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Marjorie Doyle is the author of two books: A View of her Own and Newfoundlander in Exile. She has been a columnist with The Globe and Mail and music columnist for the Evening Telegram. For five years she hosted the national CBC Radio program That Time of the Night. Other CBC work included guest hosting Stereo Morning and The Arts Tonight and appearing regularly on Gabereau and Morningside. She won two CBC Radio Awards for programming excellence.
Reels, Rock and Rosaries: Confessions of a Newfoundland MusicianMarjorie DoyleMemoir, Newfoundland, Music Order this book: |
![[Cover of Reels Rock and Rosaries]](../images/1895900735.jpg)
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Reels, Rock and Rosaries is a fusion of cultural/personal history and memoir. It is the story of one Newfoundland woman's life in music told with wit, charm, candour and insight. It is a story threaded with tunes weighted with memory - the blues riff, the snatch of an adagio, the pop song heard in a cab, and the powerful emotional punch of the island's traditional music. Marjorie Doyle takes us into her life first as a convent girl in a choir, then as a Janis Joplin wannabe and later as a hippie piccolo player in a military band. She relives the first time she sang in four-part harmony.
"One minute we were kids skipping in the schoolyard and the next we were singing Bach. It was as if Michelangelo had passed me a child's tool set and said, 'Hey, kid, you can help chip at David's toe.' The closest word to describe what I felt was 'holiness.'"
She speaks of the curious tangle of lyrics and music that moved into her life as she banged out the songs of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and all the rest and how, when she was 33 years old, Dolly Parton and the warm slide of a steel guitar waltzed her into country music. In 13 notes, Franz Schubert and his sorrowing melodies were shoved aside, but not for good.
As a seventh generation Newfoundlander, Doyle absorbed the feel for both her Newfoundland and Irish roots and culture. As the child of one of the first Newfoundlanders to travel the island collecting folk songs, Doyle writes of the life and times of a life was deeply entwined with a broad range of musical experiences and it makes for a fascinating read.