Need a musical apprenticeship? Look no further than Uncle Harry's Bar, says Alan Doyle

CBC

02-03-2025

Before he became a Newfoundland superstar, Alan Doyle had to learn the musical ropes, which he credits to a west coast Newfoundland band.
Uncle Harry's Bar Band was made up of Wayne Parsons, Charlie Payne and Rufus Drake, who played country music as well as traditional Newfoundland tunes in the 1980s and 1990s.
"The presentation of the shows were always extremely professional, even when they were in places that could have easily just been, like, a bar band, you know? Like a little throw together kind of thing," Doyle told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning.
"Uncle Harry's Bar were always slick and sounded great and looked great."
As a young man in St. John's, Doyle said he and his friends would go to every concert they could, even if it meant sneaking into places like the Strand at the Avalon Mall.
He said he was already playing in bands and wanted to learn everything he could, including what equipment bands were using, how to front a band and keep the dance floor swinging.
Doyle says he enjoyed Uncle Harry's Bar Band so much that he wrote a glowing review in a 1989 issue of MUN's student newspaper The Muse.
"Uncle Harry's Bar was just the best ones at it. Every time the song stopped, Wayne had a joke and everybody sang really well — it was a really polished show," said Doyle.
Parsons recalled Saturday afternoons at the nightclub First City where Doyle and other musicians like Dave Stack would drop by to come up with some "licks."
"I always prided myself on being able to read a room," said Parsons, who has been performing with Anchors Aweigh in Rocky Harbour for almost 30 years. He said he's kept up the skill set from his days performing with his Uncle Harry's Bar Band bandmates.
A musical 'apprenticeship'
Doyle says he considers himself lucky to have gotten such a musical "apprenticeship." He says that through travelling around the world in his professional career he found that not all musicians have the type of skill set that Uncle Harry's Bar Band had.
"You'd be surprised how rare that skill set shows up," Doyle said.
"People who walk into a room and know how to organize the next 35 or 40 minutes of a concert instantly in their minds, or rearrange it or switch and change … that's a rare thing."
Parsons said a reunion with his other bandmates isn't likely to happen anytime soon, but the trio did play at Woody Point's come home year in 2016. More than a thousand people attended that concert.
"We were so popular over here. So that was really good," said Parsons.
Doyle says he was also taken with a particular guitar that Parsons played, describing it as a skinny Yamaha. It later became possible for him to buy it.
"I thought it was like halfway between an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar and I thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen," he said.
While hanging out at First City, Parsons mentioned to Doyle he was looking to sell that guitar. Doyle jumped at the opportunity. He said he ended up playing it for some early Great Big Sea music videos, including Mari-Mac.
"And I still have it," Doyle said.