Brownstein: Anglo performs new French tune for solidarity and laughter

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Cliff Stevens can be hysterically self-deprecating, in English and French.

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The veteran Anglo blues singer/guitarist from Montreal performs his latest song in French, in an attempt not only to show his particular acceptance of Québec culture, but also to convey to some skeptics that he, like other non-Franks, also they can belong here. .

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The darkly witty tune, co-written with partner Kim Feeney, is called, perhaps appropriately, Tête carrée. I enclose some verses, as arranged by him:

“Je suis une tête carrée
Pis je sais pas parler comme y faut

Mon français est poche
Pis mes dents sont croches
Mais au moins month cheveux sont beau

J’aime le monde Québécois
Parcequ’y sont passionées

Ouais ouais ouais.
Je suis une tête carrée
J’écoute Bruno Pelletier on the radio

J’aime bain les Têtes à claques
Je joue du Offenbach dans mon auto

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J’aime manger ma petite poutine

South of the Plateau Mt-Royal
Ouais ouais ouais…”

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Stevens also has his serious moments.

At a time when some politicians here take a divide-and-conquer approach with their base, certainly when dealing with Anglos and Allos, Stevens would like to bust old myths about, well, les têtes carrées.

“Quebec is my home. There is no other place you’d rather be. I’ve spent time in other parts of Canada, but away from here it’s always like culture shock,” says Stevens. “Like so many other Anglo-Saxons here, I’m sick of this old stereotype that we don’t fit in, that we haven’t adapted, that we don’t speak French, that we don’t participate in the culture. It’s all wedge politics. We are not the enemy. I shovel a lot of snow and love the Habs as much as everyone else here.”

Stevens had not consciously planned to compose Tête carrée. He evolved from a table talk with his partner Feeney with the October 3 election, the very day of his birthday, just around the corner.

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“It kind of germinated from there. It all came together, and the song took on a life of its own,” she says. “I thought, perhaps naively, that maybe this song would be my way of trying to unify a divided Quebec with a bit of self-effacing humor that everyone should be able to relate to. What is there to lose?

stevens is 13^the Anglophone Quebecois of generation, with his family first putting down roots here in 1649. Despite his jokes in song, he speaks perfect French. In his youth, he lived in Paris for a year. And later he spent considerable time performing in Morocco.

“However, when I was a kid growing up in Montreal, I was often called tête carrée and told I didn’t fit in,” recalls Stevens, who now lives in a mostly frank part of St-Lambert. “Yeah, I went to English schools, and since my parents were divorced, I moved around the west side of town quite a bit. But then, fast-forward a few years: I really made an effort to fit in, like so many other Anglos who didn’t move, who decided this was home.”

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Stevens began performing Tête carrée live in front of Québec club crowds in Quebec City, the Laurentians, and Old Montreal.

“At first I didn’t know what to expect. But they loved the song. As soon as they heard the words ‘tête carrée’, the audience roared with laughter and became very exuberant. And they hugged him. I even got standing ovations. He was totally wild. Now I hope that the Anglophone public can accept it in the same way”.

Stevens is as optimistic as he sounds. It is probably no coincidence that his latest album in English is called Better Days, which he wrote, produced and recorded during the pandemic.

“When the pandemic hit, everything stopped for me as a musician, just like it did for just about everyone around the world,” says Stevens, whose guitar heroes include Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher. “I went from doing 250 dates a year around the world to just 20 gigs, mostly local, in two and a half years.

“Better Days may be a blues album, but it’s really about hope, that better days are ahead. I really feel that they will come soon. We could certainly all use them.”

To see Cliff Stevens perform Tête carrée, go to:

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