Among the many things that make the folk community such a warm and welcoming “family” is that you know which side you’re all on, to paraphrase the title of the song written by Florence Reece, wife of a United Mineworkers official during the bitter struggle known as “the Harlan County War”, almost a century ago. Collected by Pete Seeger and sung by the Almanac Singers, it is kept alive by Billy Bragg any many others.
I doubt it’s in the repertoire of Le Vent du Nord though there’s surely a French-Canadian equivalent, but the same feeling of camaraderie and solidarity prevailed at Cecil Sharp House where a capacity crowd gathered to stomp and cheer the band’s return at the start of a short UK tour. After the long dark Tuesday night and the equally long dark Wednesday, a bracing “north wind” was just what was needed on Thursday, allowing everyone to shake off the gloom, at least for a few hours. And Canada of course is where many Americans may now seek refuge.
Time spent in the company of the Québecois quintet is always rousing and energising and as they entered through the audience and bounded on-stage, drinks in hand, to begin nearly two hours of virtuoso playing and singing, everyone was happily captive. Nicolas Boulerice (hurdy-gurdy and keyboard, main picture), André Brunet (fiddle), Réjean Brunet (guitar, accordion, jaw harp), Olivier Demers (fiddle, guitar, mandolin), and André Gagné (guitar, bouzouki), all of them wonderful singers, offer an entrancing mix of traditional and progressive Québecois folk music, all of it with a heavy Celtic accent, as well as their own songs.
They sing only in French, the official language of Quebec City, upholding traditions inevitably threatened by Anglophone dominance. Indeed, that is their raison d’être and as they introduced their songs they talked engagingly of the French-Canadian history about which we in Britain know so little: its roots in the French colony of Acadia, now one of the country’s Maritime Provinces, and Le Grand Dérangement at the hands (of course) of the British. Jack Kerouac grew up speaking French in Lowell, a Massachusetts mill town. Cajun is the anglicised version of Acadian, and that influence too is evident in the music of Le Vent du Nord.
“Ameriquois” told some of that history in song, while “Dans L’eau de Vie de L’Arbre” was written to correct an oversight – the lack in French-Canadian traditional folk music of a song about the maple tree (symbol of Canada) and the rich syrup it produces, “sort of like Marmite” they explained a tad puzzlingly. Other numbers from the band’s extensive catalogue included “Louisbourg”, “L’Auberge”, and “Ma Louise”.
Their full-throated close-harmony a cappella singing was bracing indeed, boosting the mood on the grimmest of days. The virtuoso podorythmie – the use of the feet as a percussion instrument, a key part of Acadian traditional music and a sort-of equivalent to flamenco’s zapateado – was amazing to both watch and hear. A real skill, especially when you’re also playing the fiddle.
It was a magnificent evening by five extraordinary musicians. Catch the tour if you can.
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