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Article in Main Street August
2004.
Music,
Song & Dancing Feet
On July 24th,
Morin Heights provided a wonderful musical experience, with its
2nd Wild Roots music and art festival.
Image: Charlie
Guerin at the keyboard.
To
Shawna Dunbar, Penny Rose, Main Street
(official
sponsor of the event) and all the wonderful people who donated their
time and effort – A big Thank you! The weather has
certainly co-operated , and despite the many other events, (including
another music festival,) held on the same day, we had a small crowd of
avid music lovers who filled the place with good vibes.
Everybody enjoyed
the day! There was a good
choice of music, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Blues, Jazz, &
Instrumental. Grass on the Porch (the Hay family et al)
provided Blue Grass, Michael Nerenberg sang and played the keyboard,
Alain Lamontagne gave a great performance with his Harmonica,
Ian Hanchet gave a repeat performance with daughter Emma,
Dave Clark played his acoustic guitar and then joined Bill
Garret and Sue Lothrop with country folk, The Trio of
Doom provided African beat, Chris & Jesse Rawlings gave a
set of folk music; We even sang along: “Everybody's going to win
sometimes...!
The
group Studio A - Charles Guerin, David Devine, and Peter
Dowst played Jazz & Swing. Charlie opened with the
Olympic Theme, moved on to Sunset, Sunrise (from
Fiddler on the Roof), and
what a wonderful arrangement it was! Meredith Marshall joined
them and opened with the song "I Got a Song That Ain't Got No
Melody." They really had us hip-hopping! Meredith
said: "Put your hands together" and she got us going. Holy Byers
was dancing, and... Michael Nerenberg, who had just performed on stage,
really got into it!
Bill Russell and Penny Rose were the MCs of the event. At
some point, Don Stewart was on the stage with them. Penny
mentioned that they were the original 3 who ran Rose's Café in Morin
Heights (now a day care center) where folk and country music started in
Morin Heights.
There was a
raffle with prizes from Gourmet du Village and
many others, some donated by Rhonda Vaillancourt, who also
helped with the cafeteria for the musicians and
volunteers.
La
Corde de Bois, closed the festival with a superb
performance of Québécois, traditional & contemporary folklore.
The group’s musicians are: David Gauthier (winner of the
2004 CCL award for artistic creation), Pascal Tremblay base and
saxophone, Roc Gagnon Vocal and guitar, Robin Boulianne,
Fiddle, vocal and tap (replacing percussion instrument.) Roc
Gagnon opened by saying that La Cord de Bois is pleased to bring
their Québécois music to the 2nd Wild Roots Festival and thanked the
audience for supporting live music. Despite the scant audience,
La Corde de Bois gave a wonderful performance with all
their hearts!
Robin
Boulianne mesmerized us…. I held my breath in awe of this fantastic
musician who sings with a beautiful voice, plays the fiddle skilfully, and taps his feet, all at the same
time, in perfect coordination. Simply could not stop watching
Robin on his pedestal with those dancing feet!
Jack Burger,
publisher of Main Street, who sponsored this event, Sue McDonald
(Main Street reporter), Pat Rogers and Joan Stewart, were all on their
feet, during La Corde de Bois performance.
Roc Gagnon sang «Ça va
venir, ne vous décourager pas!»
I certainly hope that
this group will return to next year’s Wild Roots Festival.
Note: This
article was edited by Jack Burger and a photo of Ian Hanchet with family
included. The scanned article is shown at the top of this
page.
Colours
and dimensions artwork may be slightly different from the original.
