Homérique by Grosse Isle

ENGLISH FOLLOWS_
Formé de l’immigrant irlandais Fiachra O’Regan et des québécois Sophie Lavoie et François-Félix Roy, le groupe Grosse Isle joue un mélange de musiques et de chansons traditionnelles irlandaises et québécoises, le tout modernisé par des compositions et des chansons originales. Le nouvel album de Grosse Isle, intitulé Homérique, célèbre des personnages épiques de l’Irlande et d’ici. C’est un album en trois langues (le français, l’anglais et même l’irlandais!). Les chansons racontent des récits légendaires, notamment celui de la dame blanche de la chute Montmorency, de la pirate irlandaise Gráinne Mhaol, du Métis Louis Riel et de l’Acadien Étienne Hébert. C’est un album aux couleurs riches, avec une panoplie d’instruments typiques aux musiques traditionnelles québécoise et irlandaise. On peut y apprécier le jeu bien québécois de la violoneuse Sophie Lavoie, native du Lac-St-Jean, ainsi que la fameuse cornemuse et le whistle féérique de l’Irlandais du groupe, Fiachra O’Regan. L’album va des chansons les plus entraînantes, avec le « tapement de pied » typique du Québec, aux complaintes les plus tragiques, comme des chansons racontant la mort tragique dans les chantiers, au Québec, et durant la grande famine, en Irlande.//
ENGLISH
To be released by La Compagnie du Nord on March 7, the band’s new album Homérique is spotlighting epic characters from Ireland and around here. The material, sung in three languages (French, English and Irish), ranges from extremely catchy songs driven by that home-brewed Quebecois “foot-tapping” to the most tragic laments, such as songs recounting deaths in Quebec’s logging camps and during Ireland’s Great Famine.
Three of the songs were written and composed by Sophie Lavoie. Among these, the album opener Gráinne Mhaol aux cheveux de braise relates a 1593 meeting between famous Irish pirate and chieftain Gráinne Mhaol (pronounced “grawn wail”) and Queen Elizabeth I. Sophie also wrote Mathilde la dame blanche, which tells the Quebec legend of the White Lady, the ghost of the Montmorency Falls, as well as Étienne Hébert d’Acadie, the story of a courageous deportee who spent ten years looking for his three brothers and fiancée.
Homérique also features both traditional and original instrumental tracks. Le roi Renaud is the instrumental melody of one of the oldest traditional folk songs ever collected in Quebec: a Middle Ages-themed epic in which a dying King Renaud returns from war. Pádraic Pearse’s Set is a suite of three Irish tunes titled as a tribute to an Irish poet and nationalist who also died for his country. Two tracks are compositions by Irish musicians: Seanamhac Tube Station by John Carty and The Coming of Spring by Paddy O’Brien. Two more tunes were penned by Sophie Lavoie: Pleine Lune and Victor Delamarre (a legendary weightlifter from Lac-Saint-Jean, whose idol, whom he eventually bested in 1914, was Louis Cyr, said to be the strongest man in the world). The latter is followed by Louis Cyr en 6/8, also composed by Sophie Lavoie with inspiration from a reel by the late Jean-Claude Mirandette entitled Louis Cyr.

The traditional music trio Grosse Isle was born out of the “absolutely magical” collaboration between three exceptional musicians from Quebec and Ireland (The Irish Music Magazine). Together, Sophie Lavoie (fiddle, piano, vocals), François-Félix Roy (guitar, podorhythmie), and Fiachra O’Regan (uilleann pipes, whistle, banjo & vocals) shine with their rich and enveloping music.

grosse-isle.com