20 years of Break union | Cowboy Generations

Two decades after the publication of Union break, the album that made them a major group, the Fringant Cowboys remain the most important Quebec group. Not just for their generation, but for those before and after.

Alexandre Vigneault
The Press

Dean Kalaidjian

His great meeting with the dashing Cowboys, Dean Kalaidjian lived it in Woodstock in Beauce in the summer of 2001. “It was love at first sight”, he says. And it lasts. Since then, he has seen the Cowboys on stage nearly 230 times. “I love that the group is involved in the environment and social causes, but for me, it happens on stage, says the man who says he is over 45 and under 60. Their show energy is great. I love the lyrics, but as I’m an English speaker, it’s more the rhythms of the songs that I like, it’s very danceable. » Union break, in his view, is the record that launched the band “for life”. “Afterwards, they had several records on which there were always at least four or five good songs and that’s rare”, judges Dean. He believes that the Cowboys are always renewing themselves and that Jean-François Pauzé has matured a lot as an author. “It’s impossible not to continue to follow them! »

Bruno Cadoret

Have you heard of “Dashing Cousins”? It was an association of European dashing Cowboys fans. Bruno Cadoret, who discovered the music of the Cowboys by chance in a bar in Montreal, is one of the co-founders. “I had never heard something like that, which took me either by the texts or the music, this authenticity,” said the 52-year-old fan, who had reported the album Tie your tuque in his luggage. Bruno is still a Cowboys fan. The Press joined him at the end of February, the day after a concert by the group at Bercy, which he had attended. What does he like? “It has always been the texts, committed, eco-friendly, social and humorous that talk about everyday life. They haven’t changed too much either, although they have evolved musically. It’s more sought after now. There are textures and arrangements that weren’t there before. »

Coralie Vigneault

“For me, the Cowboys were classic Quebec songs,” says Coralie Vigneault (no relation to the author of these lines), who was born a year before Union break. She first saw the group at the Festival d’été de Québec about five years ago. “I typed all their albums in anticipation of this show. I had a crush on several records, but I became even more of a fan when I saw them on stage. It was on another level, she said. There’s spontaneity in Cowboys shows, you never know what to expect and you’re always pleasantly surprised. His favorite song? Louis Hebert, which talks about French and collective amnesia. “It’s a very little known song and it’s a shame because the text is great and the instrumental minute at the end too, she judges. It is even essential. »

Jane Fontaine

Jeanne Fontaine, 21, has mixed memories of her first contact with the music of Les Cowboys Fringants. Songs Shooting Stars and Nothing, two songs not very jojo, aroused discomfort in her. “I was very young,” she says. “The Cowboys, I think everyone gets to know them at some point in Quebec. Me, I discovered them more in high school. The Scrapbook Union break too. My friends and I used to listen to the Cowboys a lot. She admits that it is the lyrics that touch her first and also that she has a weakness for the song. Between two taxis. Jeanne, who is studying musicology, particularly appreciated the collaboration between the group and the Orchester symphonique de Québec a few years ago. “I really liked it because we saw the kind of struggle between popular music and classical music, she recalls, but at the same time it got married really well. »

Emilie Drouin

“When I was in high school, the song Shooting Stars really played a lot and I found her really beautiful. I wanted to learn it by heart,” says Émilie Drouin. That’s how she fell “into the Cowboys algorithm on YouTube.” She and her friends then delved into the band’s repertoire. What does he like? First the lyrics, then the melodies. And the attitude of the group. “They don’t take themselves for others, in show, and I find that fun”, she says. Émilie, who is around the age of Union break, admits not having great affinities with this record. “It’s less the kind of Cowboy songs that I enjoy,” she says. There are still some that I like on the album and that I listen to to get into it on days when I don’t feel like it. The demonstration, that gives you a day! »

Mathieu Poulin

It was through his father that Mathieu Poulin, 28, discovered the dashing Cowboys. He first remembers the room Tie your tuque. “My father has a shack in the north of Mauricie and we have a good two hours when there is no radio, so we put on CDs. We played the Cowboys record and in particular the song Hector’s shack “, he says. He and his father were singing at the top of their voices company guy, At half-mast, autumn tune, Marcel Galarneau, The demonstration And the others. After pretending not to like Quebec music in high school, because it wasn’t cool, he fell back into the Cowboys repertoire in CEGEP. “That’s when I started to really understand the lyrics, fell in love with it, and started being a real big fan,” he says. Since 2012, he has attended around 50 band shows. “A Cowboys show, you can experience it in different ways, he judges. If you’re on the balcony, you can sit down and enjoy the show. If you’re on the floor, it stirs, you dance, you let off steam, he says. There is also the show itself, which is different from time to time. There are always three or four different tunes from one show to another [dans une même tournée] and they do different shit all the time. You always have surprises. Mathieu has not yet attended a group concert with his father. “This is going to be my resolution of the year! »