Art Populaire

Two members of the prize-winning Québécois vocal group Le Vent du Nord — Nicolas Boulerice and Olivier Demers — are joined here in vocals and on fiddle by Cape Breton-born Robert Devaux in a refreshingly straightforward but spirited showcase of the folk music of Quebec and the francophone region of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, known in colonial times as Acadie (the historical homeland of today’s Cajuns).

Boulerice backs the trio’s folk singing on vielle à roue (a hurdy-gurdy with a fingered neck) and tanbur (a hand-held frame drum), while Demers deploys fiddle, mandocello, bombarde (a shawm) and podorythmie (the regional form of seated foot percussion). On most tracks, regional form has the lyrics intoned by the solo singer, then echoed by the trio, in ardent tales of love of place, family and women. The strings also reprise the melody, but with artful ornamentation. The arrangements resist showiness and deliver many delights and surprises, but there is also an artful variety of sentiment across the selection, from irresistible dance steps to slow airs and touches of melancholy. The older traditional instrumentation sometimes invokes the old country (France) and centuries past. A joyful journey indeed.