Album Notes

ALBUM NOTES

1. Cos-reel; La gigue à Julie; Le reel de ma tante Lydia. A trio of tunes from three outstanding fiddlers: Henri Landry; Louis Beaudoin; and Louis “Pitou” Boudreault.

2. Parties de quadrille Verret; Ho! Les mononcles. Everyone in place for a quadrille! Two traditional selections which Lisa learned from Jules Verret are followed by an original tune in honor of Les Mononcles (Michel Bordeleau, Raynald Dupras, André Marchand and Normand Miron) from Matante Lisa.

3. Le petit Louis. Alphonse Morneau is the source of this bone-chilling ballad in which a young man murders his sweetheart and brings home her heart and tongue to his jealous mother as proof.

4. La suite des Madelinots. From Magdelan Island fiddler Avila LeBlanc, here are three rabestans (a Madelinot expression for anything small, including these short tunes with a sung refrain), plus a cotillon (sandwiched between the second and third rabestan).

5. Quadrille des ancêtres; Quadrille des Laurentides. Isidore Soucy, the source of these tunes, was an old-fashioned fiddler from the small village of Ste-Blandine who played Montreal’s theaters, radio stations and television studios from the 1920s through the 1960s.

6. Le beau samedi d’été; Brandy Moïse. This song relates the misadventures of a farmer who sets off to a wedding as an honored guest with his old carthorse, a dubious female escort, and not enough cash for a gift--a sort of rural Don Quixote tale. Topped off with a Brandy which Lisa made up in honor of her fiddle. Merci, Martin Héroux!

7. Valse Virginie; Valse Arthur Leclerc. A pair of waltzes from accordionists Alfred Montmarquette and Keith Corrigan.

8. Le reel à deux Lisa; Son of a Bear; La gigue de la chaise berçante. A trio of tunes from fiddler Louis Beaudoin: Louis named the first tune (the “other” Lisa is his daughter); the second is what Louis’s father (who had struggled with the tune’s high strain) exclaimed when Louis showed him how to shift up the neck of the fiddle; the third is a nod to the rocking chair where Louis played so many good tunes.

9. La femme d’un soldat; Bonaparte’s Retreat. The woman has the last sardonic laugh in this twisted tale of the wife of a philandering drunken soldier. We march them off into darkness with a classic from the repertory of North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell.

10. Les Marionnettes. Lisa composed this tune in honor of Louis “Pitou” Boudreault, whose magical music perfectly explains the legend in Québec that a gifted fiddler can summon the Aurora Borealis (sometimes called “les marionnettes” because of their dancing lights).

11. Marche Rolande; Edmond Parizeau. Bring out your calliope and circus clowns for a march from accordionist Jean-Claude "Tico" Petit, and a cowboy hat and lasso for a Quebec-goes-western tune from Jules Verret.

12. Mon père m’y demande; La javalzurka du grain de beauté. Love sings its siren song in the heart of a young girl despite her father’s warnings. Followed by André’s composition inspired by a beauty mark whose location and owner remain a mystery.

13. Jean Boreau; Reel à pepère; La galope; Reel à pepére. Four tunes which Lisa learned from Louis Beaudoin of Burlington, Vt. With love to the Beaudoins on both sides of the border.
Contact: www.lisaornstein.com, lisa.ornstein@hotmail.com, a.marchand@videotron.ca
© 2009 André Marchand & Lisa Ornstein

1. Cos-reel; La gigue à Julie; Le reel de ma tante Lydia 3:17
2. Parties de quadrille Verret; Ho! Les mononcles 3:52
3. Le petit Louis 4:08
4. La suite des Madelinots 3:04
5. Quadrille des ancêtres; Quadrille des Laurentides 3:24
6. Le beau samedi d’été; Brandy Moïse 4:26
7. Valse Virginie; Valse Arthur Leclerc 4:12
8. Le reel à deux Lisa; Son of a Bear; La gigue de la chaise berçante 3:25
9. La femme d’un soldat; Bonaparte’s Retreat 6:12
10. Les Marionnettes 3:16
11. Marche Rolande; Edmond Parizeau 3:50
12. Mon père m’y demande; La javalzurka du grain de beauté 5:08
13. Jean Boreau; Reel à pépère; La galope; Reel à pépère itou 4:06

Lisa Ornstein - fiddle / violon
André Marchand - guitar, feet, and vocals / guitare, pieds et voix
Michel Bordeleau - snare / caisse claire
Daniel Roy - bones and jew’s harp / os et guimbarde