Richard Séguin will knock on the doors of the 20e edition of the World Guitar Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue on May 25 with a show specially designed around his favorite instrument.
Last spring, at the microphone of the podcast series Just between you and methe singer explained why he had, with some exceptions, given up in recent years on presenting major festive shows, in favor of highlighting the spoken word and a certain introspection.
Listen to the podcast show Just between you and me with Richard Séguin
“But maybe one day,” he added, “I will bring together several guitar heroes, all those I have worked with. We could put on a show full of guitars. »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Richard Séguin in an interview last spring
It was enough for Lynn Massicotte, who sits on the board of directors of the Festival of Guitars of the World in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, to see an opportunity to seize: that of proposing to the author of Like a Guthrie tune to make this dream come true in Rouyn-Noranda.
A proposition proverbially too good to refuse: on May 25, Séguin will inaugurate the 20e edition of one of the most important guitar festivals in North America, with a unique show, created especially for the occasion around one of its most precious working tools and several old songs.
He will thus add his name to the impressive list of artists who visited the event, including Joe Satriani, America, Jon Anderson (of Yes), The Doobie Brothers, John Pizzarelli, Randy Bachman, Daniel Lanois, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Buddy Guy.
In tribute to Réjean Bouchard
“The guitar is the instrument that allowed me to meet the world. But at 14, it was also a shield, a way of protecting myself,” confides the singer, contacted in Saint-Venant-de-Paquette, who devotes these first days of early spring to putting his workshop in order. engraving.
With him, on stage, in the copper capital, at the end of May: Hugo Perreault, his right-hand man for over 20 years, Simon Godin, his comrade for over 15 years, and Ivan Boivin-Flamand, young Atikamekw virtuoso originally from Manawan, with whom his entire crew became friends during their stop in Maliotenam last summer.
Beyond his absence, Réjean Bouchard, who left in July, will also be present. This show will allow Séguin to pay homage to the late musician and maker of the guitar identity of several of his albums, to America Day in 1988 (the very Dire Straits score of The wandering angelit’s him) until Instinctively in 1995.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Réjean Bouchard in December 2005
“Réjean was someone of great interiority, almost spiritual,” recalls Richard Séguin about his six-stringed brother, who established several lasting relationships with indigenous artists, including Ivan Boivin-Flamand, who considered him to be a grand father.
Réjean [Bouchard] put into practice a phrase dear to Florent [Vollant] and to him: “It’s good, but cut it in half.” That’s what he told the guitarists: try to condense the score, to be less talkative, to say more with less.
Richard Seguin
A guitar to play
It was Claude Gauthier who sold Richard Séguin his “first real guitar”, after having bought himself a twelve-string. “I was cleaning buildings in eastern Montreal and I paid him once a week,” says the songwriter, “until he told me to stop that. »
What happened to this guitar? Stolen! “I was going to Steve’s Music and forgot to lock the doors. » Since then, on tour, there is no question of leaving a place without your case. “Martha [son amoureuse] I think I’m exaggerating, but if I leave the hotel to go eat, I bring my guitar. ” He’s laughing. “It’s more important than my suitcase. »
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PHOTO IVANOH DEMERS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Guild Westerly twelve-string guitar that Richard Séguin gave to Vincent Vallières
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PHOTO IVANOH DEMERS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
On the occasion of the launch of a retrospective box set of his 40 years of profession, in 2012, Richard Séguin presented a guitar on which he had pasted photos from different periods of his life and career.
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But Richard Séguin is far from being a fetishist of the object and obeys a noble precept: a guitar is made for someone to play. This is how he gave Vincent Vallières (around 2010) one of the twelve Guild Westerly strings that he had brought back from Rhode Island in time for the recording of Two hundred nights an hour in 1978. A gesture inspired by that of Johnny Cash, who offered his guitar to Bob Dylan in 1962 at the Newport Folk Festival. The veteran also bequeathed another, more recently, to Natasha Kanapé Fontaine.
Intimate with the vastness of our territories, Richard Séguin is delighted to find that of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a country occupying an important place in his heart. Has he ever played with the other great Richard of Quebec song? “Desjardins and I jammed together once, with Florent. » What year was it? “It’s been a long time, because I remember there were a lot of bottles that passed through. That means it was before I stopped drinking. We talked about fishing and played guitar one night. »
The Festival of World Guitars in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which will take place from May 25 to 1er June, will reveal the rest of its program on March 20, at the same time as tickets for the Séguin show go on sale. “The guitar,” he says, “is the instrument of the road and of travel. »
Visit the website of the World Guitar Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue