It’s our story is a good album, that’s the most important thing. The compilation of a dozen songs sees young local artists cover songs made famous by their then interpreter, the late Renée Martel, who died in December 2021 at the age of 74. The album is an initiative of his daughter, Laurence Lebel, around which these musicians gathered, under the direction of director Pilou, to pay this tribute. But a tribute to whom, or to what, exactly?
Alexe Gaudreault revisits liverpool, composed by Eddy Marnay and Guy Magenta. Ingrid St-Pierre is going to London to make her movies there, as Martel and Kenny O’Dell dreamed of before (Next Plane to London, 1967). Ariane Roy discusses The ship of happiness (That’s Where I Went Wrong, Canadian Terry Jacks). The Boulay Sisters sing the praises of the golden cowgirladapted from Rhinestone Cowboyby Larry Weiss (1974), popularized by Glen Campbell before becoming part of Renée Martel’s repertoire in 1978.
And so on in the very pleasant company of Gab Bouchard (A love that doesn’t want to die), Antoine Corriveau (See you tomorrow my darling), Pull the Coyote (If we could start over), among others. All successes, all composed by others than Renée Martel, who, at the end of her career, still wrote some of the texts of her songs. This is the paradox of this album: if the role of the performer is to make a song his own, as Ingrid St-Pierre now makes his own I’m going to Londonhow do you pay homage to a performer, an artist who herself paid homage to the composers whose works she took up, however popular she was?
From one generation to another
“The idea of the album is to open a dialogue between the generation of my mother’s fans and my generation, sums up Laurence Lebel. Between my mother and me, there are 40 years of difference, marked differences between our tastes and our references. This project serves, of course, to highlight her career and the great songs she shared with us, like a nod to the performer she was, but it’s also a way to bring her early fans to discover the beautiful and new things that up-and-coming artists are doing today. »
This is precisely the mission that Laurence Lebel has given herself, “to build bridges, open discussion, discover our next generation”. Unknown to the public, Laurence is nevertheless respected and appreciated within the music industry, having worked over the years with various clubs as a show agent, producer and manager. She also spoke, in a few reports (published in The dutyin particular), the place of women, young artists or the question of mental health in this industry which she recently left, precisely to recover her health, having discovered the hard way what overwork is.
“When I embark on a project, I invest myself thoroughly,” she says. She has accompanied many artists at the start of their career. Mothered them, so to speak. Has put all his energy into making this industry better. “I feel that my career in the music world is intimately linked to my mother. His departure broke something in me. »
Tell a story
Shortly after her mother passed away, a few producers approached her with the idea of a tribute album. “Having been a record store at a time when tribute and cover albums were rolling in — I remember the album Dubois Duets… — I was tearing my hair out. What’s the point of redoing songs like the original? None. It brings nothing new, except money. So I thought if I was going to make one for my mom, it had to be relevant and tell a story. »
This story is written on the cover. This photo where we see little Laurence holding Renée’s hand on a beach in Morocco, where the latter had gone to recharge her batteries in the 1980s. This album is that of Laurence, at least as much, if not more, than the dozen or so participating artists. “My gift, for her. A way for me to fix myself. To mourn,” she said.
“I was very lucky to be able to experience my grief through music alongside Pilou and his team, who were very kind to me, continues Laurence. They accompanied me at a time when things were not going well at all. I was able to repair myself, quietly. It’s a healing album for me — healing from what I went through with my mom and the music business. With his departure, I had to mourn a lot of things. »
The idea of the album is to open a dialogue between the generation of my mother’s fans and my generation
And so, the Boulay, Gab Bouchard, Étienne Coppée, Saratoga and Elliot Maginot sisters first pay homage to their friend Laurence rather than to this icon of Quebec song, whom they know little about. We have the feeling that they are more fans of Laurence than of Renée, which makes the young woman laugh: “I find it funny because it is I who am totally a fan of them! The choice of artists was made first because with most of them, I shared something of my mother. Maginot, Fanny Bloom, the Boulay Sisters, these are artists that I introduced to my mother and whom she loved deeply. She even saw them. »
“I had made her a promise a long time ago, when she was going through a period of questioning,” says Laurence. She wondered, “Am I still relevant? Will I leave something as a legacy to the next generation?” This new generation that she loved so much… I had told her: “You know, mum, you are bigger than you think and this new generation has necessarily grown a little with you, because their parents and their grandparents were listening to this that grandpa [Marcel Martel, légende du country québécois] and you were doing.” Of course, there’s still something of that in them, and that’s what I wanted to prove with this album. »