how that song goes but there's another five three minutes for myself yeah the very very small amount of airplay Spirit of West would have got... To Celtic? What's going on here?

Yeah, to... Just, you know, it was in the early 1990s when everything that was on the radio was sort of angry, you know, sneaker gaze and grunge and like some happy kid in shorts doing a slade cover, you know? With tin whistles, it wasn't on, you know? Now, thankfully, Denise and all the gang at much music loved us because it was, I guess, it was visually

and different and they embraced it as opposed to thought it was terrifying. Also, we need, us Toronto idiots, need some Newfoundland in our diet, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, we got out of the radio in a few places a little bit, but we never had benefited it from any kind of big radio play, like ever. You know, but not playing in the ending. It was just a reality of the, you know, the history of my sort of career. No, but thank goodness for much music, because that, to me, that unites this country, right? We're all watching the same videos.

Two big blessings in my musical life from Grape C guys in that time was much music and what we used to call the COCA circuit, right? The Canadian organization of campus activities that you could audition for or submit to or showcase for, I guess, is the proper word. And you would, and then, you know, if they thought you could put on a good hour or two at the university student union building or a pub. Like Frosh weeks? Yeah, all that stuff. And then, you know, most of them had pubs that they booked at the time. They don't do any of that anymore, to my knowledge, which is a real shame. But, I mean, sure, you could pay your way across country playing all the universities.

And, of course, we would do anything. Like, we were, like, 500 bucks, you know, four subs, 24 beer, and two hotel rooms. And we'll do anything. And we did everything. Like, we'd go into the university, a Gwell for whatever. And we play Friday, Saturday, Thursday, Friday, or whatever, at the brass taps or whatever the bar was called. And then, but then we'd also go in and haul our stuff out of the pub and stand up, you know, next to the, you know, salad bar in the student union building and play a lunchtime.

And then, and we would just, we would do anything, like, you know, like literally. And so you end up, you know, kind of, well, you kind of end up dear to people's hearts. Like, you're not broadcast the way you would be if you're on the radio all the time. But the people that see you, you know, if they like you standing next to the salad bar at the University of Guelph on Friday afternoon in 1994, you're probably, they're going to stick with you. Oh man. You just said Guelph. It's too funny

because on Friday night I made the trek to Guelph to see my friend Hawksley Workman. Oh, with Todd. And Todd plays an Arab band now. So, yeah, Mr. Lonely. Yeah, Mr. Lonely.

Todd plays in our band all the time now. And Hawksley's an old friend and hero of mine and produced some of my music and produced the Great Big C record. Right. Wonderful.

Wonderful. Right. I knew you guys were. He was on this show very recently and I told him you were coming on and we talked about. So, well, actually, I'm going to say,

this chat for later, actually. I got a question about this song right here. I just enjoy sitting with Alan Doyle playing great big C songs and Alan Doyle's songs. This is, this song, probably our biggest tune. And the SOS you hear is an actual Morse code machine that I took out of the Newfoundland Museum. That's the fun facts we're looking for, man. And then we typed in three short ones and three long ones and three short ones so we could do SOS. So the whole ordinary day song is a response to an SOS.

OS emergency call and distress call and this was recorded in the old battery hotel which is on looks down over St. John's and was half abandoned and they let us have two or three of the old hotel rooms to record it.

It's impossible to listen to this song. My heart rate goes up. I feel good. Time to party. Yeah, thank God. I mean, I can't tell you what people have said. What a blessing that song is to me. And I'm like, it is to me too. Like, I can't tell you how many. Well, you wrote that. This.

is actually a, we talk about drunken sailor, that's a traditional song. Run, run away, that's Slade song, a band that only the Brits really know. I mean, Slade is not that known here, but if you know about, you know, British Christmas singles and all that, Slade's a big, big deal. But ordinary day, that's you guys.

Yeah, I mean, Sean wrote this, and it's really, it's really this song that was kind of written about the Newfoundlanders' resiliency and attitude and how he sort of tend to shine the most in the darkest times. And yeah, it was one of the, If you're in a lifelong life in a band, you hope once or twice or, if you're, you know, many times, if you're really lucky, that everything works.

You know, and this song was just like, one of the cool things about this song is that everybody in the band has something cool to do in this song. You know, like Bob's accordion riff here is fantastic. You know, the Bauron part that Sean plays is awesome and thunderous. And the rhythm guitar is very spirit of the Westy, very, very, you know, and there. Darrell's bass part sounds like Jackson 5 and Danny Greenspoon plays electric guitar on it and like it's just it was like

and then we did this cool video with the rugby and stuff that was like the perfect video for the perfect song you know and so like it just all came together and yeah it's but again this song almost never got on the radio

not even like I don't know what at the time like a mix 99.9 or something like that I don't think the song ever got on the radio closest thing we ever had doesn't fit these boxes we have for these state these genres like boom we had a song later called see of no cares

that got on the radio a little bit sort of just a I think I got the number 19 or something or whatever one time I want to shout out Andrew Ward who's on the live stream and he says another favorite concert he says first Christmas in St. John's and we saw great big see at the Delta

fall room downtown what a great venue yeah yeah we often play there's a few cool venues in downtown St. John's now, but the special thing was to rent the main ballroom at the hotel and put on your own concert. It was ambitious, you know, that was the bud stage of St. John's,

and we did it a few times. That song I just played Ordinary Day, so you guys wrote that song. Maybe just touch on this Stockwell Day, right? He was using that song for the Canadian Alliance during the 2000 Canadian federal election, and what did you guys do about that? Oh, it's happened.

the whole bunch over the years because that song is popular but it's also kind of clean you know and positive and uptempo and so politicians love to use songs like that for their walk-ons and often and he actually was trying to use it for I can't remember exactly what the objectionable thing was but it's like

some kind of ad or something or what have you and we just sort of very politely had to remind him that you had to get permission and pay for that stuff and when he asked our permission we said no okay that was back in 2000 okay one more great big See, and then I got to bring you back

to Newfoundland here. Not that you've ever left, of course, but I have a question. When I'm off, another cover. I'm the instrument of joy. Yeah. To keep the good times rolling, I'm the boy, I'm the boy.

I'm the boy. You know the world could be our oyster. So cheap. You just put your trust in me because we'll keep the good times rolling. Wait and see, wait and see. I'll bet you get 100 Canadians in a room, Alan, and we just say, whose song is this?

They think this is a great Big Sea original. Yeah, it's actually a cover, another cover from a... I mean, Bob Hallett and Sean, too, but mostly Bob is just really well-versed in British Celtic rock, like Slade, you know, for example, but also there's an amazing band called the Oyster Band, and they put out dozens of records and should have been the Pogues, just never got any traction.

And this is, I think this is from our, like the first, the record before, ordinary day. What's it called? Up, I guess, yeah. And then, uh, it's called up. Yeah. And the, but this is, this is an oyster band song. And we got to tour with the oyster band towards the end of their career. And they had, trust me, I remember Bob bringing in a record that they had called, I think it was called Trailer, which was sort of, I think if I could have it, remember correctly, it was sort of like a greatest hits of their first four or five records.

And every song on it. was this good. Like, we could have picked another one and it would have been just as, like, they were so prolific songwriters. And because we were sort of new songwriters when Great Big C started, like we hadn't done a lot of songwriting, these were great songs for us to kind of model after, if you will. Without this song, there's not a chance I would have ever wrote Ordinary Day. Like, so this was just one of those things that, um, one thing leads to another kind of thing.

You know, you may not have written this song, but you made this song famous. Yeah, and they love us for it over. Yeah, they do, and I don't mean that just in a financial kind of way, but also I think they're really grateful that. And we actually led, like, the Barry McNeil's and several other Lenny Canaan bands recorded a bunch of oyster band songs just because the world sort of started discovering them. And, like, even though they were older than us quite a bit.

But yeah, this is one of the, this just, I have to credit the other guys in the band because they knew about the oyster band and I didn't and they brought so much of this cool British Celtic rock music to to my, you know, awareness and... Amazing. Yeah. Very cool. Went to number six on the

six on the Canadian RPM singles charts. I'm very surprised to learn that. Yeah. Well, listen, I got good source on this one here. So peaked at number six, that makes it your best charting single. Oh, there you go, yeah.

In this country, yeah. Now, you mentioned the Pogs quickly. I'm just here to tell you since I'm selling you on the wire that you do hear a body of an American by the by the Pogs in the wire. Great song. So, yeah, as it working, you're going to go check it out?

I can lend you my, I have the DVD box set. Actually, I have the DVD box set. That's how compelled I was to watch it. It didn't stick. Well, now maybe a new frame of mind. Alan Doyle going to give it. We'll come around. We'll come around.

Another shot. Can you tell me a little bit about the, the bus accident that happened in 2006? Yeah, we were driving. We played the night before in Calgary, and we were driving to Vancouver to play that next day, which is like, I think in a bus is an eight or nine or ten-hour drive or something. Very common.

Every Canadian band does it many times. And then we, I guess we were somewhere around Surrey or somewhere, say 45 minutes outside of Vancouver, and we were coming up on a hill. And as we were cresting the hill, I guess the bus driver was, you know, pedal to the metal to drag a bus and trailer up the hill. And what he didn't know was a kilometer or so ahead, there had been a construction or something. So traffic was backed up, backed way up, eight lanes across, right up to the top of the hill.

Oh, that's when you come up, yeah. So when he crested the top of the hill, it was like a parking lot. Right. And so he had to swerve, thank God he did, because we would have crushed, like, several people in their cars. I know it. So, but he managed to swerve hard over into the median, I suppose you'd call it, like the, the ditch in between the two directions of traffic. And the bus flipped over.

Yeah. And it was, uh, if anyone has any romantic notions about how cool and rock and roll a bus accident is, it's not. Well, we've all heard the horror stories, you know, Metallica and et cetera. Oh my God. Yeah. It was, it was, I don't ever want to have another one. It was no fun.

And, uh, but we managed it. Nobody got hurt really badly, thank you. Well, that's good news. And we just got, we towed up our trailer and we got it into the gig and we played the gig that night. You're not the first member of Great Big Sea to appear on Toronto Mike. Oh, is that right? Yeah, Sean McCann's been here fabulous. Sean is the quote from him at the time.

I'm wondering if you'll just speak to this, but he wrote, I stopped drinking two and a half years ago. I've decided to leave the band. I've been in for 20 years. I'm 46 years old and I've decided to make changes. Can I ask you what, like, did you feel blindsided when Sean says I'm tapping out of Great Big C? Like, what was that like for you?

Oh, no. I mean, we, we all, I think we all knew that, that he was, you know, unhappy with it all and then, and it was no fun for everyone at that point in Great Big C, to be honest with you. Right. And I, you know, I was disappointed. And I think we all were that, you know, there was, was going to be really difficult to go on without them and stuff. So, you know, but somewhere in my heart of hearts, I also saw an opportunity to end it and move on to different things in my life that would be, that I would hope would be good, or at least I was willing to take a chance on it.

Right. So, yeah, it was certainly difficult, and, but kind of like end in a marriage or something, you know, and but, you know, Sean is doing real good now and Bob's doing real good now and everybody's very happy, so I'm grateful for it. Are you guys still friends? I mean, we don't talk us, Sean doesn't live in Newfoundland anymore. Like, we still, like, exchange emails all the time because we still own the company and we still do a bit of business here and there.

But, no, I mean, I'd be lying to if I said that, like, we don't hang out because we don't live in the same place or what. I see Bob and I see Darrell, you know, regularly, but I don't see Sean a lot because he lives in Ontario. Do you have any regrets whatsoever to how the wake, the breakup went down because Sean went on the record to say he was devastated by how great big C ended. Like, any regrets if you had a do-over?

Do you do it differently? Oh, tons. Like, tons of regrets, yeah. Yeah, you know, I think if I had my time back, I probably would have said to the guys, look, everyone's unhappy. Let's not make any rash decisions right now. Let's wait six months.

Just park everything for six months and see how we feel. And I think the outcome probably would have been different. So, but like I said, at the time I was, I think, just as devastated as Sean and Bob. and everybody and because we you know it was home base right for two decades of our lives and we were in our mid 40s you know so really our whole adult lives we'd just been on that ship right and so it was terrifying to imagine what life would be like without it but you know if you know in retrospect i'm i'm glad that opportunity came and i got to do all this stuff i've done since

great big sea but i'd be lying to you if i said i knew that any of you of that was going to happen, you know, in the days. Well, you've done so much. And I do want to shout out Blue Rodeo. I went to see them and got to see the Allen, the Allen Doyle band. Is that what you would, was it just Allen.

I usually call it Allen and the beautiful, beautiful band or whatever, depending, yeah, sure. Okay, but it was great, you know, you played a lot of the great big C songs and some of your stuff, and it was great to see you live. So you sound great.

Thank you for saying, yeah. Oh, I love the band. And this band has been together now. We're about to go on the road Right after Christmas, we have two dates here in Toronto at Massey Hall. And, you know, we do out in Kitchen, or in, and we're in Ottawa, on a few places in Ontario. And, you know, our set is usually like, you know, we probably do five or six of the Great Big Sea, big songs, and some of my own and some Newfoundland traditional stuff.

And the beautiful, beautiful band, well, this will be our 15th year, I think. I mean, and Great Big Sea was together 20, so I've almost had two bands. Oh, wow. 20 years. Yeah, it's, you know, I, I'd like to think, you know, between me and my team, we make a good camp, you know, to find yourself in. And so people, when they come, they usually stick around over a while. Did I hear Kendall Carson on stage of you, Kendall Carson?

Oh, yes, Kendall plays fiddle in our band. Yeah, yeah. So I first saw her, she played with, gosh, Mike, don't screw up your names. Devon Cuddy, or is it Desti? Devin. Devin. No, you're right to be confused because she plays with Devin, who's Jim's son sometimes.

But she played with a guy named Dustin Bentall, who's Barney Bental son. Okay, you know what? So these are all like children of Canadian rock gods. She's just through recently, again, opening for Blue Rodeo with our friend Adam Baldwin. And then, but Kendall's main gig, if I could be so bold,

has been with our band since 2012. This past summer, she also moonlighted with another small up-and-coming artist named Shonai. Twain. Kendall's Shania's fiddle player as well. Okay, I just think she's fantastic. Like, this is going to turn into the Kendall Carson tribute.

And rightly so. I mean, Candle is one of the only musicians that I've ever met in my life that you could put in any band in any era at any time. And that band becomes better because she's in it. And I mean that so sincerely, like any Celtic band, any, you can put Kendall in a Korean metal band. Right. And it would be better.

You can put her in a Baroque, you know, quartet, you know, in south of France, you know, in whenever the Baroque period was. And, uh, and she'd be good in that or, but, you know, I've been so lucky when, when I had the chance, you know, when Great Big C stopped playing, to put together the beautiful, beautiful band.

You know, one of my first calls was, was Chris McFarlane who played drums in Great Big C forever. And then Corey Tetford, who's from Newfoundland, plays guitar, sings just like one of the best voices in the country. And then we got Mr. Lonely, who you just saw a couple of nights ago. Just took a selfie with him backstage. They had an intermission for the show.

Yeah. And so Todd, you know, played keyboard. And then Kendall. I mean, and they've been with me and we've all been together since 2012. And we've done five or six records together and played, I don't know how many hundred concerts. But, you know, it's a great gang. And I think we all feel really lucky to have each other for this.

Well, you sound great. And I took a note on the date for the Massey Hall. It's March 14. So it's almost sold out. So we added a second. I think we're actually doing. That's fresh news. Okay.

Yeah. Breaking news here. Yeah, 14 and 15 maybe. I can't remember. But two nights anyway that weekend and right around the St. Patrick's weekend, we're doing the Friday night and the Sunday night at Massey Hall. So I know exactly what song when I, you know, when we booked this, I knew exactly what song I wanted to close with.

Before I press play on that. And I also want to ask you about the, a certain actor you might be buds with, okay? But I just want to thank a couple more partners here that helped to fuel this real talk here. So you've been great, man. I don't know why it took us so long to make this happen. How much time do you hang out in Toronto?

Well, not a lot up until this fall, but I spent a lot of time in Toronto this fall. Sure. Because, of course, we wrote the musical called Tell Tell Harbor, and I played one of the roles in it. And so I was here for six and a half or seven weeks straight. And so I actually had a little small apartment here for the first time ever, and I had right behind the theater down there on Richmond

Street or whatever. And I got to tell you, I loved it. Like, I absolutely loved having a little footprint in Toronto and walking around this city and discovering all the parts of it that you don't discover if you play in a band for a living. And even if you go, like, if you're an adventurous walker around her like I am, all by walking around in Toronto was, you know, downtown, you know, between Bud Stage and the beaches, or not even out to the beaches, for God's sake, with the Bud Stage and, you know, Trillium Park or something. Yeah, the Sugar Place, what they call it, Sugar Beach, you know, that's it. That's where Edge 102.

That was my, that's my Toronto, you know, and then, of course, having all that time here, I walked everywhere, like, and I loved, I just absolutely loved my time here. Well, I'll tell you, I had many a guest on. I would, you know, I always promote upcoming guests and stuff, and I'll just say, hey, Alan Doyle's coming by, and these people would say, I just saw him, because they loved this production. So many people who came over had just seen the production.

Yeah, well, I'm out doing this, talking about the Smilingland book and stuff now and, and, you know, the love letter that it is to Newfoundland and, and, you know, the, you know, how, you know, how lucky I felt to get the chance

to tour around it and talk about it in the book. And during the events we've been doing, it's been amazing how many people, especially in the Southern Ontario area here who've come up to me and said, I saw your play. Yeah.

And I was like, oh, wow. Like, and it's strangely, You know, in a lucky, lucky life, you know, it's just another one of those things that, you know, when Great Big C was stopped and playing and, you know, in that whole sort of terrifying time, I could never have seen any of that coming, right? And, and so these are all just blessings in my life that have come, you know, I guess what you could call it in the second half of my adult life. Well, when you, you know, faced with adversity, you got to kind of have that attitude that this is an opportunity, right? Yeah, I mean, I had lots of stuff that I wanted to try to do, but most of them were just, like, musical ideas for bands and stuff and all that. I just never, I had no idea I'd become an author for a living. Right.

Or, for example. This is your second book. It's my fourth. Fourth book is, yeah. Who can count? Okay, all these books. Yeah, and then, you know, when they ended up acting in movies and film and television. Okay, so let's do this.

Let me thank a couple of partners and then ask you about the actor and then touch on some, like rapid fire on some cool, cool shit you've been up to. And then I know exactly what's, I want to play to close this. And I'm looking over, we're okay here. Look at this. I'm going to try to stick the landing here. But I mentioned RetroFestive because they're giving everyone a gift at TMLX21 this

coming Saturday. But if you go to RetroFestive.ca, you can save 10% right now with the promo code, FOTM. I know who just used that promo code, Doug Mills from Blue Sky Agency, because he texted me, what's that promo code again? FOTM. But Blue Sky Agency, they have partnerships with office furniture brands like silent and Furniture Concept and Roolyard. And if you write him now, he's Doug at blue skyagency.ca.

Let him know you're an FOTM. If you're looking for dynamic and creative work environments, chat up, Doug. He's your guy. He's really good. We've already shouted out Ridley Funeral Home, but I want to shout out Nick Aienes, who has a podcast called Building Toronto Skyline, and he has another one called Building Success.

You should listen to both. Thank you, Fusion Corp, and the great Nick Ionis. And last but not least, If you, Alan, have any old cables, old devices, old electronics, maybe in that basement studio of yours in St. John's, don't throw it in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfills. Go to recycle my electronics.c. Put in your postal code and find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. Fantastic. You're taking notes over there.

I will say. I am. I am. You know, it's okay. I recorded this. You can listen back. You can catch this all later. What is your relationship with Russell Crow?

Oh, we've been friends since we met right here in Toronto in 2002 or three or something like that. He was there doing a wonderful movie called Cinderella Man, if you remember. So I remember the night my secondborn was born, the night my second born when my second born was born, I was driving home at 3 a.m. because I had to go take care of my first born. And I saw the Simpsons, a queen, like it was transformed into Madison Square Garden. And everybody looked like they were straight out of the 1930s. They were filming Cinderella, man. Yeah, that's when we met.

And he had heard of Great B.C., thanks to my good friend, Kevin Durand, a few years before him, became a fan of the band and my writing. And we met early in the summer at the NHL Hockey Awards. We were both giving out trophies. And so we met there. He ended up writing some songs over the course of that summer for a band that he had in Australia at the time, and then some for great big sea and 30 odd foot of grunts yeah and he had a band after that the ordinary fear of god yeah and i ended up producing a record for the ordinary fear of god

and played in the band for a couple of tours in australia and and then we wrote songs for tv and movies and for great big c records and my records and a whole bunch of things and we're just good friends and then in 2008 i guess uh he called me and asked if i knew if I knew how to play the lute and I said yeah I guess so and ended up reading for they wanted an irishy sound fellow who could play the lute to play allan adale in robin hood so I read for i went to l.A. and read for the part and got it and uh I spent four months the summer I guess of of 2009 I was in the UK for four or five months and that's a ridley scott joint yeah it was all famous people in me it was Ridley scott and Kate Blanchet

and Russell and Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac and so many so many famous people right now. Unbelievable and just because we're doing the quick hits here, you also did some collaboration with Mike Post who composer for many a television theme song that you know and love. Very quietly, one of the most successful musicians in history.

So most people will recognize Mike's name coming up at the end of every single Law and Order episode. So Mike wrote Don't-d-d-d-b-b-b-d-d-d-d-you- know that's Mike But he also wrote, you know, the Rockford Files And he also wrote Believe it or not I'm walking on air

And he also wrote The theme for the A-team And he wrote the... Yeah And he also wrote I love the 18 Boney out-dun-d-d-d-d-a-magnum-Bondi-Balty-a-Magnin-P-I He also did

I mean, he just did all kinds of television series and that kind of thing. But he also produced Dolly Parton Records and produced, you know, he was the music director for Sonny and Cher. Did he do anything with Steely Dan or am I misremembering? Possibly, possibly, possibly, right, okay.

But he's a really good friend and we've written songs together a few times and I've worked on some Law & Order episodes with him and geez. Yeah, great fun, amazing. Yeah, you performed a song called The Middle of Nowhere. Yeah, one of the episodes opens with a scene, a fisherman out on the ocean.

And Mike, instead of just like an instrumental theme, wanted to test a song. Having a song actually opened the show, an original song, so we wrote one. Okay, a couple more shows I'm going to hit you with. Murdoch Mysteries. Yeah, I had a recurring role on Murdoch Mysteries. A couple episodes played a historian, a guy who travels through time. Well, that show is going to last forever. So it's good to get in there.

And the other one I wanted to don't even, Republic of Doyle. Yeah, my friend Alan and Perry's show that started in St. John's right around the time when I was doing Robin Hood. And they, so I ended up playing a recurring character on that role called Wolf, on that TV show called Wolf Redmond. And when we find him, he's in the prison,

but it turns out he's an undercover cop. Okay, one more here. And then we're going to move on. Son of a critch. Yeah, I score Son of a Critch. Myself and my friend, Keith Power, do the music for it. Keith is a real television composer, and I have learned a lot from him. And I, we sort of divvy up the duties.

He does a lot, sort of mostly does most of the orchestral stuff. And I do most of the traditional in 1980s, rock and roll. Would you listen to a little Alan Doyle with me before we say goodbye? Oh, yeah. Oh, I think I know what this is. You know where this was recorded? Where? In Joel Plaskett Studio.

And that's Joel. I think that's Joel playing guitar. Pretty sure that's Joel playing guitar, because we did all this record live off the floor. That's Kendall playing fiddle, Joel playing guitar, and Corey Tetford playing piano. and I think I sing sometime, but it's a long intro, if I remember correctly.

You can talk it up, I love it. This song is called Into the Arms of Home. Myself and Corey Teckford wrote this song about the fields in France where all the Newfoundlanders are buried in Beaumont-Hamble. Yeah, and how I visited there, and this was kind of my impression of it. a meadow

like so many that you know where boys and girls played soldier in the sunny long ago I am not a hero

no more or less than you I'm just like all the others Who did what he had to do Sing me a song When the fields are in flower I'll never lie here alone Love will bring me across the water

into the arms of home into the arms of home this was recorded right in the middle of the pandemic the Atlantic bubble was happening I'm watching you listen and I'm wondering what's going through your mind right now I'm remembering the time because we had been stuck you know like every other person in the world at home

for a better part of a year and then, if you remember, the Atlantic bubble opened up when we could move freely around the Atlantic, Canadian provinces. And so me and Corey and Kendall went to Nova Scotia, played a couple of gigs

because we were allowed to, sort of socially distanced concerts and stuff. And then while we were there, we recorded this record, this trio record with Joel in his cool studio. And we had like three days to do it. So we did it all.

literally standing around just no click tracks no nothing like that just right around microphones so Corey who's an amazing guitar player plays piano and he's also really good at that and then I just I remember just sort of making it up as we went like well because Corey was going to play guitar but then Joel said well you should play piano and I'll play guitar and cool then we just sort of stood around the piano and did this you know like I'll sing me a song When the fields are in flower I'll never like here alone

Love will bring me across the water Into the arms of home Everyone sings in the outro I think Yeah. Kind of like a happy funeral kind of like a happy funeral march, you know? Bring him the soldier home kind of thing. home

home into the arms of home home into the arms of home into the arms of home Into the arms of home. Into the hearts of home. That's awesome.

That's a beautiful song, man. And I was visualizing this chat. You know, what kind of guy is Alan Doyle? I think I like this guy. Let's find out. And I knew I was going to close. close with that song. And I got to say,

you lived up to the billing, man. I loved this chat so much. Thank you for having me. The lovely to be here. I'm going to be in your basement studio at some point. I'm serious. We're going to make that happen. I want to do that.

That's a bucket list thing. Let's do it. By the way, in your book, again, everybody, you can pick up a copy of the Smiling Land all around the circle in my Newfoundland in Labrador by Alan Doyle, his fourth book. It's like a love letter to Newfoundland. It's also a nice biography.

It's really good. But I'll pick that up. that's okay oh yeah who knows what that is but i did want to just say there's a a fun part of that book i enjoyed was your visit to saint pierre yeah one of the wackiest places you'll ever want to go and you can go there from newfoundland but you need a passport you do so belongs to france it does so and because you can swear on toronto mike the what were your what was your greeting what were you what did you hear when you were we were playing the festival and we got this to the uh to the little saint pierre and i went into the hotel and i sort of had

in the nap and around 6 o'clock I came out to walk down the street to the festival grounds you know and I expected to hear the other bands or whatever playing and the opening bands and as I was walking down all I heard was fuck Alan Doyle fuck Alan Doyle and in the book you'll find out why

great book man great book again can't wait to see everybody at TMLX21 that's on Saturday noon to 3 Palmer's Kitchen come out it's a free event. You don't have to RSVP. You just show up. If you want to pop on the mic,

that's cool. You don't have to. But you eat for free. Thank you, Palma Pasta. You drink for free. Thank you, Great Lakes Brewery. And RetroFestive has a gift for you. Thank you to retrofestive. dot CA. And that brings us to the end of our 1,000

7. Oh, our 1,8004. Is that what this is? Alan, there's a lot of episodes, man. 1,8404 Go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's retro festive,

Great Lakes Brewery. The guys from Great Lakes were here recording an episode of Between Two Fermenters, Alan. I said you were coming over. They said, please, please, please have them drop by the brewery in South Etobico. So, man, they're big fans over there at Great Lakes Brewery.

Alma Pasta, Nick Iini's, Kindling, go to shopkindling.ca, order your cannabis products. It's in your possession in under an hour. Just order from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. And that will absolutely happen. It's discreet. You can follow it. Thank you to shopkindling.ca. Recycle my electronics.ca. Blue Sky Agency and Ridley Funeral Home.

See you all. Tomorrow. When my special guest is Michael Sadler from Saga. That's a big deal, actually. I see so. That's good Canadian right there. That is. We're going to have Michael Sadler's Toronto mic debut tomorrow.

See you all then. You know,