BARACHOIS HAS BEEN A VITAL FORCE in Acadian folk music for nearly a decade. They have recorded three albums and performed thousands of shows. The band members have decided to return to a more “normal” way of life after nine years of touring and are offering this last tour as a gift to their fans.
Barachois recently won the East Coast Music Award for the Roots/Traditional Group of the Year. This means a great deal to the band, as they are a Francophone group amongst all the many great traditional groups from the Maritime provinces. “To be selected for this award is a great honor as it further legitimizes our interpretation of our own tradition, which is French Acadian, one of the number of great musical traditions found in Atlantic Canada.”
A performance by Barachois offers you the chance to experience French language singing with lots of Celtic influence, including wild and fanciful fiddle music, step-dancing, incredible pump organ and harmonica playing, along with percussion, piano and guitar. The journeys recounted in their songs are both tragic and comic; the lyrics are local and idiomatic. Barachois’s musical genre is pretty loose but at the same time within the realm of serious Acadian music.
It’s clear how much the band loves their heritage as they mix contemporary with traditional music, creating a totally new sound that has to be heard to be believed. As one critic noted: “Their concert last night at the Grand Theatre was one of the most entertaining and delightful I’ve been to in the last few years. Chief among the delight was its unpredictabilty.” This is an evening at the Me&Thee that shouldn’t be missed.
$20
The two men and two women can flat-out play and sing and clog and go for a crowd’s heart. . . Friday night’s show kicked off with the eight furiously clogging feet of Barachois, captivating and adorable. . . their music was superb. David Perry, The Lowell Sun
Barachois? Le feu, mes amis!
Richard L'abbe, La Presse, Montreal
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