Marie-Annick Lépine inaugurated the 35th edition of the Francos on Friday evening with several comrades gathered around her, including her “best friend and colleague for 28 years” Jean-François Pauzé.
“Enweille, Marie, you are capable, Marie! » The rallying cry that proclaims the chorus of the song Les Chevres Gras, even if it dates from Marie-Annick Lépine’s last solo album, Entre Beaurivage et L’Ange-Gardien (2021), seemed to have been written especially for this Friday evening. It seemed to have been written especially for this sky through which, as is often the case in life, the few clouds did not prevent us from seeing the sun.
Capable, Marie? Certainly Marie-Annick would be capable of carrying on her shoulders, which we now know are very strong, this first show since the departure of our great Karl, of her great Karl.
During his previous visit to the Francos, in 2022, his performance had to be interrupted after only three songs, the fault of the rain. But on Friday, there was no question of anything interrupting the reunion between the singer, strong despite her understandable fragility, and an audience full of children, fleurdelisé flags and green Union Break t-shirts.
Throughout the hour, laughter will follow tears and vice versa. It happened in the space of a few seconds: the sadness in Marie-Annick Lépine’s eye during When you leave (taken from the Cowboys Fringants album On an air of deja vu) will quickly be chased away by a laugh caused by a small hiccup during an exchange on the violin with Mara Tremblay, his cosmic sister.
The one that Marie-Annick would describe as a “teenage idol” was among the many stars of this group, made up of her other cosmic sister, the guitarist and backing vocalist Catherine Durand, as well as three members of the dashing extended family, the multi -instrumentalist Daniel Lacoste, bassist Jean-Sébastien Chouinard and drummer Pierre Fortin (who would later go all out for rock with Galaxie at MTelus).
Composed of songs drawn from her solo work and her own songs included on the Cowboys Fringants records, the evening would turn in the last third to the celebration of the heritage of her group, first with Quand je r’garde , taken from Break syndical, and a fortiori from Loulou vs Loulou, taken from the testament of the Cowboys, Pub Royal. Karl Tremblay observes that hope alone has never fixed anything. But friendship can fix everything, at least for a few choruses.
This would be followed by White Hair, Marie-Annick Lépine’s sung letter to her daughters, through which she was unlikely to have managed to get through without breaking down. The few eyes still dry on the Place des Festivals would not be able to resist an unexpected version of Les Étoiles filantes, sung with the help of Pauzé, but above all with the help of everyone.
“I think he would be proud of his girlfriend,” Marie-Annick said, speaking of Karl, not long before greeting an attentive and collected crowd. We think so too.
“Ostie, Montréal! Tabarnak! You brought your buddies!” Only one song had been played, but JP “Le Pad” Tremblay already couldn’t believe it. How big would the crowd be on the Place des Festivals to toast to the sound of the Québec Redneck Bluegrass Project, this group whose media footprint is inversely proportional to the fervor of its pack of followers?
“You’ll have to hydrate well,” Le Pad will point out and, no surprise, the beer kiosks will be in high demand. A close friend of the group told us at the beginning of the evening that the QRBP team always warns of festivals where their caravan stops: above all, bring abundant quantities of cervoise.
The band had planned everything, by building a bar on the stage itself, which would have made the Plume Latraverse and the Cowboys Fringants of the good old days proud, of which the QRBP are heirs, in a way, although their half-trad, half-gypsy folk belongs to its own dirty universe. In a world where artificial beauty still seems to prevail too often, the success of this magnificent band of nice rebels is moving. Just like these many fans daring to bodysurf, despite music without drums, having only the spirit of punk.
“You’re much cuter when you’re happy,” cries Le Pad in Me d’mandait ma blonde, his ode to happiness that we pick from the sidelines of conformism, where wrinkles and paunches are synonymous of a life well lived.
“To hell with the plans for 25 years / You won’t see me coming out of my back row,” he announces in this song of which everyone seemed to know each of the syllables. Let’s hope he doesn’t keep his word.
