There’s not just Céline: the story of Quebec’s flagship albums told in a podcast

Hosted and produced by Sébastien Pomerleau, the Télé-Québec Cultural Factory podcast invites music lovers to rediscover six albums that have marked the musical history of Quebec from a new angle.

The works chosen were not necessarily selected for their popularity, but rather because they marked a turning point in the careers of the artists who created them, while offering something new to the public. If I could explain “left field” with another word, I might say “determining”explains Sébastien Pomerleau.

When we talk about the album The tremors come to a standstill, it wasn’t Karkwa’s best-selling album, but it was definitely a turning point in the band’s musical trajectory. If we talk about Last humansit was the album that allowed Richard Desjardins to confirm that he had the right to do this as a job.

The title of the podcast, It’s not just Celine, is a nod to the diva who is in everyone’s conversation when it comes to Quebec music. Far from wanting to deny the importance of Celine Dion, the little joke invites us to remember the other important achievements of artists who may not have achieved the same notoriety on a national or international scale.

Black Ball, Alabama and the Ku Klux Klan

Each fifteen-minute episode is based on interviews with the artists behind the albums, but also with people around them at the time. We discover several anecdotes and memories, interspersed with extracts from the albums in question.

Thanks to the testimony of director Peter Alves, we learn, among other things, that Georges Thurston, alias Boule Noire, recorded his first album of the same name in Alabama, in the United States, at the mythical Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, which has hosted artists such as James Brown, Paul Simon and the Rolling Stones.

The place was popular with R’n’B fans, thanks in particular to the studio’s house band, The Swampers, who mastered the style to perfection. The Muscle Shoals also presented itself as a rare oasis of peace for black people, when the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was still very active in Alabama in the 1970s.

According to an anecdote that was not found in the podcast, compact format requires, Boule Noire and the KKK had a brief confrontation.

Boule Noire had gone out to buy something at the store, and [les autres] heard a car coming very fast and tires screeching in the gravel of the entrance to the studio. Another car sped byexplains Ariane Gratton-Jacob, content manager for the podcast. Boule Noire had been chased by rednecks.

This misadventure will result in the intervention of the county sheriff, who will fine the speeders before befriending Boule Noire and Peter Alves, who still corresponds with him to this day.

A concept that can be declined almost ad infinitum

Over the episodes, which are full of information of the genre, we can also learn that Richard Desjardins never really wanted to make a career in music, doubting, among other things, the quality of his voice. That was before he compared himself to others.

Someone who didn’t have a beautiful singing voice like [Salvatore] Adamo or Frank Sinatra, it didn’t matter. Leonard Cohen, you can’t say he was a fabulous voice, nor Bob Dylan, nor Gilles Vigneaulthe explains.

With It’s not just Celine, the La Fabrique culturelle team holds in its hands a concept that can be replicated over several seasons, given the vast musical repertoire of Quebec. Sébastien Pomerleau and Ariane Gratton-Jacob can’t confirm anything at the moment, but they hope this is just the beginning.

The episodes on Fred Fortin, Boule Noire, Richard Desjardins and Karkwa are already on the website of La Fabrique culturelle (New window). Episodes on Lhasa by Sela and Muzion will go live on May 13 and May 20, respectively.