The music of Canada comes to Diss

A French-Canadian music group from Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Le Vent du Nord played to a capacity audience at the Corn Hall, with an eclectic mix of their own compositions and traditional Québécois music. Though heavily influenced by Celtic music from Ireland and Brittany, they nonetheless offered a sound that is uniquely theirs, in an evening that felt like a privilege to witness.

Nicolas Boulerice played piano and ‘vielle à roue’ (better known to English speakers as a hurdy gurdy) while Olivier Demers alternated between fiddle, guitar, mandolin and tapping his feet on a board that resonated hypnotically. Réjean Brunet was on accordion, bass guitar and for one song, the jaw harp. André Brunet supplemented the fiddle playing and toe tapping, while new recruit Dédé Gagné stuck to bazouki and guitar. Demers and Brunet did the heavy lifting when it came to vocals, but the occasional a cappella song demonstrated they all had fine singing voices.

Along the way, the five members of Le Vent du Nord charmed the Diss audience with ‘Dans L’eau de Vie de L’Arbre’, a song that praised the maple tree, while ‘Ameriquois’, honoured the early Canadian settlers that left France for a new life in a new world. The tragic tale of ‘Ma Louise’, who died on the night after her wedding, concluded the first half, but being French, they of course had a glass of red wine each, with which they toasted their audience, genuinely grateful we’d all made the effort to see them. The second half seemed to move the pace up, offering up the folk equivalent of power ballads, a quite brilliant solo from Boulerice, lots more foot tapping, duelling fiddles, and a rousing finish that got the whole of the Corn Hall to its collective feet.