Patrick Verbeke - Echos d'Acadie (2004)

> The album

 From the coasts of Acadia to the bayous of Acadiana

Acadia must not be mistaken with Quebec although they have in common  their French origin and language. A colony of New France, this largely maritime territory on the south-east side of the Saint-Laurent river, included parts of New Brunswick, the Gaspe peninsula, Nova Scotia, Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island), Isle Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island) (all being united in what are now the Maritime provinces of Canada), and the north part of Maine in the US.

Acadia in 1755. ►

The musical folklore of Acadia finds its origin in that of the old French western provinces along the Atlantic ocean and Manche channel, before encountering other influences like English and Celtic music (Welsh, Scottish and Irish), but also blues, especially for the Acadians of Louisiana (Cajuns) after the Great Upheaval of the 1750s-60s.

This album-tribute to Acadia's folk and history was a nice idea. First, because apart from a few musicians from Louisiana like Zachary Richard or French Canadians like Félix Leclerc or Robert Charlebois, not many artists have sung about its culture and musical folklore. Secondly because it comes from a French "cousin" from across the Atlantic (where Acadians have their original cultural and linguistic roots) who purposely sing in French. An authentic Gaulish like me couldn't but appreciate this homage to "francophonie". ;-)

Many people know zydeco and Cajun music, but fewer are familiar with the Acadian history and culture. So Patrick Verbeke, an active member of the French blues scene, has contributed to fill this unfortunate gap in a great musical and quite poetic album after several visits to Acadian regions in Canada and Louisiana. Moreover he was from Normandy, a French province that exported many settlers to New France as soon as 1604.
Technically, this album is even with the best productions from across the Atlantic. The number of musicians who took part to the recordings is amazing, and the sound is great. The album is woven with unusually rich guitar threads : acoustic or electric, plain or vibrato, slide, pedal steel, dobro…, and great keyboard work too. Special mention to the impressive multi-instrumentist Denys Lable, excellent on anything with strings.

Musically, if blues constitutes the foundation of Verbeke's work, the Acadian specific color is rather found in his lyrics, summoning images from either sides of Acadia : Eastern Canada and Louisiana.
The nice rocking "Coeurs Solidaires" builds a bridge between Old and New France . The excellent country blues "Bluesy City" evokes the geographical distance from the country of the blues, Mississippi (although it's not really an Acadian area), calling memories of Robert and Tommy Johnson, Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The nostalgic soul ballad "Joe Leblanc" tells of a lonesome Louisiana fiddler, and "Orage" (Thunderstorm), a heavy blues noticeable for its great slide guitar work, is premonitory of 2005 major hurricane Katrina that devastated coastal Louisiana.

Back to the birth of Acadia in 1604 with the ballad "L'Ordre Du Bon Temps" devoted to the first settlement by French explorers-adventurers. The funky "Evangelina", probably the high light of the album, recalls a famous (fictional) figure of the Cajun history (again, read below), while "Acadiana" is a declaration of love to a cultural identity split between Canada and Louisiana. Finally, this poetic and idealistic musical voyage would be biased without a tribute to the natives inhabitants of Acadia, the Mic-Mac Amerindians : that's the excellent "Henry Membertou (Blues des Indiens Mic Mac)".
A really nice album from Patrick Verbeke, who was one of the most prominent and gifted musician of the French blues scene, but unfortunately died last August 2021... ■

Evangeline, the cultural icon of the Cajuns

The Great Upheaval of Acadians occurred between 1755 and 1764, during the war between the French and the British, known as the French and Indian War. The British who finally got hold of the Eastern coastal provinces of New France (Canada) known as Acadia, decided to deport the Acadians, those rebel French-speaking and catholic population who fought to keep their cultural identity. They were sent south to the British colonies which would later become the embryo of the United States after the Independence War, to Great-Britain, to France or the French West Indies.
Many of these deportees decided to return to the New World and embarked for the then Spanish colony of Louisiana where they settled in an isolated region of swamps and bayous. Their descendants are known as Cajuns, a distorted pronunciation of the French word  "acadien" : acadian > cadian > cajun.

Evangeline is the central character of the famous epic poem of 19th century writer Henry W. Longfellow set during the Great Upheaval, "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie" published in 1847. It tells the tragic romantic story of a young Acadian woman, Evangeline Bellefontaine, desperately searching for her beloved Gabriel Lajeunesse, after they were separated during the deportation. Both characters were inspired to Longfellow by a supposedly true story he heard of, that of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux.

▲The statue of Evangeline and the famous oaktree in St Martinville. ▼

For Acadians, both in Canada and Louisiana, Evangeline became the iconic symbol of their tribulations and of their cultural identity.  In St Martinville, a little town on the bayou Teche in the heart of the Cajun country (Acadiana), can be found a statue of the famous young woman and the old "Evangeline Oak" under which she used to seat and cry in despair in the Longfellow poem. Like other famous literary fictional character, she became and is revered as a real historical figure in the popular Acadian/Cajun culture.
Further up north in Louisiana, can also be found the Evangeline Parish, and west of Lafayette, in the Acadia Parish, the village of Evangeline. ■

Movie

► "Autour du Blues", a documentary movie featuring Patrick Verbeke among the cream of French bluesmen : https://youtu.be/WzDdRHnQkkg

Live videos

► Patrick Verbeke YT channel and his Blues PV Shows : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ0IXZKdxyZ4gzTdcqHIGxA/videos

► Short interview during his second visit in Montreal : https://youtu.be/BHKDL7h7C3k

► Verbeke father (Patrick) & son (Steve) :

→ "See that my grave is kept clean" in 2009 : https://youtu.be/p3mzvTOdSVs

→ at the Volcanic Blues Festival, Le Mont Dore, in 2010 : https://youtu.be/hHAqb5Bi2lQ

→ and both with Bernard Allison : https://youtu.be/hYiDxoObV8E

► With Pascal "Bako" Michaelian in 2020 : https://youtu.be/E6a9erApqWg & https://youtu.be/pY0AcxjF7sw

► With the Witch Doctors at the Portobello Rock Club in 2019 : https://youtu.be/uUySXtaNQGs

► With Ahmed Mouici, David Locatelli & Pascal "Bako" Michaelian in 2019 : https://youtu.be/gtaPLvyJqYA

► At the "Melting Potes" (Les Lilas) in 2019 :

→ with Pascal "Bako" Michaelian (harmonica) : https://youtu.be/Ao7FnndW3E4

→ with Philippe Poitevin (harmonica), Jeannot Cirillo (drums) & Emmanuel Chabbey (bass) : https://youtu.be/-led4DX5zXo

► With Vincent "Butch" Bucher, Pascal Lasnier & Christophe Gaillot in 2019 : https://youtu.be/yZ58DG77whc

► "St James Infirmary" in 2001 : https://youtu.be/TlArQsB-nDc

► Jam with Roland Tchakounté, Xavier Pillac, Maria Popkiewicz, Lance Harrison, Simon "Shuffle" Boyer… at the Blues sur Seine Fest. in 2000 : https://youtu.be/uBlxwq5GCM8

► With Stan Noubard Pacha (guitar), Cédric Lesouquet (bass), Fabrice Millérioux (drums) & Ghyslin Di Sacco (piano) in Caen (Steve Verbeke's home town) in 1999 : https://youtu.be/msxYicP8mIo

► At the Issoudun Guitar Festival :

→ in 1997 : https://youtu.be/u8WEmT20l38

→ in 2005 : https://youtu.be/BOQiMlbU2Tw

► With Benoit Blue Boy in 1986 : https://youtu.be/W3eRLn9gAQU

► With Paul Personne & Benoit Blue Boy at L'Utopia (Paris) in 1980 : https://youtu.be/b3QDP9A29Gs

+ interview of the trio : https://youtu.be/fvh9D30YikU

With Paul Personne (center) and Benoit Blue Boy (right). ▲

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