Folksy French duo playing in town

TRURO, N.S. — Two old friends are bringing their folksy Francophone music to Truro next month.

Ronald Bourgeois and Danny Boudreau are performing their blend of folk, blues, country and pop at the Centre communautaire francophone de Truro, Feb. 3.

“French music – and music in general – people get,” said Bourgeois. “They get the emotions. I always like to make new friends, expand the audiences and build the base and it’s great to be able to reach out to an English-speaking audience. Most Anglophones don’t get a chance to experience French music and artists.”

The two musicians first met in the 1990s, when they worked for French-language TV shows broadcast by the CBC.

In 1993, Bourgeois and Boudreau performed together on the Double Etoile or Twin Star show. Boudreau was also backup singer on another show titled Pour l’amour du country.

A quarter-century later, the duo are performing unplugged in Truro in their own show, called Au coeur de la chanson, which means “At the heart of the song” in English.

Their songs are rooted in the life of Acadian communities across Atlantic Canada, such as Cheticamp, Cape Breton Island, where Bourgeois is originally from. However, their themes of love, loss and fate are universal.

“It’s very much about the folk,” said Bourgeois. “A lot of the time, the music is very much related to a rural community base and it fits the time.”

Bourgeois’s and Boudreau’s show is part of a 10-stop tour taking them across both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, that starts Jan. 25.

They will perform in Tracadie-Sheila, Petit Rocher, Halifax, Dieppe, Truro, Pomquet, Sydney, Cheticamp for two engagements and Bouctouche.

The duo’s show in Truro starts at 7 p.m. on Feb. 3 at the Centre communautaire francophone. Tickets are $20 at the door.

For more information, call the Centre communautaire francophone de Truro at 902-897-6864 or email them at centrefranco@ns.aliantzinc.ca.