All Posts By

Angela Korra'ti

Books

Quite a few book purchases make a post

Oh hey look, posting about something that isn’t Quebec music! It’s my OTHER fandom! Books!

I’ve managed to get hit with a big swath of library checkouts all at the same time, an unexpectedly fun side effect of shunting so many titles on my To Read list over onto the list of things to be checked out from the library first. This does, however, mean I’ve been a bit swamped trying to keep track of them and make sure I can get them read or otherwise dealt with before their due dates! So I’ve decided to chug through my current library books and if I’m engaged enough in the first 100 pages or so, go ahead and commit to buying that title and then jump over to the next one.

Here’s my current list!

  • The Dark Wife, by Sarah Diemer. Picked up because it’s a lesbian retelling of the Persephone and Hades story, and as y’all know, I’m a big ol’ sucker for that story. Had previously been aware of this thanks to the Outer Alliance, and was reminded again of it by userinfomarzipan_pig.
  • Pirate King, by Laurie R. King. The latest in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, which promises to be silly fun.
  • “To Read or Not to Read”, by Vincent Hobbes. Freebie short story. Picked this up as it was recommended to me on Goodreads, and also, free things are awesome!
  • “Beekeeping for Beginners”, by Laurie R. King. This is a short story of hers, the tale of how Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell met–which was covered from Mary’s POV way back in Book 1, but here, it’s Holmes’ POV. I figured this would be worth 99 cents!
  • The Spirit Lens, by Carol Berg. Fantasy, the first of the Collegia Magica series, recommended to me by userinfokisanthe! Initially I checked this out from the library, but got a good way in and decided, yes, I like this very much and want to own it. Will be finishing it up ASAP. High marks for a vaguely French-flavored fantasy setting, as well as very colorful characters and a hapless protagonist who’s a failed mage.
  • Heat Rises, by Richard Castle! Bought for reasons which ought to be obvious. Third of the Nikki Heat series!
  • Zazen, by Vanessa Veselka. This is another Goodreads recommendation, and another initial library checkout. Of this list, it’s the most unusual thing by far to show up in my reading material for a while and I’m quite enjoying it. It’s hard enough to describe that I can only point you to the Goodreads page for it, and the blurb there. The writing is vivid enough and the characters compelling enough that no matter how it ends, I’ve decided I want to own it. More on this to come.

And that kicks me up to 201 for the year. I’ll be grabbing Cherie Priest’s new release next week–AND a new one called The Hum and the Shiver which looks interesting as well. More on these to come too.

September 22, 2011 by
Quebecois Music

Quebecois GIRLS can bring it too

Thanks to M Kenney, who clearly knows where all the best Quebecois music is, I now have yet another awesome band recommendation: Galant, Tu Perds Ton Temps! They’re an all-female (aside from their percussion guy), all-vocal group, like the Charbonniers, and I’ve now found both of their albums on iTunes and am happily blazing my way through the samples. I will totally be buying these.

Also, their band name makes me giggle and giggle and giggle. If I’m translating it correctly, it’s something like “Suitor, you waste your time!” Bwahahaha! XD

They unfortunately do not appear to be on CD Baby, for those of you who are not iTunes-inclined, and Amazon’s US site only shows them as import CDs. Amazon’s Canadian site has them for slightly cheaper prices, but shipping costs may offset that. Archambault.ca has them though, and if you want to order from somewhere that isn’t iTunes or Amazon, go there and search for “galant tu perds ton temps”. They have MP3 samples for listening, though you can only buy the CDs if you’re outside of Canada.

Check ’em out, y’all!

September 20, 2011 by
Quebecois Music

Good gods, I just wrote a song!

Okay, it’s official, Quebecois trad just muscled its way closer to Great Big Sea in my affections, because it just made me commit an act of filk. I blame the album I just bought by De Temps Antan for this, specifically the track “Jeune et Jolie”. The tune for this isn’t an exact matchup to that song, but the rhythm is totally pulling from that. Muahaha.

I think this is probably either in G or D, 6/8 time, and should be sung with as much vigor as possible. I’m totally hearing it as a drinking song in my head. And now, I give you…

“Quebecois Boys”

Some girls like to rock with electric guitars
Some girls like their operas sublime
Some girls like the rappers, or metal, or country
But none of this music is mine!

Oh the north wind is blowing, and I want to follow
Where it leads me to tales of times past
Where beavers are flying, and coalmen from hell
Rouse my boots to be smiling at last!

(chorus)
And it’s sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
Sing to me, Quebecois boys!

You could spend seven verses on the Montreal phone book
And I’d think you’d still sound quite grand
As long as you’re tapping away on the board
And you’ve got a bouzouki in hand!

So warm up your fiddles, break out your accordions
Play till the morning has dawned
Let’s dance to the reels and sing sweet turluttes
Till the wee hours of evening are gone

Sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
Sing to me, Quebecois boys!

(bridge here)

They say we American girls have no culture
But I say the doubters are wrong
For music transcends all the borders of language
And makes the soul rise up in song

Vertical movement requires no translation
For this Anglophone southern-bred gal
But teach me your lyrics, boys, and see just how fast
I’ll engage dans la danse verticale!

And it’s sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
Sing to me, Quebecois boys!

(no instruments, and layer the English with the French for this a cappella bit)

Sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
(translation, four measures after)
Sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
(translation)
Sing to me, Quebecois laddies, oh sing to me
(translation, and hold out the final French word for a couple extra measures before returning to the English)

Sing to me, Quebecois boys!

(four beats of stomping, and then this should kick into a reel in the same key, with as much dangerous podorythmie as possible!)

September 19, 2011 by
Music

Zouk practice!

As of this weekend I can say that I can reliably more or less play, without PDF assistance, five tunes: Banish Misfortune, Road to Lisdoonvarna, Swallow’s Tail Jig, Morrison’s Jig, and Si Bheag Si Mhor. I’ve spent some time on Shine specifically trying to play through Lisdoonvarna and Swallow’s Tail and Morrison’s, since Matt likes to link those up in a set at session.

But! I’ve also broken out my bouzouki for the first time in a while. For a variety of reasons!

For one thing, this gorgeous fellow over here is enough to make any amateur bouzouki player go YES I’d like to do that, please!

Simon Beaudry

For another, and more importantly, I’ve wanted to actually learn proper fingerwork on the bouzouki and big mand for YEARS NOW, and Session is finally giving me motivation to do so. I look at the musicians who know what they’re actually doing at session, and note how they’re able to switch happily off between this instrument and that. I want to do that. I HAVE THE INSTRUMENTS. So I clearly need to practice these tunes on multiple ones. Because if I have the instruments, I should be PLAYING them.

My friend userinfobrightbeak said something to me on Facebook as well which really resonated with me: i.e., how it seems to her that I have found “the heartbeat that nurtures your soul”. Irish/Celtic trad, especially the branch of it in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, is exactly that. It’s exactly the same reaction I had when I first saw Great Big Sea way back when and something in me said THAT! I WANT TO PLAY THAT!

It nurtures my soul indeed to be reminded of this. \0/

And this, by way, is my bouzouki! Her name is Spring. Say hi, Spring!

Spring Says *TWANG*

Spring Says *TWANG*

So today, in addition to practicing the aforementioned five tunes on Shine, I got out Spring as well and staggered my way through Banish Misfortune. I’ve got a mandolin fakebook with a whole lot of tunes in it, and since Spring and my big mand Autumn are both tuned to GDAE, I can use the fakebook to slowly pluck out the tunes on them both. I’ve already used that fakebook once to try to learn Swallow’s Tail REEL on Spring–and now it’ll be wonderful to start finding more of the tunes we play in session, too. I’m not sure yet whether Spring or Autumn will wind up being my stringed instrument of choice in session, we’ll have to see–another person showed up last time with the same model mand that Autumn is (a Trinity College), so I think I’ll favor Spring for a while. Spring’s got more responsive strings anyway!

September 18, 2011 by
Quebecois Music

Le sort des amoureux: Album review post!

Just finished listening to Le sort des amoureux, the album by Éric and Simon Beaudry! This was fun. Lower-key than much of the Quebecois music I have now, but fun nonetheless.

Éric and Simon trade off singing lead vocals on the various tracks, and I’m beginning to see that while they have very similar voices, I can in fact tell which one is singing when, even without consulting the liner notes. I’ve come to know Simon’s voice well of course from the tracks he sings lead on for Le Vent du Nord, even though there are only a few of those, so that’s helpful! I prefer Simon’s voice; it’s got a bit of a darker, richer flavor to it. But that said, Éric sings very well too. (This, I note, is pretty much what I can say about both of their singing voices when I don’t speak French–it means I punt back to thinking about the character of the voices doing the singing, instead of the actual words. Which is actually kind of fun in its own right.)

Note also: the title track, “Le sort des amoureux” (“The fate of love”, according to Google Translate), has the Beaudry boys singing together a capella. NICE. They sound rather haunting together, and while they don’t sing with the force of the lead singers in their other bands (Nicolas Boulerice, I am looking at you, monsieur), they blend very, very well.

Meanwhile, though, I also have to give the album high marks for significant levels of bouzouki! All video evidence I’ve been able to find to date suggests that Éric may actually have more bouzouki awesome in his musical arsenal than Simon does–but this is only because I’m seeing vids of Éric playing bouzouki as a lead instrument, including doing some really nice fingerwork, vs. Simon playing bouzouki as a rhythm instrument. The liner notes on this album, anyway, are crediting the zouk specifically to Éric. And that’s all good. I REALLY like the zouk on these tracks; it stands out very clearly, and gives it a flavor I do not actually get from most other albums I’ve got, Quebecois or otherwise!

There are several guest musicians here too, so it’s not just the Beaudrys. In particular, I’m noticing the name of André Marchand showing up heavily in the credits of the liner notes–who I now know as one of the members of Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer, and a former member of La Bottine Souriante, as I posted about before! (He apparently produced this album for the Beaudrys, and if this is an example of his production prowess, I can only say ‘well done, monsieur!’) The second to last track is all instrumental, and has seven people total playing on it, so the energy kicks up closer to what I hear from oh, say, Le Vent du Nord. High bouzouki there too. 😀

The last track in particular is also noteworthy. It’s also a capella, and is in fact sung by an 81-year-old (at the time of recording) lady named Clémence Gagné. If I understand the translation I’m getting off the liner notes correctly, she apparently taught the Beaudrys this song, and they invited her to sing it on the album. Éric sings along with her. Aw. <3

Last but not least: the album artwork's really kind of adorable! It's got this whole Chutes-and-Ladders-like motif on the front of it, only instead of chutes, there are a couple of snakes! And there are some cute little sketches of a guy and his sweetheart, including one charming little one of him holding out a bouquet of flowers to her. I'm glad to have a physical copy of this CD for the artwork alone–but also because lyrics are provided on the liner notes, which is extremely helpful given my lack of French, as it means I can try to translate them.

So yeah. Generally recommended for anybody who likes trad in the general category of "laid back and groovy, with a bit of blues and country twang to it", as well as anyone who likes the sound of French lyrics! If you're in the US and you want the album, CD Baby is your friend. This particular album’s CD-only, but the CD Baby page does have listenable samples, so check it out!

And the Beaudrys’ site for the album lives right over here. You can see the aforementioned adorable artwork on the landing page! (Note that while they have a button for French and a button for English, only the French one actually works. But you can always load the site up in Chrome and have it translate for you on the fly!)

ETA: Spelling of album title corrected! Oops!

ETA #2: userinfoframlingem says the title is correctly translated to The Fate of Lovers, which makes better sense, and goes very well with the aforementioned adorable artwork! Thanks, userinfoframlingem!

September 17, 2011 by
Music

Day of Bouzouki Player Awesomeness, Part 2

So yeah! Those Beaudry boys? Making a powerful showing today. But they have their work cut out for them when it comes to the OTHER bouzouki player I adore. 😉 (Well, the other one who isn’t like, y’know, my partner and stuff, she said, looking meaningfully at userinfosolarbird…)

Y’all saw my post asking for Newfoundland band recs, right? So this morning, I think to myself–what the hell, I’ll go straight to the source. Alan, Bob, and Sean are on Twitter, I’ll ask them what THEY think we should be listening to while they’re on hiatus!

This was the result. \0/

What what wait that actually WORKED?

What what wait that actually WORKED?

The Doyle Has Spoken

The Doyle Has Spoken

I leave it as an exercise for you, O Internets, as to exactly how high-pitched my squee went. (Remember: I’m a piccolo player!)

I proceeded to get in several more Newfoundland band recs from Twitter folk as well, but as promised to The Doyle, I went and promptly checked out The Once. They are notable because Mr. Bob Hallett himself is their manager, so of course big ol’ GBS connection right there. I’ve now listened to the samples of their first album on iTunes, and yeah, I’ll be buying this. Their lead singer has a lovely voice, and while they don’t have the kind of raucous energy I love so much about the B’ys, they are very, very good. They remind me a lot more of oh, say, Solas, and that’s good, because I like Solas! And I’ll be making a definite point of checking out their new album when it drops next month!

For general reference, the other artists and bands that have been thrown at me on Twitter to check out are: Amelia Curran, Jim Fidler, the Novaks, Matthew Hornell, Hey Rosetta! (who I actually already previously knew about but had not checked out in depth), Andrew James O’Brien, Tarahan, and the Navigators (who I again also previously knew about).

Many thanks to @GBSIndyFan and @barbekresla, who threw me the Twitter recs!

Not all of these acts are trad–the Novaks appear to be more rock, and iTunes seems to think Jim Fidler is reggae. Dunno about Matthew Hornell or Amelia Curran yet either. But I’m going to give them all a shot! (Though in the case of the Navigators, I’m apparently going to have to work a little harder because their albums are not on iTunes.)

So yeah! Great big pile of Newfoundland band recs! And a tweet from The Doyle Himself! What a way to end a week! \0/

September 16, 2011 by
Quebecois Music

Day of Bouzouki Player Awesomeness, Part 1

As previously squeed about, I have been alerted to De Temps Antan, one of at least two bands known to me in which Éric Beaudry is one of the musicians. These guys shot up in interest to me when I then learned that André Brunet, brother of Rejean Brunet of Le Vent du Nord, is ALSO in this band–and all three of the guys in it are either former or current members of La Bottine Souriante!

So I went and listened to the samples of both their albums on iTunes, and they had me absolutely sold on the first track I listened to when they broke out the mouth reels and then WOO! BOUZOUKI SOLO! Turns out that this particular Beaudry brother, like Simon, is a bouzouki player, and this appears to be his primary De Temps Antan instrument. Found some vids of them playing as well, and yep, it’s official, dude can PLAY.

They appear to have a YouTube account, and here’s their vid of the song in question!

Also? if I weren’t already going to buy these guys’ two albums because of that, they also made me laugh out loud just at the sight of one of their track titles: “Suite du Laptop”.

This has now also definitely bumped up the priority on finding more recent La Bottine Souriante, since all of the LBS I have predates Éric’s joining!

Relatedly, I came home tonight to find the Beaudry brothers’ album, Le Sort Des Amoureux, waiting for me in the mail! I’m very much looking forward to giving this a listen, especially now that I know Éric is also a bouzouki player. From what I’m hearing in song samples and in the DTA vids I’ve found so far, vocally, he sounds a lot like Simon. It’ll be fun to see if I can distinguish their voices. Fortunately, the album I’ve just received helpfully calls out in the liner notes which of them is singing lead on which songs.

September 16, 2011 by