Exaggerate on purpose. It took three decades for Éric Dion and André Lavergne to come to The new season. A more than important album, which has all the culmination. Hence the calculation: the lads have been making music for thirty years, together and separately. In the shed, in this, is the first building that holds. The first album of their duo is only eight years old in the body, and the symbolic barn celebrates at most the ten years of the official name.
Thirty years of roads, nevertheless. From their native Gaspé, the search for something that rings true, something like a call for help without a precise address, to be answered, in the hope of finding humanity in the human . Twenty years preparing their luggage, their roots music, folk, blues, bluegrass, country, and then the big trip with Dans l’shed. Once launched the eponym of 2014, the albums were quickly secured:red river(2015), gaspericana (2017), Liège sessions (2019) and misty valley (2021): a long way, a journey crossing at least two continents, America from edge to edge, French-speaking Europe.
Departure point and destination
And see them back home. Gallery of local characters, intimacy of the subject. As if we were in New Richmond, New Brunswick. Departure point and destination. “I think we were there, commented Eric. We will have done mileage to understand that! It’s the same quest, but digging inside me or looking close. » In the title song, we move from a life « under a veiled sky » to the observation that « for some time now, the sky has opened up »: a « new season » is coming. In the song called September, revivals multiply over time.
“It’s not January, for me, the beginning of the year is September. I realized that my three children were each going through a stage that corresponded to September: my youngest was entering first grade, my other daughter was changing schools and going to high school in secondary 3 and my boy was finishing up. So I described in the song a character who is a bit like me, three times, three times September. At five with a backpack, at 13 with a skateboard, at 16 with the desire to become a guitarist. Except for a few details, it could be a bit of everyone. »
September in New Richmond is like September everywhere. And it is also one of the countless places where fates are sealed. The “somewhat mixed man” of the song At the bar Chez Manon exists in all towns and villages. Amedee too. This man deserved a song in his name, in the name of all those who “logged” for their family: “So that their lot improves”, underline Éric and André.
A permanent Ludwig battery
“It’s not a sad album, specifies André. For me, it’s bright. It moves, it groove. Bluegrass and country allow that: get to the heart of things, without self-pity. It’s recorded live, life beats all the time. André Lavergne knows something about this, he who now has the creative lair of his dreams, Studio Mid, not far from Quebec. It was he who made the very recent Every man for himselfof Lwazo Sirois and the last rodeo, which we talked about in the DMag from last Saturday. “It was the right time for that too, to earn my living, of course, but also to be able, at any time, to move from inspiration to realization. There is a nice Ludwig battery, always ready. I dreamed of this. »
Éric Dion, a teacher in another life, offers songwriting workshops. They perform in shows, good and bad, about thirty times. “It would be nice a little more, calculates Éric, but not too much either. We really have a beautiful balanced life at home, I think. What we have been looking for elsewhere, we make our world benefit from it. That’s what the song is about Don’t you slap. Yes: against all odds, we must continue. And when the reward is there, you have to see it: “I don’t know what awaits me tomorrow / But the weather is nice in the morning”.
AD Catherine Durand
And when there is support, we measure our luck. A Dany Placard, a Tire le Coyote, from album to album, followed one another “in the shed”. This time artistic director, Catherine Durand got involved. With the sweet rigor that we know him. Friends are in full agreement. “His quality of listening is out of the ordinary”, they say together. “Catherine is relaxed, does not raise her voice, but she is very direct, as much as she is meticulous”, specifies Éric. “When she says yes, she’s there,” adds André. We worked upstream with her, in zoom, and then in person for the studio. Éric: “The precision of his suggestions and comments was extraordinary. »
Like what, thirty years of music later, it is possible that everything fits together perfectly. At home. “We invested to get there, but at the same time, we feel really lucky. Simple truth: the weather is as beautiful as ever in the morning, all around the shed.
It’s not January, for me, the beginning of the year, it’s September Eric Dion ”