Le Vent du Nord (The Wind from the North) at Lotus Friday night

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The winner of a Juno Award in the category of "Roots and Traditional Album of the Year/Group" for the cd "Maudite moisson!". Congrats guys!

I played some of their music on the "Kitchen Party" this summer--their most recent album is called "Maudite Moission!" out on the Borealis record label.

They're from Québec, and play traditional Québécois music. Their sound check was entertaining, and I was impressed by the resonance of the guys' voices. The band is made up of four musicians: Nicolas Boulerice (hurdy-gurdy, accordion, bodhran, piano, voice, foot tapping), Olivier Demers (fiddle, guitar, voice, foot tapping), Benoit Bourque (dance, accordion, bones & spoons, mandolin, voice), and their newest member, Simon Beaudry (guitar, voice).

Olivier was foot tapping/clogging on a miked piece of wooden floor board nice and loud. And Nicolas's hurdy-gurdy playing was great, esp. when he was dancing around with it The hurdy-gurdy has a distinctive sound--and LOUD once it gets cranked up! Here's what a hurdy-gurdy is.

There was a lot of step dancing going on in front of the stage. I love this type of high-energy folk dance music. It's really nice to see a diverse crowd of college students and older folks out on a lovely late summer evening enjoying music together.