All the right reasons

By Scott Hayes
St. Albert Gazette
April 18, 2020

https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-arts-and-culture/all-the-right-reasons-2256653

Séan McCann was originally scheduled to appear at the Arden this week for a mental health talk, a fundraiser for the St. Albert Community Foundation's mental health fund. The appearance has been rescheduled to October. Photo by DAVID HOWELLS

One Good Reason is the new memoir jointly written by Great Big Sea's Séan McCann and his wife Andrea Aragon. A harrowing personal tale filled with abuse and addiction, it is generously written by two people whose obvious love for each other helped them to overcome the greatest battles of their lives and their relationship. Photo by NIMBUS PUBLISHING

Séan McCann's appearance on the Arden Theatre stage might be delayed till the fall but you can prepare for his talk – a fundraiser for the St. Albert Community Foundation – with his new memoir just released this week.

These are the days to find the good stories to read – the important stories, real ones, the ones that come from the heart and speak to making the best of bad, horrible situations.

On that note, Séan McCann just released his memoir One Good Reason this week. Co-written with his wife Andrea Aragon, it’s a deep dive into the Great Big Sea singer/songwriter’s lifetime of mental anguish caused by sexual abuse by a Catholic priest when he was just a teenager in a small town in Newfoundland. That torment and the secrecy he kept about it resulted in his alcoholism, which spurred on his own misbehaviours. Creative and celebrated though he was (and still is), he spent much of his life in a bottle and that, we all know, never comes without its own new miseries springing forth.

Aragon herself might already have understood how to live with the kind of unpredictability and grief that living with an alcohol addict can bring. Her dad was alcoholic, too, one of the root causes of her fighting depression and eating disorders, not to mention her own dependency struggles with alcohol.

Together, they had to find a way through. That makes for one very good reason why they had to write the book together, each taking a turn with a chapter detailing their personal history and how life led them to the biggest moment of their relationship: deciding to work it out and not give up.

One Good Reason is certainly not an easy read because of its content matter. McCann and Aragon both have their share of demons, the kind that I wouldn’t wish on even my worst enemy. But that doesn’t mean the book is a hard slog. It’s just the opposite, in fact.

The book couples its intense and raw look at abuse and anguish with an unparalleled authenticity and its authors’ beautiful and awe-inspiring writing. Who knew McCann had a way with words? If this singing thing doesn’t work out for him, then he has a fine career in print storytelling awaiting him.

It’s the strength of the writing that saves this tale while the ending makes it all worthwhile. McCann and Aragon hit what could easily have been the end of their marriage nine years ago, a few years before he would reveal his traumatic past for the first time. There is a line from a Steve Miller Band song: “you got to go through hell before you get to heaven.” There’s no doubt that this is true for these two. It’s heartbreaking before it gets to the heartwarming part. I couldn’t get through any of the chapters without a tear in my eye for one good reason or another.

I can’t say enough good things about this book and how important it is. The tale is as life-affirming as any personal triumph but it’s the telling that demonstrates how love and commitment reinforce resiliency.

Readers might note Séan McCann was originally meant to be on the Arden stage this week for a talk on mental health, a fundraiser for the St. Albert Community Foundation. It has since been rescheduled for Oct. 21. General admission tickets are $61 each. All tickets already sold are valid for the new date.