"I’m sorry I’m late. I forgot, I have no excuse."

It is pretty much impossible to be mad at Alan Doyle. Calling from outside a taco stand in Anaheim, the casual banter as he acknowledges missing our scheduled time slot is like that of a genuinely apologetic friend. This affable nature is one of the key ingredients to the success of Great Big Sea. The band celebrates 20 years together with a greatest hits package and box set XX. Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett hit the road for a string of Canadian dates including March 12th and 13th in Edmonton and March 14th and 15th in Calgary.

"It is pretty awesome. I have to say it is a little notch in the bedpost. It is one of those things that is a pretty serious marker for several things," Doyle said of reaching 20 years. "The fact that you have managed to keep it together as a band for that long is quite an accomplishment but it is also a massive congratulations from our fans for wanting us to be around for so long. We are about to start what will probably be the biggest tour we have ever done."

If you look back to 1993 and try and remember how many bands from that time are still playing music, it is a small list. Many bands break up due to band members growing apart, and with the rigors of the road, not killing each other can be a challenge.

"We use over the counter medication," Doyle quipped, adding, "We have always got along and been grateful to do this for a living. Grateful enough to keep the bickerings at bay, and there have certainly been a lot of them. Getting to do this for a living outweighs the crap. We have always benefited from momentum; every tour has gotten a little bit better. It’s not like we had the biggest hit song in the world one summer and the next summer we didn’t. Every year has always been a bit better than the year before, more people are willing to come and pay slightly more money. In retrospect it has been such a wonderfully human pace to keep it at. We never had a big rise so you never feel a big drop."

Side interests have also helped keep the band afloat. Doyle has worked as an actor who has appeared in many films, including the latest Robin Hood movie; he has recorded with other artists as well as released a solo album. Sean has released solo albums; Bob has produced other artists and written books.

"It is pretty big for us and has been since the beginning.  We have all had stuff we did outside the band. It keeps you sane and fresh and new and lets you exercise a few demons or ghosts in other places instead of in the back of the tour bus. Great Big Sea has always been the mother ship for us and hopefully always will be.

Often the band is approached for advice from artists early in their career hoping to achieve the same longevity.

"I always joke that if you ever need advice for younger bands, I ask do you mean honest to god advice or do you mean shortcuts or secrets? Because I don’t know any shortcuts. It is totally possible for you to make a living making music. It is also going to be the hardest job you ever want to take. So if you aren’t willing to do that, stop now and go do something else. It is a lot of hours, time and sacrifice especially as you get older and have kids - it is a lot of time away. So you really really really really gotta want to do it. Not just think you want to do it but actually want to do it consistently for a long time. If you do, jump in feet first."

The greatest hits package XX is available in both a double disk and a box set. The box set includes interviews and footage from early in the bands career. Looking back at their early 20’s brought back a lot of memories.

"It is a bit of a time capsule. Looking at pictures from your wedding isn’t really pleasant and we’ve been at a wedding since 1993. It is kind of funny to hear about the earlier interviews about how eager and interested and naive we were. It is also cool to look at it and see the little people and wide eyed stuff, and know the lust for it all is still there... It is embarrassing at times but 99% of it is fantastic."

The band has toured extensively, and there were moments when they looked at each other and thought, "Is this really happening?"

"There have been so many. Early in the Great Big Sea days we got to work with The Chieftains. If you grew up in Celtic music background at all you know they are the most influential Irish instrumental band in history. We got to tour with them and record with them and go to Ireland. That was an amazing pinch me kind of moment. There have been dozens of times since then – opening on a tour for Sting or in my personal life getting on the Robin Hood movie - and I’m actually playing Alan A’Dayle, the world’s most famous troubadour of all time. There have been a bunch of those times. I think my favourite time in the last 20 years is still the day our first record showed up. Our first little indie record was released August 3, 1993. I have been in bands my whole life and my family had been in bands their whole life but no one had ever actually had a record out and we had just done it. I still feel that is one of the biggest accomplishments in my life."

2012 also saw Doyle release his first solo album, Boy on the Bridge. The title is a nod to his appearance in the 1981 film A Whale For The Killing.

"Hollywood came to town 2 summers in a row with Orca and Whale for the Killing. I remember watching Bo Derrick walk around the streets of Petty Harbour and it was kind of a weird thing. They asked us to stand behind some actors and throw some rocks out on the water and paid us 15 bucks each. I’d forgotten about it until someone looked me up on IMDB and lo and behold there it was. Alan Doyle, boy on bridge. Wow I was a movie star before I even knew it."

Doyle has been touring as a solo artist, including a recent stop at the Ironwood Grill. The intimacy of his solo shows is different from the large theatres Great Big Sea is playing.

"It is different guns at your side with different talents and skill sets. The coolest thing about that was putting myself out there without the cushion of the 20 years of a Great Big Sea catalogue. It is kind of spooky and I really like the things that scare me the most, especially as a performer. I enjoy the thrill of being that scared for the first time in awhile. It is a great thing and the heart of where Great Big Sea started. Our whole apprenticeship was in the pubs in Atlantic Canada. That is where we cut our teeth, it still feels a little closer to home than standing in front of a 3000 seat venue in Anaheim. It feels far away from home to be honest with you, especially considering where we started. It is all part of it."

The tour started in California and headed up the west coast, across Canada, and into the US East coast. Great Big Sea’s music is distinctly Canadian and the band takes great pride in sharing their style with an international audience.

"It is one of the funnest parts of it all. Especially when we were starting off standing in front of a bunch of people with an accordion singing shanties and they are looking at you like Martians landed in front of them. Unlike most Canadians they have no context, they don’t know what Newfoundland is or that our music is an offshoot of something that came before us and is a logical extension of what our parents used to do. We are just dudes with shorts on and an accordion for some reason playing at a festival in 1995. If it is scary then you are probably doing the right thing. It has been a thrill to come back to these places 10 or 12 years later and see a crowd of people in California singing Excursion Around The Bay. I have a secret little giggle about that because it is so cool."

Returning home is always a big deal for the band. The excitement in Doyle’s voice is noticeable as he talks about the tour.

"It is always cool to go to the places that have supported you from day one. Calgary is certainly one of them it has always been one of our biggest places to play. I have found the whole thing to be kind of satisfying to be in the game at all let alone still doing it at as high a level as we ever did. That is a pretty special thing."

The lack of ego or arrogance is part of why people connect with Great Big Sea. There are many people who have stories of drinking with the band and how laid back and friendly they are. They’ve kept grounded despite their success.

"I have been blessed by not being that good. You’re laughing, I wish it was more of a joke than it is but it is kind of true. I have always felt that compared to our heroes and peers our skill sets aren’t really that exceptional. I am still kind of really grateful if not surprised that people will come see me do it. I spent so many years in my teens and early 20’s playing in pubs and places where nobody came. That made total sense to me because there was lots of stuff going on. Then people started showing up for us and it was like, wow. I’ve never lost that sense of wonder that people will hire a babysitter and get in the car and drive halfway across one of the United States to see us sing a song. That is incredible to me still."

Great Big Sea joins the list of artists that as a Canadian you should see at least once in your life. Like peers such as The Tragically Hip, Bryan Adams, The Barenaked Ladies and many others it is their reputation for putting on a great show that has fans filling venues for multiple nights.

"There are 5 or 6 new tunes in the box set and we will be doing a couple of those. It is a 2 set show and the first set we are digging into the vault a bit and making a conscious effort to play some songs that have been on peoples’ minds for a lot of years that we haven’t really played a lot in the last decade or so. Some songs that we felt we grew out of, now we have to do it. All of those bands that are still around are the ones that give you a great show. That is what people want is a great night out. You mention those bands and we try to be amongst them where nobody leaves disappointed. A concert is not my opportunity to demonstrate to people what I felt like doing, that has not been what it has been about ever. To me a concert is about people coming and it is my job to make sure they leave happy. I am working for them, they are not paying to see me. Let’s make a great night of it."