The Ending

Leaving Moncton, and driving the Trans Canada hiway on the way back to my home in Ontario, I listened to some of the music I had heard, and thought about the conversations I had had, and the friends I had made.. and about my hopes for the journey and what I would find out.

I deliberately did not set out with a preconceived idea of what I hoped to find, and that's just as well: the Acadian people and their music defy categorization.

But I do know now that I have a question which I only have a notion about the answer: what has caused and enabled a group of people to maintain a distinct cultural identity which they fiercely live, despite the fact that for most of their existance, they have been dispersed and diluted across vast geographies, without the help of telelphone, mail or the Internet to enable them to remain distinctly "Acadian"?

More importantly, I suppose, is "why"?

Why not just melt into the surounding culture? At the very least, become Quebecois? Many Acadans live in Quebec, but still regard themselves as being distinct, in a society of people who themselves maintain their distinctiveness from the greater North American culture.

I thought that I would find anger and resentment at the root of the distinctiveness, and perhaps it once was, and in small pockets still is, but this is not what is publicly expressed. I thought that perhaps the Acadian notion would be dominated by the older generation, determined to hang onto some notion that they inherited from their ancestors, but the vast majority of Acadian music I heard was performed by the younger generation, people in their teens, twenties and thirties.

I dd encounter a solid, you could almost call it proud, sense of knowing who one is, and was, and who ones brothers and sisters are, a bond that runs deeper than the kind of proximity effect many of us call "community".

Acadians consider themselves Canadian, but perhaps the reason they have maintainted their identiy is because they realize that they have found a smaller cell group within that broader definition that they can identify with. 30 million Canadians, 71,590 (according to 2001 census) Acadians.

If you share a culture with a smaller group of people, there is a better chance of uniting on a close level of relationship.

Or, maybe it's just that these folks like to party, and people of like mind, hang together through thick and thin!

For now, my Acadian adventure is finished, but the experience will live on in the music that I heard and brought back with me, and hopefully will encounter again soon.

Day Ten (August 15)

My destinations today are first a village called Memramcook just south east of Moncton, where Acadians first dyked and farmed land many centuries ago, and to which they returned to and are now a strong community, and then later on in the day, Shediac. Memramcook is also where the Acadians held their first national convention in 1881, where they first collectively realized that they were a people united still in their unique culture and shared history.

The town advertised a day of music events, outdoors ideally, and in the arena if it rained.

Well, it rained. And back in Moncton, my Honda would only start with the helpful push of Jon Steeper, who happened to come home for lunch. It seems that I will need to visit a mechanic before I head out back to Montreal tomorrow.

Once started, it was happy to be restarted, so I ventured out confident in Acadian hospitality should I need another push to get me going.

In Memramcook, things were hopping at the local arena, and banging, and honking, and rattling… a traditional Acadian celebration called a tintamarre involves making as much joyous racket as possible with whatever noise maker is your choice.

The acoustics in the arena were not good, so I decided against trying to record anything there, and elected instead to buy CDs from the two groups I heard, both family member groups.

Wow! I can’t think of any similar community in Ontario where I would find such a high caliber of music. I can’t think of any similar community in Ontario where I would find any kind of live music, other than in the bars… or traveling rock or country bands… we’re too wrapped up in our televisions.

I heard Entre Chums, with Dorine, Rober, Philippe and Georges Boudreau. These folks had only played together for 6 rehearsals, but it sounded like they had been together for decades. Well, actually, they had, in different incarnations and one of these was called “Harmonie”. They happened to have one CD, and what a treat this is!

The next group, La Famille Arsenault, all appeared to be related. My oral French comprehension ability is very poor, and compounded by the poor arena acoustics and the limited success the sound man was having with the P.A., I could not hear clearly much of anything said… but I did hear “mon pere” and “mon oncle” and other family type labels. And there was the full range of generations on stage, all playing multiple instruments, dancing and singing tight harmonies…

My second destination was a return visit to Shediac, which I had passed through the day before with Mark. In the town centre Pascal Poirier Park, the band Acajun was performing, along with games, prizes, food, lots of fun and mosquitoes the size of house flies. I didn’t get a CD of the band, as their style was highly commercialized… good band, but not unlike the big name house bands we have in Ontario. The park is crammed with people, all having a blast… I am sure that this is only the beginning of the party, but I’ve got to get my car to the service station, and then get my gear ready to pack and head back to Montreal…

The Acadian adventure is drawing to a close... for now.

Day Eight and Nine (August 13, 14)

Day Eight

Time to turn the car and head back towards home… but there is one more musical adventure to experience yet, and that’s not for two more days. Today will be a day of travel.

We left Lake Aylesford mid-afternoon on Sunday, and drove up through Truro, and then headed up Hiway 4 and Route 307 towards Wallace, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Perhaps I should have researched my adventure a bit more in advance, but I’m not sure that if I had, that it could have worked out much better than it did. As we headed west along the ocean, we encountered numerous small villages, and soon the Acadian flag became a prominent feature, along with businesses and houses with the name “Le Blanc” prominently displayed. A sure sign that we are traveling through an Acadian community.

There are regions of Acadian dominated settlements throughout Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. When the Acadians began to return in the late 1700s and early 1800s, they were initially discouraged by governments from forming large communities. It turns out that the Baie St Anne region, where Saulnierville and the bluegrass festival we attended on Saturday are located is one such region. Bouctouche and Rogersville are part of another such community.

Cap-Pele and Shediac are part of another, and there we were, driving through, stopping for a sumptuous seafood dinner at Chez Camille. This whole region is a little corner of paradise.

Day Nine

My traveling companion must now head home on his own, via VIA Rail. Mark signed up on this adventure with full knowledge that its mission was very focused, and that many other features that the average tourist would want to see and experience would not likely be a part of this adventure (Magnetic Hill, Bay of Fundy National Park, Halifax and the Citadel, Peggy’s Cove, etc). And they weren’t and Mark was not disappointed.

He did manage to keep his focus more “omni directional” as we drove along, though, and this did balance my “hyper-cardiod” perspective on what received our attention. Thank you Mark for sharing my adventure!!

Thanks also to your "Google-enhanced brain", courtesy Nokia and its marvelous cellphone/video recorder/audio recorder/everything-except-the-kitchen-sink device. So long as we had a cell phone signal, we could see via Google Map where we were, and where we needed to get to and how to go about getting there.

Ben Steeper became my new companion for a while on Monday, as I visited music stores, theatres and cultural centres in Moncton to find out what and where I could go to experience Acadian music on the most important day of their calendar year, August 15, the anniversary of the beginning of the deportations 251 years ago.

That night, the two elder Steeper children, Matt and Becka, allowed me to turn their home into a recording studio. Matt is a gifted composer and performer, and Becka has a magical voice that I am sure some day will delight many (over her dad’s dead body).

Blog video and audio links now active

We encountered a small flaw in our blogging process.

The cell phone Internet connection would not for some reason allow me to ftp my sound and video clips to my website. So, my blog has fallen a couple of days behind schedule. The technology is so close to working so well, but no cigar yet.

We didn't find (didn't look too hard, though) a WiFi connection somewhere along the way, so we waited to post our files until we got back to the Steeper’s home in Moncton on Sunday, where we have been given access to the Net by these generous friends.

So, all the links that I had promised in past blogs are now updated and active. Check out the video and audio clips!

Day Seven (August 12)

We arose at little after the crack of dawn, and headed south again, this time to the Clare region at the south tip of Nova Scotia, and to attend the Festival Acadien de Clare. The main event for the day was a blue grass festival in Saulnierville. So, that’s where we went.

Now, Acadian music is not bluegrass, so I am told. But, just what is Acadian folk music? At the festival, one of the bands. True Blue, came from Rogersville, with one of its members from Acadieville, which is just outside of Rogersville. I spoke with the guys afterwards and they are Acadian. Another of the bands, Sidekick, featured one Daniel Maillet, who just two days earlier we had met at Le Pays de la Sagouine, as a member of Borlico, an Acadian band. We did not know it at that time, but we learned today that Danny is a grand master of the bluegrass guitar, which means that he has won the top award at festivals for five years running and no longer must compete for the honour.

I chatted with a gentleman who identified himself as an Acadian musician… he had played in a band that toured for over twenty five years, and had recently “retired” from the road. I asked him what Acadian folk music is, and he said that it is “music that means something to the Acadians”. They have absorbed and been influenced by many styles of music and while he felt that bluegrass wasn’t yet truly a part of the Acadian sound, it was something that obviously they were being influenced by, and it seems that that influence is occurring right now.

Well whatever, we heard an afternoon of some of some fabulous bluegrass, performed by Acadians, Cape Bretoners, West Virginia and other musicians and of course, recorded it all, and made friends with the sound man who has been doing these kinds of festivals now for 26 years. A sudden violent thunderstorm drenched the concert, but did not stop it.

Sudden thunderstorms are taken in stride in these parts.

After an execellent dinner at Chez Christophers and a visit to a local artisan’s roadside studio, we headed back to Kentville.

Day Six (August 11)

This day started off with travel. We left Utopia at the crack of dawn, and loaded up the car. My Honda is 13 years old, and has been the most reliable travel companion for all of that time… but this morning, I moved the car closer to the landing dock to load it up, leaving it parked on an incline. When I went to start it again, the engine flooded, and would not start. Mark and Jon tried to push the car up the incline to a level surface (with me inside foot ready near the brake paranoid that the car would roll backwards into the lake, making a minor problem into a very major one, not to mention possibly running over a friend or two), but that’s a heavy little car.

Jon dashed back to the camp to get his car keys, and a tow rope. We pulled the car up the hill, and manually started. We made it to the Saint John – Digby ferry at 9:00 am with some time to spare, and what’s an adventure without a few close calls… BTW, the federal government desires to shut down this ferry, this after the province spent millions on making the province easily accessable by modern roads that Ontario should envy. Hello? That ferry makes vacationing in NB and NS a treat, as you can easily tour both provinces in a big circle. I do wonder about 12:45 am booking choice though... I heard that on the last voyage, six cars took that ferry. Hmm...

On the boat, I worked away at the blog, and downloading an email from our next destination, a cottage in Kentsville, Nova Scotia. A friend of mine from Kitchener, David Hall, happened to be vacationing in NS at his wife Lilla’s family cottage, and offered us beds for a couple of nights. He sent us directions, and then told us that he would meet us on the road into the cottage, and hitch a ride with us.

Now, I am driving a little Honda Civic hatchback, loaded to the gills with recording and camping equipment. So, we tried to call David… aack! No answer. We did meet up with David on the way in, and through some creative packing, made a spot for him to curl up.

After unpacking our gear at the cottage on beautiful Lake Aylesford, we headed out for a tour of the region.

I am on a quest to learn what I can about the Acadian culture and people, and I should really have done some more research before I left Ontario. I would have known that just north east of Kentville was the place where the Acadian story virtually begins. When they first settled in Nova Scotia, they built dikes and reclaimed a huge section of marshland from the ocean. The land was rich in minerals and enabled the Acadians to flourish, but also made them the envy of the English.

When the French finally ceded control of the region to the English, some unscrupulous government officials forced the Acadians (French to the core) to leave the region by deporting them. The stories are horrendous, but not uncommon when one group of people fears and envies another (eastern Europe only a few years ago, or Canada and the Japanese during the war, and hopefully not Canada and the Muslims in the upcoming near future…).

There are virtually no Acadians in the region today… those who returned years after the deportation settled in other parts of the two provinces, and I am sure that memories of the injustice that was cruelly inflicted on them are very much at the heart of the Acadians.

After an excellent seafood dinner, we headed down to a small church in Port Williams, where a concert was being given by the Petric/Forget Duo, accordion and oboe. No Acadian connection here, but I offered to record the concert, and as it turned out, the program featured a work by Andrew Paul MacDonald. Andrew is a well-known Canadian composer, and a fellow graduate from the University of Western Ontario, and happened to be in attendance at the concert, as the performance of his work was a world-premiere. It was fun to reconnect.

Day Five (August 10)

Lake Utopia. What a beautiful lake, and what hospitality from our friends the Steepers, who not only provided us with their home in Moncton, but invited us down for a visit to their summer retreat. Jonathan did say, though, that living on this lake would be primitive, including the voyage out to the campground. The roads are impassable, and the only way out, apparently, is by ski.

Fortunately, I had brought along my slalom ski, and so I was prepared.

That evening, we headed into the town of St George, to meet with Norm Barrio. Norm is the same Norm who provided contact information for Marcel Barrio, who gave us the Rogersville lead. Norm is an outdoorsman, through and through, and his hospitality is true Acadian. He also offered us the last of his moose steaks, and that was an exceptional treat and a huge honour.

But his command of the dancing wood puppets is what entranced us the most. The Acadian culture is both warm and unique.

On our way back to the camp, we encountered several more Acadian gatherings of folk musicians, some in parks, and some on the front porches of people's homes, but as time was getting late, we couldn’t stop for these.

We got to the camp in time to get a campfire going, and then be drenched by a sudden passing thundershower.

But sleeping in Utopia is, well, it's utopia.

Thank you Jon, Trish and Ben Steeper!!

Day Four (August 9)

Wow! We drove up to Bouchtouche, 30 minutes north of Moncton, and went to Le Pays de la Sagouine, a recreated village on an island that portrays the fictional life of an Acadian character created by renowned author and playwright Antonine Maillet (www.sagouine.com). The heart of the island is comprised of a performing stage, where music happens pretty much all day.

We attended a presentation at the interpretive centre for the island, and learned about the history of the Acadian people... I very vaguely recall this story from my school years, but did not realize the extent of the injustice... more about this in future blogs.

Through a contact given by the well-known Acadian concert pianist Roger Lord, I was introduced to Sylvie Robechaud, the music booking agent for the park. She made the connections so that I could set up my gear and record one of the bands playing that day... a group called Borlico. Here's a clip of what we heard... We've got a couple of blurry pictures as well, we weren't supposed to take photos, but we got the sound!

I made friends with the sound man, Michael Frigault, aka Freedo, and it turned out that he lives in Rogersville, which was our next destination after Bouchtouche, which we got through following another lead from someone at the Steeper's church, a guy named Marcel Barrio. Freedo has his own band, and CD too. Great music, I'll ask if I can post a clip.

So, we followed Freedo to Rogersville (about an hour north of Moncton), ate some of the best fried chicken I've ever had at Decker's and set up my gear in time to catch a jam session at the local gazebo. I forgot to write down the names of the performers, I hope to get that info from the village mayor who I made contact with at the concert, but here are two clips of what we heard. Act 1 Act 2

The population of the town is about 1,000 people, and at least a quarter that turned out to the park to hear the music. This is why the Acadian culture is so alive and vibrant: it is lived and loved by the people. I am a little worried about the future... Freedo's young three year old daughter gets much of her knowledge of the world from television and satelite services which carry very little French (or Acadian) content. Freedo is making sure that she is also getting the Acadian culture, but with the competition from our junk TV...

When I see our own culture compared to what I am witnessing here in the Maritimes, it seems dead and without soul. What do people spend most of their leisure time doing in Ontario? Watching TV, the statistics show.

Tomorrow, we're off to St George down in the south west end of New Brunswick, where we hope to see and hear a man who makes wooden puppets to dance to Acadian folk music!

Day Three (August 8)

I've made contact with a festival in Bouctouche, thanks to Roger Lord, one of Acadia's best known concert pianists, and who is also Matt Steeper's (eldest son) piano teacher, and a folk gathering in Rogersville, both just north of Moncton, so we'll head up there Wednesday to see and hear what we can.

Meanwhile, Ben Steeper (left image) has kept us entertained with his incredible magic tricks.

Day One and Day Two (August 6, 7)

Day One, Sunday August 6.

This day was spent on the road driving to Montreal. I picked up my travelling companion, Mark, who is joining me on this trip. Mark is an "electronics junky" who owns a Nokia cell phone with WiFi, Internet, video and music capabilities. This means that we are on-line to the Web wherever there is cell phone reception and can upload using our notebooks.

On our way to Montreal, we stopped off in Prescott, Ontario, to fill up with gas before entering Quebec, and to make a visit to my mother's childhood home, Chestnut Hall, which is the namesake of my music production company. Click on Chestnut Hall to see a short video of this visit. (Music is from Kevin Ramessar's newest CD Sojourn. Goto www.kevinramessar.com for more info.)

We arrived in Montreal to stay at a friend's place, who kindly left us a key to get in, as he was out of town. Thank you, Helmut!!!

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Day Two, Monday, August 7.

Before leaving Montreal, we stocked up on food at the Atwater Market and then took the Transcanada straight through to Moncton, arriving there at 10:00 pm.

We are staying with friends of mine who I knew 25 years ago in university, the Steepers. It has been a real pleasure to start to reaquaint, and to get to know the family that has since developed. Jonathan and Trish spent 10 years in Albania running a missionary organization there, and have now settled in Moncton with a church here. The church has a strong Acadian membership, and through some contacts there I am finding out about informal gatherings of musicians in the Moncton area.


Tuesday, I will begin to follow up on these leads.