Hauterive, can we read in the report of last Sunday on the digital platforms of the Duty. Hauterive. Not Cat and Mara. Hauterive. However, there is no mention of the tandem in the SOCAN gala program. They were indeed presented separately at the time of the tribute performance to Plume Latraverse: Catherine Durand and then Mara Tremblay, in the same way as Marie-Pierre Arthur and Martin Deschamps were named.
“Yeesssssssssssssss! they exclaim in unison, from their side of the bistro table. “We noticed that! Mara and Catherine giggle knowingly. Mara gives it back: “We wrote it to each other! Hey, that’s our first mention! It was so obvious. There, on the too big Tohu stage, they were Hauterive. Linked. A duo. Anyone who has been to see the clip of Dolly, the first extract from the eponymous album, will have seen it: together, while remaining Cat and Mara, they are Hauterive. Wedded timbres, harmonies so vibrant that a third entity is created. This duo exists intensely. “Correct,” confirms Catherine. “We exist! adds Mara. We feel it since we started it, we are Hauterive in our heads, our bodies, our look. Country hats, both.
It could not not happen, one would say in the manner of Gaston Miron. Catherine, in her own poised way, provides the context. “She still took a while to convince me to go on this adventure, Mara. “Which specifies:” A few years! Catherine explains: “I had never written with anyone else before. For me, writing is very lonely. Open up to another person, I didn’t see how I could. For me it was no. Mara laughs: “I was really confident. Let’s say I insisted out of certainty. “Catherine relativizes:” When I finally said yes, it was only for a song. To try. For the fun. »
A first song
The song ? Round trip. Evocation of life on tour: “From the road to bed, sleep is lacking / Eyes reddened with cries and reminders / Plaguing boredom, forced stops / Keeping warm in the hollow of the spark. The experience is both common and individual. Both have quite a list of them on their curriculum, “scattered towns”, at least “a thousand hotel rooms”. The song was created “like a game of ping-pong”, summarizes Catherine. Volleys of text messages, one and the other modifying the game as it went, and presto, it was over overnight. “I was afraid of his reaction. No prank, I had been playing in his business…” Mara smiled: “And I was happy. I cried. »
Was it conceivable that it was so natural, so quickly accomplished? Bewilderment on both sides. And a strong desire to try again. Their second collaboration, The weather in advance, pushed in accelerated. We were no longer in the trials. An album was about to be born. An album was born. Beautiful, you have no idea. Straightforward folk, country on the edges, created in complete freedom as well as in perfect solidarity. Different and similar, Cat and Mara have found an unfenced playground, a field in which to frolic, a place with no other requirement than theirs, combined, to be Hauterive.
We exist! We feel it since we started it, we are Hauterive in our heads, our bodies, our look.
At the height of Hauterive
Hauterive, a small town on the North Shore a little south of Baie-Comeau. Mara was born there. Catherine is “pure and tough Montrealer”. Between the two, there is not only the 138, but, by a magical detour, a Nashville exit. A breach through which Americana rushes in, a whole continent of roots music. “I walked towards the place where Dolly was singing / It was beautiful, it was the night that blew melodies”, writes Mara in this song in the name of the mythical singer, a real travel diary in this city, beautiful and disproportionate, magnificent and glaucous. Rarely has this eldorado country been described so well.
Hauterive, an optional and imperative project once launched, is an opportunity seized with four arms and two hearts. Catherine had always wanted to sing Woman in Love, which the brothers Barry and Robin Gibb crafted so skilfully for Barbra Streisand: with Mara, a country-folk version, why not? The result is lovingly soft, Cat and Mara curl up on the cushions of pedal steel filed by Joe Grass. It brings the song back to the Bee Gees as the harmonies stick together, rub together, allow themselves the greatest intimacy. “Pure, pure pleasure,” marvels Mara. Which adapted a song by Tom Waits into French, with his agreement: “It was simple, I sent him one last look, and he said yes! Small victorious laugh.
Catherine, in a tone of confidence, describes the state of grace in down-to-earth terms: “We are in our early fifties, both of us have nothing more to prove. As Mara said, “we hit her, our trail”, we worked hard, and we arrive at this moment in our lives where we want projects that do us good, we want to be in healthy relationships, friendly, romantic, professional situations that are healthy, pleasant, pleasant. It is the height that the Hauterive appellation requires: to rise above the chaos of the showbiz, straying from formats that the industry defines to maximize success and, potentially, revenue. Come what may, say Catherine and Mara together.
We are in our early fifties, both of us, we have nothing more to prove. As Mara said, “we hit it, our trail”, we worked hard, and we arrive at that moment in our lives where we want projects that do us good, we want to be in healthy relationships, situations friendly, loving, healthy professional, pleasant, pleasant.
The contagious connection
What if that was just what people wanted? What the great vacuum of the pandemic has made so much to be desired? Something like a reconciliation? For those who became friends for life in 2010, during the tours All the girls, of course. Catherine comments: “It responds to a strong need to feel good together. With Mara, I feel safe, I can lean on her shoulder…” Mara continues the sentence: “… and we can talk to each other, listen to each other, be completely ourselves. It’s true humanly, it’s true musically. Catherine gives an example: “I can be playing the guitar, feeling a bit alone, and then Mara’s violin comes to embrace me. On stage, it can just be happiness. »
Yes, a tour will follow, starting in June, and it will lead where it will lead. Broadcasters across the province are more than interested: the proposal is perfect for small venues, we would already like to be there. Everywhere, with them. Who knows, after the phenomenal success of Salebarbes, these established artists who have found an excuse to party, from the Magdalen Islands to the hall or the outdoor stage closest to your home, the path from Hauterive could well go through your flowerbeds. Catherine does not say no: “We don’t have a big game plan. Mara and I are proud and happy. So much the better if it affects other people, that’s all. Hauterive exists and will live, they are only certain of that. “We know we’re going to have a trip,” Mara says. We are already tripping! »