Francis Degrandpré prefers nature to the concrete of cities, which will not prevent him from closing the first edition of the Shérif Festival on Saturday in Old Montreal. Meet the new star of new country, a champion of hunting, fishing and a cold drink.
The first song of Let yourself gohis second and most recent album, is called The trophy seasonbut does not at all concern those few months in the fall during which the local showbiz covered in glitter – the Gémeaux, the ADISQ Gala, the Québec Cinéma Gala – congratulates itself on TV.
“The 24 in the trunk, the 12 in the pick-up, six in the chalet, for three days of peace,” lists Francis Degrandpré in this hymn to the serenity of a long weekend spent in the company of his “same old buddies, faithful to the rendezvous,” hunting duck, deer and the blues.
Although he won the Félix for Country Album of the Year in 2023, as well as three Willie statuettes (including Song and Songwriter of the Year) at the last Country Gala, the trophies that matter most to him hang from the roof of a van, rather than sitting on a fireplace mantel.
“As soon as I have a little off, I go into the woods,” says the 32-year-old from Berthierville, whose cache is located at the tip of an island on Lake Saint-Pierre. This Sunday, he will take refuge there for a week. “There, we have peace and quiet. I’m going to leave my cell phone in the truck and I won’t touch it once.”
Excerpt from The trophy seasonby Francis Degrandpré
Nothing fake
But by then, our man had fourteen (!) interviews and two shows on his agenda for the current week, including one in Old Montreal this Saturday, on the occasion of the first edition of the Shérif festival.
A trained firefighter, a vocation he practiced for several years, Francis Degrandpré will draw a line next December on his job as a correctional officer, from which he took unpaid leave two years ago in order to devote himself to his new life as a new country singer.
A shift as unexpected as it was unpredictable, which began in 2020 thanks to The voicea competition he only entered because his indispensable buddies had convinced him to. Until then, his only experience with boards was that which is acquired sitting on a log around a campfire, strumming Lapointe (not Pierre), Kaïn and Cowboys Fringants.
Guitar? He learned to play it at 13, thanks to YouTube. Country? He made it his favorite genre by singing the hoppy choruses of Luke Combs, with whom he shares an inextinguishable passion for wood and brew. New country, they say, in order to highlight the strong pop connections of this music cast in rock which, generally speaking, has more in common with Bon Jovi of New Jersey than with any Waylon or Johnny melody.
Always happy to get on stage, no matter where it is, Francis Degrandpré admits it without having to twist his arm (which would have been quite difficult anyway, given his biceps): city dwellers are not his natural audience. Visiting Montreal to meet your journalist, he will (gently) rant about the difficulty of parking his van downtown.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Francis Degrandpre
In my songs, there is nothing fake. I talk about things that I like and people who are like me see themselves through that. And people who are like me are mostly people from the region.
Francis Degrandpre
He smiles. “We understand that when I do a show in Beauce, it’s a hit.”
A family affair
Hunting, fishing and drinking are indeed the main muses of Francis Degrandpré who, in his song Rewardevokes the importance of these “three tubs of ice so that the mountain remains blue”, even if he acts as an ambassador for Unibroue’s Saison Libre, and not for Coors Light.
“It’s a light, citrusy beer. That means I don’t feel too bloated on stage,” he says, because we have to talk about what’s important. Downing IPA while performing? “I did it once and it was one of the worst mistakes of my life.”
But conversely, Francis Degrandpré will never have taken such a brilliant decision as that of collaborating in the conception of a new human being. The most touching song of Let yourself go is called Your father’s daughter was written while he was awaiting the arrival of little Billie, who has just celebrated her 21st month.
Country music, a family affair? Serge and Lorraine, his parents, follow him almost everywhere on tour, aboard their 33-foot motorized vehicle. You will find them most of the time behind the merchandise table, where they sell t-shirts, CDs and sweatshirts.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY KARIANE PHOTOGRAPHER
Francis Degrandpré show in Saint-Tite
Francis Degrandpré gave 120 performances on his first tour and participated in 31 festivals this summer, including the western festival in Saint-Tite. It was two weeks ago, inside an arena where 1,600 of his friends, guys and girls, had gathered.
“Listen,” he sums up, “I won’t lie to you, I miss the adrenaline of being a firefighter a little sometimes, but when you have all those people in front of you shouting your tunes at you, it’s really hard not to enjoy it.”
Country
Let yourself go
Francis Degrandpre
Productions Veronique Labbé
September 21, with Laurence Saint-Martin, at the Shérif Festival
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