Born and raised in Port aux Basques, Al picked up the guitar and accordion at age 12. He credits his family for his musical interest. Al was fortunate enough to have one of his great grandmothers around until he was about 14 years old. He’d spent a lot of time with her as she sang songs from the old days and often throw in some "chin music." While his buddies were more into music by Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, Al was surrounded by musical styles of John Allan Cameron, Harry Hibbs and The DuCats, and other musical genres. Shown the basics of accordion by his grandfather and the guitar by his mother, Al pushed his interest to a self-taught status and experimented with chord patterns to a point where, until he bought a book which outlined some chords, he thought he had invented one himself.
Family gatherings were always a hearty source of entertainment and with his guitar, Al accompanied his grandfather on accordion and fiddle, stopping only long enough to delve into bottomless bowls of moose soup and other wild game. He became and avid small game hunter during a work stint in Labrador and carried his music into that arena forming a band with some people who would remain friends throughout the move back to the Island.
Eventually Al performed with several bands on the Island from a top 40 group complete with squealing distortion; to a traditional group; and a group that played a little bit of everything. During that period, Al picked up the bouzouki as a premier instrument in the band and the guitar took back stage since there were already two guitar players. Al left the group after nine years and formed a duo with former bandmate Kurt Bambury, who is also now a member of Dungarvan.
Al's full time job as a Radiation Health Officer keeps him from a fulltime music career, but he’s learned to accept his music as a hobby, which helps him keep the fun in the music. His role models and mentors are more local with the likes of Paul Monahan for his guitar style; D'Arcy Broderick “because no one can compete with that voice;” Mark Hiscock (Shanneygannock) because “who plays the accordion with such finesse like that anymore;” Mike Hanrahan and Ronnie Power for their magical bouzouki stylings and Chris Hennessy for an expert musician with unbounded talent for songwriting and performing.
Al also likes music of the Eagles, Beatles, Rolling Stones, and some new age music. Al doesn't like being categorized into a musical style and his quote for the day is: "Good music is good music, no matter what source it comes from. That is why you hear some songs today that are gone tomorrow while others stand the test of time".
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