Expect the unexpected from Welcome Home, Alan Doyle’s fourth full-length solo studio album and 20th overall. While upholding his status as a perennial merrymaker — a reputation burnished by his years with acclaimed folk-pop combo Great Big Sea — the new album also finds the multifaceted singer-songwriter and 14-time JUNO Award nominee exploring novel sonic terrain. Alongside marquee co-writers Jimmy Rankin, Donovan Woods, and Hollywood actor Oscar Isaac (yep, of Star Wars fame), Doyle presents nine original songs that are both typically buoyant and surprisingly intimate, what Doyle refers to as “the lower and slower: the lower part of my vocal range and the slower songs. I’m letting myself do that for the first time on this records,” which he cut in Montreal with producer-engineer Marcus Paquin. Doyle’s CV is extensive — he is a thrice-published author, a film and TV actor-producer with multiple major credits, and the co-producer of the recently released, 20-song Ron Hynes tribute album, Sonny Don’t Go Away. Yet the wildly popular musician from Petty Harbour, Newfoundland remains the most electrifying before a live audience, abetted by his ace band. “I am the luckiest guy in the world,” Doyle says. “It’s such a privilege to stand among those players on stage.”