Le Bonhomme Sept Heures: The Bonesetter

Grosse Isle, the island in the St Lawrence River in Québec, was famously an immigration/quarantine depot for Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine. Grosse Isle, the musical trio, are three skilful musicians: Sophie Lavoie (fiddle, piano, vocal), André Marchand (guitar, vocal) and Fiachra O’Regan (uilleann pipes, whistle, banjo).

The recording builds on work the three have done in the past, notably 2016’s Un Canadien Errant and 2018’s Portraits. Le Bonhomme Sept Heures: The Bonesetter is a seamless meeting of Irish and Québécois traditional music, balancing both instrumentals and vocals, as well as reels and laments. (And it opens with the well-known ‘Le Bonhomme et La Bonne Femme’ by legendary Québécois singer La Bolduc.) For those curious about the title, it’s a reference to a folkloric Québec bogeyman. But nothing scary here – musically this recording is a sweet reminder that while musical distinctions exist (between Québec and Irish fiddling styles, for example), cultures are also capable of being satisfyingly symbiotic.