(2021) Grosse Isle – Le bonhomme sept heures / The Bonesetter
Review:
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.
Track Listing:
1.Le bonhomme et la bonne femme / Duffy's 03:45
2.Le bonhomme sept heures / The Bonesetter 03:50
3.Sur le bord du rivage 03:41
4.The Hawthorn Hedge / Jackson's Jig 03:23
5.Dans Paris à l'Orient 03:48
6.Patsy Campbell's / Calamine 03:20
7.Je veux m'y marier / Le talencourt 04:21
8.Éamonn an Chnoic 04:39
9.Johnny Laughran's / McKenna's reel 03:00
10.Les tailleurs de pierre 03:20
11.Jack Caughlan's / Miss Langford's / Jack the Lad 03:46
12.À Grosse Isle 03:30
13.Dedans Paris / Daniel 03:20
Media Report:
Genre: acoustic, folk, world
Country: Canada
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits