Some things seem as if they’re meant to be, as if anything else would be unthinkable. That’s certainly how it is for Les Poules à Colin. The five members have known each other since they were infants, as their parents gathered at festivals around Québec and on weekends to play folk music together. All of them absorbed music before they could even speak and they started their musical explorations with each other. Forming a band was simply the next natural step. Even the name was a gift: What could be more perfect than Les Poules à Colin (Colin’s Hens), the name of a well-known regional tune, for a group of four women and a man named Colin? Fate can play wonderful tricks. And now Les Poules à Colin are heading south of the 49^th parallel for their first big U.S. tour.

“When we were little there would be parties every week at someone’s house,” multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, feet) Colin Savoie-Levac recalls. “We’d all be there with our folks and we’d hear all this traditional music. So we’ve been exposed to it, and we’re influenced by it. But we don’t try to restrict ourselves, we’re finding our own voice.”

They definitely did that with their second album, 2014’s Ste-Waves, which garnered glowing reviews across Canada and brought them a nomination for a Félix Award, the Québec equivalent of a Grammy. Four years of growth, gigging, and writing had gone into that disc, and its broad scope shimmers. Most of the material is original, building on the tradition they know so well but looking out from it. The title track, for instance, comes from the pen of fiddler Béatrix Méthé, and leans to the pop side of Americana - it’s even sung in English - while “La Suite de Mme. Bovary” brings French literature alive in a melody that could be pulled from the Québec tradition, including plenty of foot percussion.

“The foot percussion is very important,” Savoie-Levac insists. “We don’t have a drummer, so my feet on a board are a vital part of the rhythm section. The feet set the groove and the tempo for the rest of the band.”

That groove is a vital part of Québecois music.

“It has to be there to make it work,” Savoie-Levac notes. “The music isn’t complex, so the groove gives it the power, the joy. In that way it’s similar to Cajun music.”

Les Poules à Colin will have a chance to explore those Cajun connections when they play the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, from April 22-24, a curtain-raiser to the band’s nine-date American tour in July, which will take in gigs and festivals from New England to Wisconsin, and on to Chicago.

“Strangely, we only discovered Acadian music recently,” Savoie-Levac explains. “I was down at the festival last year and I had the chance to see how close the style is to ours in Québec, so that promises to be fun. This tour won’t be our very first trip south of the border. We’ve taken part in some festivals and played in Vermont quite a few times. But this will definitely be the biggest trip yet.”

In spite of the name, Les Poules à Colin is very much a democracy. This Colin definitely isn’t in charge; he’s heavily outnumbered by women, including his own bass-playing sister, Marie, along with (Béatrix) Méthé, guitarist Éléanore Pitre (replaced in Lafayette by Simon Marion), and pianist Sarah Marchand-Lebossé.

“We formed the band because we were all already good friends,” Savoie-Levac notes. “Apart from the irony in the name, we never gave the male-female ratio a thought.  We knew each other well before all this, and now we’ve had the group for seven years, they’re really like my sisters or my best friends. We make our music together and all decide where it’s going.”

As part of a young generation, the members of Les Poules à Colin are proud of their native province and its tradition, but they’re also eager to connect it to all they see every day. The time of Québec versus the world is long gone; now it’s Québec as part of the world, and their music reflects that.

“I think Ste-Waves was the first real expression of that,” Savoie-Levac observes. “It was a statement of who we were. We write individually and bring the music to rehearsals, then we all arrange it. The music we’re writing now shows even more of the change. We’re not letting go of the past at all, but we’re reaching out to the future.”

Some of that new material will be featured on the U.S. tour, and plenty more on the band’s third CD, which they intend to record and release in 2017.

“We’ll be road testing pieces on this tour, tightening them up and getting them ready for the studio,” Savoie-Levac says, then adds, “But there will be plenty of older material, too, both songs and tunes. It’s going to be a party.”

Like everything else with this band, that’s exactly the way it should be.

Special thanks to: Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Woodenshipproductions, and FAMgroup Management

Some things seem as if they’re meant to be, as if anything else would be unthinkable. That’s certainly how it is for Les Poules à Colin. The five members have known each other since they were infants, as their parents gathered at festivals around Québec and on weekends to play folk music together. All of them absorbed music before they could even speak and they started their musical explorations with each other. Forming a band was simply the next natural step. Even the name was a gift: What could be more perfect than Les Poules à Colin (Colin’s Hens), the name of a well-known regional tune, for a group of four women and a man named Colin? Fate can play wonderful tricks. And now Les Poules à Colin are heading south of the 49^th parallel for their first big U.S. tour.

“When we were little there would be parties every week at someone’s house,” multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, feet) Colin Savoie-Levac recalls. “We’d all be there with our folks and we’d hear all this traditional music. So we’ve been exposed to it, and we’re influenced by it. But we don’t try to restrict ourselves, we’re finding our own voice.”

They definitely did that with their second album, 2014’s Ste-Waves, which garnered glowing reviews across Canada and brought them a nomination for a Félix Award, the Québec equivalent of a Grammy. Four years of growth, gigging, and writing had gone into that disc, and its broad scope shimmers. Most of the material is original, building on the tradition they know so well but looking out from it. The title track, for instance, comes from the pen of fiddler Béatrix Méthé, and leans to the pop side of Americana - it’s even sung in English - while “La Suite de Mme. Bovary” brings French literature alive in a melody that could be pulled from the Québec tradition, including plenty of foot percussion.

“The foot percussion is very important,” Savoie-Levac insists. “We don’t have a drummer, so my feet on a board are a vital part of the rhythm section. The feet set the groove and the tempo for the rest of the band.”

That groove is a vital part of Québecois music.

“It has to be there to make it work,” Savoie-Levac notes. “The music isn’t complex, so the groove gives it the power, the joy. In that way it’s similar to Cajun music.”

Les Poules à Colin will have a chance to explore those Cajun connections when they play the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, from April 22-24, a curtain-raiser to the band’s nine-date American tour in July, which will take in gigs and festivals from New England to Wisconsin, and on to Chicago.

“Strangely, we only discovered Acadian music recently,” Savoie-Levac explains. “I was down at the festival last year and I had the chance to see how close the style is to ours in Québec, so that promises to be fun. This tour won’t be our very first trip south of the border. We’ve taken part in some festivals and played in Vermont quite a few times. But this will definitely be the biggest trip yet.”

In spite of the name, Les Poules à Colin is very much a democracy. This Colin definitely isn’t in charge; he’s heavily outnumbered by women, including his own bass-playing sister, Marie, along with (Béatrix) Méthé, guitarist Éléanore Pitre (replaced in Lafayette by Simon Marion), and pianist Sarah Marchand-Lebossé.

“We formed the band because we were all already good friends,” Savoie-Levac notes. “Apart from the irony in the name, we never gave the male-female ratio a thought.  We knew each other well before all this, and now we’ve had the group for seven years, they’re really like my sisters or my best friends. We make our music together and all decide where it’s going.”

As part of a young generation, the members of Les Poules à Colin are proud of their native province and its tradition, but they’re also eager to connect it to all they see every day. The time of Québec versus the world is long gone; now it’s Québec as part of the world, and their music reflects that.

“I think Ste-Waves was the first real expression of that,” Savoie-Levac observes. “It was a statement of who we were. We write individually and bring the music to rehearsals, then we all arrange it. The music we’re writing now shows even more of the change. We’re not letting go of the past at all, but we’re reaching out to the future.”

Some of that new material will be featured on the U.S. tour, and plenty more on the band’s third CD, which they intend to record and release in 2017.

“We’ll be road testing pieces on this tour, tightening them up and getting them ready for the studio,” Savoie-Levac says, then adds, “But there will be plenty of older material, too, both songs and tunes. It’s going to be a party.”

Like everything else with this band, that’s exactly the way it should be.

Special thanks to: Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Woodenshipproductions, and FAMgroup Management

Some things seem as if they’re meant to be, as if anything else would be unthinkable. That’s certainly how it is for Les Poules à Colin. The five members have known each other since they were infants, as their parents gathered at festivals around Québec and on weekends to play folk music together. All of them absorbed music before they could even speak and they started their musical explorations with each other. Forming a band was simply the next natural step. Even the name was a gift: What could be more perfect than Les Poules à Colin (Colin’s Hens), the name of a well-known regional tune, for a group of four women and a man named Colin? Fate can play wonderful tricks. And now Les Poules à Colin are heading south of the 49^th parallel for their first big U.S. tour.

“When we were little there would be parties every week at someone’s house,” multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, feet) Colin Savoie-Levac recalls. “We’d all be there with our folks and we’d hear all this traditional music. So we’ve been exposed to it, and we’re influenced by it. But we don’t try to restrict ourselves, we’re finding our own voice.”

They definitely did that with their second album, 2014’s Ste-Waves, which garnered glowing reviews across Canada and brought them a nomination for a Félix Award, the Québec equivalent of a Grammy. Four years of growth, gigging, and writing had gone into that disc, and its broad scope shimmers. Most of the material is original, building on the tradition they know so well but looking out from it. The title track, for instance, comes from the pen of fiddler Béatrix Méthé, and leans to the pop side of Americana - it’s even sung in English - while “La Suite de Mme. Bovary” brings French literature alive in a melody that could be pulled from the Québec tradition, including plenty of foot percussion.

“The foot percussion is very important,” Savoie-Levac insists. “We don’t have a drummer, so my feet on a board are a vital part of the rhythm section. The feet set the groove and the tempo for the rest of the band.”

That groove is a vital part of Québecois music.

“It has to be there to make it work,” Savoie-Levac notes. “The music isn’t complex, so the groove gives it the power, the joy. In that way it’s similar to Cajun music.”

Les Poules à Colin will have a chance to explore those Cajun connections when they play the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, from April 22-24, a curtain-raiser to the band’s nine-date American tour in July, which will take in gigs and festivals from New England to Wisconsin, and on to Chicago.

“Strangely, we only discovered Acadian music recently,” Savoie-Levac explains. “I was down at the festival last year and I had the chance to see how close the style is to ours in Québec, so that promises to be fun. This tour won’t be our very first trip south of the border. We’ve taken part in some festivals and played in Vermont quite a few times. But this will definitely be the biggest trip yet.”

In spite of the name, Les Poules à Colin is very much a democracy. This Colin definitely isn’t in charge; he’s heavily outnumbered by women, including his own bass-playing sister, Marie, along with (Béatrix) Méthé, guitarist Éléanore Pitre (replaced in Lafayette by Simon Marion), and pianist Sarah Marchand-Lebossé.

“We formed the band because we were all already good friends,” Savoie-Levac notes. “Apart from the irony in the name, we never gave the male-female ratio a thought.  We knew each other well before all this, and now we’ve had the group for seven years, they’re really like my sisters or my best friends. We make our music together and all decide where it’s going.”

As part of a young generation, the members of Les Poules à Colin are proud of their native province and its tradition, but they’re also eager to connect it to all they see every day. The time of Québec versus the world is long gone; now it’s Québec as part of the world, and their music reflects that.

“I think Ste-Waves was the first real expression of that,” Savoie-Levac observes. “It was a statement of who we were. We write individually and bring the music to rehearsals, then we all arrange it. The music we’re writing now shows even more of the change. We’re not letting go of the past at all, but we’re reaching out to the future.”

Some of that new material will be featured on the U.S. tour, and plenty more on the band’s third CD, which they intend to record and release in 2017.

“We’ll be road testing pieces on this tour, tightening them up and getting them ready for the studio,” Savoie-Levac says, then adds, “But there will be plenty of older material, too, both songs and tunes. It’s going to be a party.”

Like everything else with this band, that’s exactly the way it should be.

Special thanks to: Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Woodenshipproductions, and FAMgroup Management

Some things seem as if they’re meant to be, as if anything else would be unthinkable. That’s certainly how it is for Les Poules à Colin. The five members have known each other since they were infants, as their parents gathered at festivals around Québec and on weekends to play folk music together. All of them absorbed music before they could even speak and they started their musical explorations with each other. Forming a band was simply the next natural step. Even the name was a gift: What could be more perfect than Les Poules à Colin (Colin’s Hens), the name of a well-known regional tune, for a group of four women and a man named Colin? Fate can play wonderful tricks. And now Les Poules à Colin are heading south of the 49^th parallel for their first big U.S. tour.

“When we were little there would be parties every week at someone’s house,” multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, feet) Colin Savoie-Levac recalls. “We’d all be there with our folks and we’d hear all this traditional music. So we’ve been exposed to it, and we’re influenced by it. But we don’t try to restrict ourselves, we’re finding our own voice.”

They definitely did that with their second album, 2014’s Ste-Waves, which garnered glowing reviews across Canada and brought them a nomination for a Félix Award, the Québec equivalent of a Grammy. Four years of growth, gigging, and writing had gone into that disc, and its broad scope shimmers. Most of the material is original, building on the tradition they know so well but looking out from it. The title track, for instance, comes from the pen of fiddler Béatrix Méthé, and leans to the pop side of Americana - it’s even sung in English - while “La Suite de Mme. Bovary” brings French literature alive in a melody that could be pulled from the Québec tradition, including plenty of foot percussion.

“The foot percussion is very important,” Savoie-Levac insists. “We don’t have a drummer, so my feet on a board are a vital part of the rhythm section. The feet set the groove and the tempo for the rest of the band.”

That groove is a vital part of Québecois music.

“It has to be there to make it work,” Savoie-Levac notes. “The music isn’t complex, so the groove gives it the power, the joy. In that way it’s similar to Cajun music.”

Les Poules à Colin will have a chance to explore those Cajun connections when they play the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, from April 22-24, a curtain-raiser to the band’s nine-date American tour in July, which will take in gigs and festivals from New England to Wisconsin, and on to Chicago.

“Strangely, we only discovered Acadian music recently,” Savoie-Levac explains. “I was down at the festival last year and I had the chance to see how close the style is to ours in Québec, so that promises to be fun. This tour won’t be our very first trip south of the border. We’ve taken part in some festivals and played in Vermont quite a few times. But this will definitely be the biggest trip yet.”

In spite of the name, Les Poules à Colin is very much a democracy. This Colin definitely isn’t in charge; he’s heavily outnumbered by women, including his own bass-playing sister, Marie, along with (Béatrix) Méthé, guitarist Éléanore Pitre (replaced in Lafayette by Simon Marion), and pianist Sarah Marchand-Lebossé.

“We formed the band because we were all already good friends,” Savoie-Levac notes. “Apart from the irony in the name, we never gave the male-female ratio a thought.  We knew each other well before all this, and now we’ve had the group for seven years, they’re really like my sisters or my best friends. We make our music together and all decide where it’s going.”

As part of a young generation, the members of Les Poules à Colin are proud of their native province and its tradition, but they’re also eager to connect it to all they see every day. The time of Québec versus the world is long gone; now it’s Québec as part of the world, and their music reflects that.

“I think Ste-Waves was the first real expression of that,” Savoie-Levac observes. “It was a statement of who we were. We write individually and bring the music to rehearsals, then we all arrange it. The music we’re writing now shows even more of the change. We’re not letting go of the past at all, but we’re reaching out to the future.”

Some of that new material will be featured on the U.S. tour, and plenty more on the band’s third CD, which they intend to record and release in 2017.

“We’ll be road testing pieces on this tour, tightening them up and getting them ready for the studio,” Savoie-Levac says, then adds, “But there will be plenty of older material, too, both songs and tunes. It’s going to be a party.”

Like everything else with this band, that’s exactly the way it should be.

Special thanks to: Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Woodenshipproductions, and FAMgroup Management

Some things seem as if they’re meant to be, as if anything else would be unthinkable. That’s certainly how it is for Les Poules à Colin. The five members have known each other since they were infants, as their parents gathered at festivals around Québec and on weekends to play folk music together. All of them absorbed music before they could even speak and they started their musical explorations with each other. Forming a band was simply the next natural step. Even the name was a gift: What could be more perfect than Les Poules à Colin (Colin’s Hens), the name of a well-known regional tune, for a group of four women and a man named Colin? Fate can play wonderful tricks. And now Les Poules à Colin are heading south of the 49^th parallel for their first big U.S. tour.

“When we were little there would be parties every week at someone’s house,” multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, feet) Colin Savoie-Levac recalls. “We’d all be there with our folks and we’d hear all this traditional music. So we’ve been exposed to it, and we’re influenced by it. But we don’t try to restrict ourselves, we’re finding our own voice.”

They definitely did that with their second album, 2014’s Ste-Waves, which garnered glowing reviews across Canada and brought them a nomination for a Félix Award, the Québec equivalent of a Grammy. Four years of growth, gigging, and writing had gone into that disc, and its broad scope shimmers. Most of the material is original, building on the tradition they know so well but looking out from it. The title track, for instance, comes from the pen of fiddler Béatrix Méthé, and leans to the pop side of Americana - it’s even sung in English - while “La Suite de Mme. Bovary” brings French literature alive in a melody that could be pulled from the Québec tradition, including plenty of foot percussion.

“The foot percussion is very important,” Savoie-Levac insists. “We don’t have a drummer, so my feet on a board are a vital part of the rhythm section. The feet set the groove and the tempo for the rest of the band.”

That groove is a vital part of Québecois music.

“It has to be there to make it work,” Savoie-Levac notes. “The music isn’t complex, so the groove gives it the power, the joy. In that way it’s similar to Cajun music.”

Les Poules à Colin will have a chance to explore those Cajun connections when they play the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Louisiana, from April 22-24, a curtain-raiser to the band’s nine-date American tour in July, which will take in gigs and festivals from New England to Wisconsin, and on to Chicago.

“Strangely, we only discovered Acadian music recently,” Savoie-Levac explains. “I was down at the festival last year and I had the chance to see how close the style is to ours in Québec, so that promises to be fun. This tour won’t be our very first trip south of the border. We’ve taken part in some festivals and played in Vermont quite a few times. But this will definitely be the biggest trip yet.”

In spite of the name, Les Poules à Colin is very much a democracy. This Colin definitely isn’t in charge; he’s heavily outnumbered by women, including his own bass-playing sister, Marie, along with (Béatrix) Méthé, guitarist Éléanore Pitre (replaced in Lafayette by Simon Marion), and pianist Sarah Marchand-Lebossé.

“We formed the band because we were all already good friends,” Savoie-Levac notes. “Apart from the irony in the name, we never gave the male-female ratio a thought.  We knew each other well before all this, and now we’ve had the group for seven years, they’re really like my sisters or my best friends. We make our music together and all decide where it’s going.”

As part of a young generation, the members of Les Poules à Colin are proud of their native province and its tradition, but they’re also eager to connect it to all they see every day. The time of Québec versus the world is long gone; now it’s Québec as part of the world, and their music reflects that.

“I think Ste-Waves was the first real expression of that,” Savoie-Levac observes. “It was a statement of who we were. We write individually and bring the music to rehearsals, then we all arrange it. The music we’re writing now shows even more of the change. We’re not letting go of the past at all, but we’re reaching out to the future.”

Some of that new material will be featured on the U.S. tour, and plenty more on the band’s third CD, which they intend to record and release in 2017.

“We’ll be road testing pieces on this tour, tightening them up and getting them ready for the studio,” Savoie-Levac says, then adds, “But there will be plenty of older material, too, both songs and tunes. It’s going to be a party.”

Like everything else with this band, that’s exactly the way it should be.

Special thanks to: Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Woodenshipproductions, and FAMgroup Management