“Rhiannon with two n’s, Giddens with two d’s, right?” ” Yes. Rhiannon Giddens, the best singer in the world. She sells fewer albums than Taylor Swift, but her voice is incomparable, and her musical universe, from bluegrass to opera, is vast and unique. “I think I know what to do between the shows in the next few weeks,” says Patrick Norman, delighted to be shared.
And that’s how we’ve been together for three decades. Interview certainly justified by the news – in this case, his farewell tour and his passage to Coup de coeur francophone – but interview which invariably turns into a campfire around the music. Everyone adds logs of good wood. The wood from which guitars are made. Oh the beautiful flame! It’s been sparking up the conversation since Voodoo passion. In 1990, a generation of journalists and columnists, Marie-Christine Blais, Laurent Saulnier, Claude Rajotte and the author of these lines, were on fire for the popular singer and this juicy and tasty record like stewed crayfish, which was reminiscent of Daniel Lanois and Aaron Neville at the same time. Terrific guitars, an incomparable voice. It had to be known!
“And it was known! It was amazing to me. I thought I was being fooled. I had been looked down on for so long, and there I felt listened to, heard, understood. It almost couldn’t be. It was confirmed, affirmed, solidified: the splendid Whispering Shadows in 1994 proved us right. Stronger still, the album Homein 1995, opened vast horizons: the song Quarter to six sounded like good Michel Rivard mixed with James Taylor. Assumed Quebecness, Americanness of folk-rock. In the beautiful team of musicians, there was notably Jeff Smallwood.
The Fabulous Elegant Youth Cure
In 1998, Patrick Norman revived Les Fabuleux Elegants: he was in a group thus baptized in 1966. But this time, the inspiration was rather the Traveling Wilburys, which brought together George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan. A group for the pleasure of playing, everyone on an equal footing. Bourbon Gautier the tongue-in-cheek, Jeff Smallwood the wiseguy curly hair, William Dunker the not sad Belgian bassist (but in fragile health, replaced by Pierre Bertrand), shared the stage with a loose and happy Patrick Norman. “That’s when I started to give a shit. To be a star, I mean. I had found my funas I had with my buddies at school, in the garage. I had a news gang. Talented guys, and at the same time happy patients. It’s well done, really good, but rough, not sanitized. Jeff called it “ignorant music”… [Patrick rigole en douce au bout du fil…]“fucking beautiful ignorant music, man”! Jeff, it was the kid, he set us free. So the wig was over. »
It’s an album that hasn’t really been able to live its life, because of the pandemic. I had this record, a great pride for me, a dream come true. We were supposed to celebrate my 50 years of career. I had time ahead of me. There, I have less.
Euthanized, the bundle of hairs, “the cursed toupee”. In the basket, the old image, hello the authentic Patrick, who will adopt the scarf, the headband, until he comes to understand that his good head, naturally, was the most beautiful. “It took me a transition. Now I don’t even think about it anymore. I am well. It’s crazy to think that I clung to the wig for so long, to what I believed should be my image as a mainstream singer. My discovery is that the general public, precisely, was happy for me, loved me even more without artifice. It really reconciled Yvon Éthier and his character of Patrick Norman, to the point of becoming the actors of a dialogue in the biography. Patrick, Yvon and you (“Comments collected and formatted” by the essential Carmel Dumas), published in 2020.
If we went there… finally!
That year, let us remind conspirators of all stripes, a pandemic was declared. Patrick had a fresh new album, If we went there, for which he had realized a dream: to entrust the voice-guitar base to the champions of the Nashville sessions. “There were six known songs in Quebec, and some new ones. The rest of them didn’t know who Patrick Norman was, and they made the arrangements their own way. Their approach, their manner, and an extraordinarily beautiful voice to serve. It is an understatement to say that they took advantage of it. More than the person concerned, who, delighted with the result, was less so with fate. “It’s an album that hasn’t really been able to live its life, because of the pandemic. I had this record, a great pride for me, a dream come true. We were supposed to celebrate my 50 years of career. I had time ahead of me. There, I have less. »
If the tour is a farewell tour, then it is also the tour of If we go there. He’s going there. They are there. Each evening is more cherished than simply lived, since each time it is a last evening. “We have shows scheduled at least until June 2023. What the pandemic has brought me is what is missing the most on tour: being at home. At 75, I discovered that I liked it, spending time at home. »
With guitars. New melodies in mind. Future projects. “It’s also the observation that I have less dexterity than before. You have to be able to recognize your physical limits. I know that since my triple bypass in 2011. But I’m still able to play well and sing, a little less to walk from hotel to hotel. It’s correct. Music and me are for life. »
Confide in Tommy Emmanuel
And Patrick Norman to talk about his last meeting with ace guitarist Tommy Emmanuel. With Chet Atkins, in “his book”, Tommy is THE great of the greats. Reunion on the show straight from the universe, in 2021. Not just on screen. “During the day, we have a lot of time in our dressing rooms, and since he always plays with the door open, I can hear him. He sees me, waves at me. Come on in ! I enter. He closes the door. Kow! And he plays me a song inspired by his granddaughter. Just for me. I burst into tears. And I unpack everything to him, that I’m starting to have hand problems, that I never thought I’d have the chance to play with him again. I tell him: “What I’m experiencing here is overflowing happiness. I just want you to know this, because I’m getting older and it’s hard sometimes when physical abilities decline. »
“We are nine years apart, specifies Patrick. Tommy Emmanuel looked me straight in the eye and said, “Thank you for showing me how [en anglais]…” Yes, it will even happen to Tommy Emmanuel. A farewell tour, it is possible. And like Patrick Norman, he will play as long as he can. Dexterity is one thing, passion for music is another. “From that moment, I understood that I was never going to give up. »
Patrick Norman presents the show If we went there at Club Soda on November 11, as part of the Coup de coeur francophone festival, and on tour in Quebec until June 2023 (at least).