Aside from music, singer-songwriter Daniel Lavoie, master harmonica player Gérald Laroche and two members of Hart Rouge have something else in common - they all grew up on the Prairies. To this day, their music offers inspiring impressions of their native land: its constant wind, vast emptiness, immense sky and unbridled freedom.
BY MARIO PROULX
Crisscrossing Canada recently to prepare a series of radio shows that will recount the nation's story in words and song, I was struck by how profoundly performers are influenced by their geographical roots. This seems to be particularly true of singers and musicians who were raised on the Prairies. Daniel Lavoie and Gérald Laroche, who grew up in Manitoba, and siblings Paul and Suzanne Campagne of the band Hart Rouge, who come from Saskatchewan, all spoke to me of the endless prairie and big sky of their childhoods, and of how that sense of immense space and isolation helped foster their creativity.
Driving across the Prairies for the first time, you begin to see what they mean. Distances are enormous (on Highway 6 outside Winnipeg, a sign announces: Flin Flon, 777 kilometres), the road is arrow-straight and the landscape pancake-flat for hundreds of kilometres. The whole experience can be oddly soothing. There are no trees and few other vehicles. You keep moving towards an imaginary horizon line. Yet sometimes you feel as if you've stopped moving, that time itself has come to a halt.
Blowing in the Wind
Singer Daniel Lavoie, whose albums and starring roles in the musicals Notre-Dame de Paris and Le Petit Prince propelled him to international celebrity, was born and raised in the remote Manitoba village of Dunrae. He remembers the incessant wind, cooling in summer but frigid in winter, and the sky. Lots of sky.
"The prairie is like the ocean, only upside-down, because everything happens in the sky," he said. "The prairie is empty, but the sky is incredibly full. In fact that's what I like about the Prairies - you forget about the ground, you only see the sky." Yet, Lavoie added, the prairie is also a place of secrets. "My favourite childhood memories are of all the nooks and crannies and recesses and hidden places that you don't see when you look out at the horizon. But if you look closely, there are small ravines everywhere, small gullies and valleys where you can hide, where there are all sorts of rabbits, hares, plants and birds. That's what I loved most about the Prairies as a child - disappearing into its ravines and gullies."
Or as Lavoie's song Jour de Plaine puts it, albeit loosely translated:
There are days on the prairie when you see as far as the ocean
There are days on the prairie when you see past the ends of the Earth.
Métis Heritage
But Manitoba isn't just prairie. It's also a land of some 100,000 lakes, ranging in size from small pockets of water to inland seas. Back in the fur-trading era, French voyageurs came here in large numbers to hunt and to trade with First Nations peoples. They married Ojibway, Cree and Sauteux women and raised families, giving rise to the Métis nation, who in the 19th century accounted for the largest proportion of the population on the Prairies. The darkest chapter in their history came when the Métis fought unsuccessfully under Louis Riel to protect their lands from federal forces. Riel was then hanged on November 16, 1885.
Today the Métis have regained a sense of pride in their culture and heritage. Gifted musician and storyteller Gérald Laroche, whose ancestors came to Canada with Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, often talks in concert about his Métis roots. The harmonica maestro owns and plays more than 60 harmonicas, along with the penny whistle, the Indian mouth bow, fiddle bow, jaw harp and other percussion instruments. Laroche tours Canada and Europe, playing his unique music and telling stories and legends. The French in particular are fascinated by the soundscapes he creates to evoke the Prairies, complete with the whistle of the north wind, the cry of an eagle and the tempo of time marching on.
"I had incredible freedom in my youth, running around the forests, lakes and rivers of northern Manitoba," Laroche recalled. "That spirit was passed down to me from my parents and grandparents. The prairie is a place of freedom. You have all the space you need, to reflect and to be creative. We have the same spirit of adventure, of freedom, that both our French and First Nations ancestors had. I travel all over the world, but I always have to come back to the Prairies. It's in my blood."
Part of one of Laroche’s Métis tales goes:
Every secret has a story
Every story has a dance
Every dance has an ending
Every ending has a beginning.
Wide-Open Spaces
After visiting Winnipeg and its French Quarter, St. Boniface, to tour forts and museums that depict early settlement, the childhood home of author Gabrielle Roy and sites related to Louis Riel, I drove on to Saskatchewan, home to the Campagne family.
Paul and Suzanne Campagne are members of the band Hart Rouge, and the spirit of their prairie origins flows through the group's recent country-folk albums. Descended from immigrants who came from Normandy in 1905, the Campagnes grew up in Willow Bunch, a small French-speaking community in south-central Saskatchewan, just 50 kilometres from the Montana border. Willow Bunch was founded by the Métis and settled by newcomers from Belgium, Acadia, Quebec and Brittany.
Paul and Suzanne have lived in Montreal for years, but the Prairies still lie in their hearts. "Our memories are of wide-open spaces and sunsets over fields of wheat, barley and mustard," says Suzanne. "It's a space that's very much alive. The sound of the wind is constant. And the stars at night - it's as if there are three times as many stars as anywhere else in the world. We remember infinity, and freedom. But you have to be born there - otherwise it seems so empty."
So empty that you can pick out a village 100 kilometres away by the glow of its lights reflected against the night sky. So infinite that neighbouring farms are often 15 kilometres apart. Out on the prairie, everything is slower, longer, further...
source: Canadian Tourism Commision
This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Click here for more information on Manitoba
BY MARIO PROULX
Crisscrossing Canada recently to prepare a series of radio shows that will recount the nation's story in words and song, I was struck by how profoundly performers are influenced by their geographical roots. This seems to be particularly true of singers and musicians who were raised on the Prairies. Daniel Lavoie and Gérald Laroche, who grew up in Manitoba, and siblings Paul and Suzanne Campagne of the band Hart Rouge, who come from Saskatchewan, all spoke to me of the endless prairie and big sky of their childhoods, and of how that sense of immense space and isolation helped foster their creativity.
Driving across the Prairies for the first time, you begin to see what they mean. Distances are enormous (on Highway 6 outside Winnipeg, a sign announces: Flin Flon, 777 kilometres), the road is arrow-straight and the landscape pancake-flat for hundreds of kilometres. The whole experience can be oddly soothing. There are no trees and few other vehicles. You keep moving towards an imaginary horizon line. Yet sometimes you feel as if you've stopped moving, that time itself has come to a halt.
Blowing in the Wind
Singer Daniel Lavoie, whose albums and starring roles in the musicals Notre-Dame de Paris and Le Petit Prince propelled him to international celebrity, was born and raised in the remote Manitoba village of Dunrae. He remembers the incessant wind, cooling in summer but frigid in winter, and the sky. Lots of sky.
"The prairie is like the ocean, only upside-down, because everything happens in the sky," he said. "The prairie is empty, but the sky is incredibly full. In fact that's what I like about the Prairies - you forget about the ground, you only see the sky." Yet, Lavoie added, the prairie is also a place of secrets. "My favourite childhood memories are of all the nooks and crannies and recesses and hidden places that you don't see when you look out at the horizon. But if you look closely, there are small ravines everywhere, small gullies and valleys where you can hide, where there are all sorts of rabbits, hares, plants and birds. That's what I loved most about the Prairies as a child - disappearing into its ravines and gullies."
Or as Lavoie's song Jour de Plaine puts it, albeit loosely translated:
There are days on the prairie when you see as far as the ocean
There are days on the prairie when you see past the ends of the Earth.
Métis Heritage
But Manitoba isn't just prairie. It's also a land of some 100,000 lakes, ranging in size from small pockets of water to inland seas. Back in the fur-trading era, French voyageurs came here in large numbers to hunt and to trade with First Nations peoples. They married Ojibway, Cree and Sauteux women and raised families, giving rise to the Métis nation, who in the 19th century accounted for the largest proportion of the population on the Prairies. The darkest chapter in their history came when the Métis fought unsuccessfully under Louis Riel to protect their lands from federal forces. Riel was then hanged on November 16, 1885.
Today the Métis have regained a sense of pride in their culture and heritage. Gifted musician and storyteller Gérald Laroche, whose ancestors came to Canada with Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, often talks in concert about his Métis roots. The harmonica maestro owns and plays more than 60 harmonicas, along with the penny whistle, the Indian mouth bow, fiddle bow, jaw harp and other percussion instruments. Laroche tours Canada and Europe, playing his unique music and telling stories and legends. The French in particular are fascinated by the soundscapes he creates to evoke the Prairies, complete with the whistle of the north wind, the cry of an eagle and the tempo of time marching on.
"I had incredible freedom in my youth, running around the forests, lakes and rivers of northern Manitoba," Laroche recalled. "That spirit was passed down to me from my parents and grandparents. The prairie is a place of freedom. You have all the space you need, to reflect and to be creative. We have the same spirit of adventure, of freedom, that both our French and First Nations ancestors had. I travel all over the world, but I always have to come back to the Prairies. It's in my blood."
Part of one of Laroche’s Métis tales goes:
Every secret has a story
Every story has a dance
Every dance has an ending
Every ending has a beginning.
Wide-Open Spaces
After visiting Winnipeg and its French Quarter, St. Boniface, to tour forts and museums that depict early settlement, the childhood home of author Gabrielle Roy and sites related to Louis Riel, I drove on to Saskatchewan, home to the Campagne family.
Paul and Suzanne Campagne are members of the band Hart Rouge, and the spirit of their prairie origins flows through the group's recent country-folk albums. Descended from immigrants who came from Normandy in 1905, the Campagnes grew up in Willow Bunch, a small French-speaking community in south-central Saskatchewan, just 50 kilometres from the Montana border. Willow Bunch was founded by the Métis and settled by newcomers from Belgium, Acadia, Quebec and Brittany.
Paul and Suzanne have lived in Montreal for years, but the Prairies still lie in their hearts. "Our memories are of wide-open spaces and sunsets over fields of wheat, barley and mustard," says Suzanne. "It's a space that's very much alive. The sound of the wind is constant. And the stars at night - it's as if there are three times as many stars as anywhere else in the world. We remember infinity, and freedom. But you have to be born there - otherwise it seems so empty."
So empty that you can pick out a village 100 kilometres away by the glow of its lights reflected against the night sky. So infinite that neighbouring farms are often 15 kilometres apart. Out on the prairie, everything is slower, longer, further...
source: Canadian Tourism Commision
This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Click here for more information on Manitoba
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