French-canadian bands

[adgefan]

I know nothing about French-canadian music but recently stumbled across the band Les Chauffeurs à pieds (www.leschauffeurs.com). I really like their sound (including the excellent mandolin playing) and highly recommend them. Can anyone point me in the direction of similar artists and music? I'm particuarly on the hunt for crooked fiddles tunes (because I'm weird like that...). Thanks!

[mandocrucian]

Ad Vielle Que Pourra

La Bottine Souriante

Niles H

[Bill Van Liere]

Not sure what leschauffeurs sounds like or what you are looking for, but, Brian Pickell is Canadian mandolin player that I like very much. Brian writes mando/fiddle tunes in a French Canadian/Ottawa River Valley style and his CDs are saturated with great fiddle playing. Check out Brian's 'Fresh Canadian Fiddle Tunes' CD, there is also a book, same name, in standard notation of Brian's compositions.

[otterly2k]

You might like Matapat or Le Vent du Nord

[steve V. johnson]

Yes, Karen!!! La Vent du Nord, definitely, great fun those fellows! My wife and that Benoit are great pals. Matapat was Benoit's previous band, no longer together, but they left behind (four?) wonderful recordings. Great stuff. I have some great memories (and pix) of Matapat's shows here for the Lotus Festival, and of La Vent leading great long lines of dancers into a spiral at the Cincinnati Celtic Fest. Woohooo!

Just yesterday, while cleaning house, I came across a CD by Barachois, who won a whole closetfull of music awards while they were together. Our good friend and Local Hero, Grey Larsen (master flutist and concertina player) produced a couple of their more lauded CDs. Their shows were very, very high-energy with dancing and comedy along with great playing and superb vocals.

stv

[judith]

And there's Genticorum - 3 fellows, on fiddle, guitar, and flute. Alas, no mando, but their tunes are great and crooked and can always be learned and played on the mando. They have 2 cds, which I had to order from Thirty Below, in Quebec. Judith

[otterly2k]

Thanks, Jude... I couldn't remember the name.

[adgefan]

Excellent, thanks very much everyone. I must admit I was half-expecting zero replies to this thread, so this is great.

The thing I really like about Les Chauffeurs à pieds is their use of French horn. Is this unusual, even in this genre? Can't say I've heard it used in Celtic or similar music before, but perhaps I just haven't been listening properly.

[Bill Van Liere]

You can't miss the horn section in La Bottine Souriante

[Mando-Loon]

I don't know much about French-Canadian music but Great Big Sea have a few French songs. They're from Newfoundland which has a strong Irish, Scottish and French background.

[Paul Kotapish]

Here's a great website for recordings and books about music from Quebec. It's run by a couple of wonderful fiddlers from the region and they offer a peerless resource for fans of traditional Québécois music and dance.

http://www.trentesouszero.com/

Most of the contemporary and classic recordings are reprented here, and there are some listings for festivals, concerts, etc.

If you are particularly fond of the the crooked tunes, look for the CD Airs Tordus by Tetes de Violon--all crooked tunes all the time. They are a wonderful group of fiddlers--from Quebec and California--with a bit of guitar and mandolin, too. Their second CD is due out soon, but in the meantime, get this:

http://www.trentesouszero.com/001.html

Recommended.

There are a couple of excellent book collections of Québécois crooked tunes--airs tordus--put together by Liette Remon and Guy Bouchard:

http://www.trentesouszero.com/100.html

For a general introduction to the music and the basic repertoire, it's pretty hard to beat Danse se soir put together by fiddler Laurie Hart and pianist Greg Sandell. It's the most complete and definitive work on the idiom currently available, and you can find it at most major online booksellers, as well as at the link below. There is a companion recording with a large selection of the tunes performed in a traditional Quebec dance setting.

http://www.trentesouszero.com/187.html



And look out for anything with Michel Bordeleau on it. Killer fiddler, guitarist, and mandolinist. He is on the bulk of the earlier La Bottine Souriante recordings mentioned above. Those CDs are available from a wide variety of sources, inluding this one:

http://www.trentesouszero.com/008-93.html

[Tom A]

La Volée d'Castors!

Flight of the Beavers, I think? High-energy traditional/rock. Some great video clips on the Web site.

[Paul Hostetter]

As PK mentions, Michel Bordeleau was the brilliant mandolin player in La Bottine Souriante, a band that seems to have finally run its course. (I confess having greatly preferred the original pre-Cuban piano and horn section lineup anyway). He's all over a fairly recent CD by Danielle Martineau, an equally brilliant accordioniste and writer of tunes, called Les Secrets du Vent, which I cannot recomend highly enough.

You can get this and so much more from Thirty Below in Quebec.

Michel and André Marchand (another veteran and founder of La Bottine), along with Michel Faubert, Normand Miron, and Jean-Claude Mirandette have a group called Les Charbonniers de l'enfer, a band which only sings! Everyone in it is a killer instrumentalist, but they only sing. And how. Mandolin content isn't everything. Their most recent record WÔ is amazing.