Award-winning banjo player excited to take E.A. Rawlinson stage

Photo from the Eliza Mary Doyle Facebook page. Award-winning banjo player Eliza Mary Doyle and her band will be at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre on Friday, Jan. 17.

Eliza Mary Doyle has made a habit of visiting Prince Albert over the past few years, and but has had few opportunities to perform in the city.

That changes on Friday when the award-winning banjo player brings her mix of alt-country/folk music to the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.

Doyle frequently travels through Prince Albert as part of her duties with the Community Arts Mentorship Program (CAMP), a role that takes her to remote communities around the north. This week, she’s happy to stop and stick around for an evening.

“I’m just really excited to be in Prince Albert,” Doyle said during a phone interview. “Due to a lot of the work I’ve been doing up north, I’ve been passing through Prince Albert a couple times a month since 2019 … so I’m really excited to be playing in the north closer to my second home.”

Doyle performed in Prince Albert over a decade ago with her old band Midnight Rose, and recently played a short slot with LJ Tyson to promote the next Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSCA) Tour. She hasn’t played a longer set with her new band, however, and she’s looking forward to doing that on Friday.

“We haven’t done a full band tour in Saskatchewan for many, many years,” she said. “The last full band tour I was in the USA in 2023, so we’re really excited.”

Doyle and her band plan to bring their characteristic mix catchy melodies and unique take on “Americana”. She’s also bringing a few new songs with her.

Doyle and her band plan have written and recorded a new album, which will be released later this year. The first three songs will be available in February.

Doyle’s work in the north partially inspired one of those songs, ‘Freeman’, which talks about living off the land and the challenges that come with wanting to be in both the city and the country.

“That songs actually came very quickly for me, which was interesting,” she said. “A lot of times I’ll have a chorus that’s swimming around in my head for months and then eventually it turns into something or I figure out what the storyline is, so Freeman came very, very quickly.”

Doyle’s love for the banjo comes from her parents—both bluegrass musicians—but she was really drawn to them when she started university. She began busking on Broadway Avenue in Saskatoon, and noticed the banjo had a way of cutting through the noise.

“People could hear me from blocks away,” she said with a laugh. “I love the fact that it’s so loud and vibrant and percussive, and there are so many different styles.

“I’m an educator as well, so I kind of tell people about the history of the banjo and the different styles. It has a very interesting and intriguing history.”

Eliza Mary Doyle performs in Tisdale on Jan. 16, followed by a performance at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert on Jan. 17. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.

Doyle wraps up her tour in Regina on Jan. 18 before heading east for Folk Alliance International in Montreal from Feb. 19-23.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

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