next stop Brooklyn

For the second leg of this year's New York tour, we're headed for Brooklyn, today's fount of international music and culture. If you get a chance to try any beer, sausages, or music from Brooklyn these days, you can't go wrong.

Sunday, August 2nd Boreal Tordu plays the fabulous Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook, a place where all the cool cats and kitties meet to hear and be heard. The show starts at 8pm with special guests "Me Before You" (http://www.myspace.com/mebeforeyouband) at 315 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, NY. Call 718.395.3214 to reserve your tickets or see http://www.jalopy.biz for more information.

Also at the Jalopy Sunday aftrenoon, our fiddler Steve Muise is holding a Fiddle and Feet workshop for all skill levels to promulgate his brand of Acadian-style Downeast fiddling. You'll also learn to accompany yourself as Steve does with his trademark foot-tapping. Call 718.395.3214 for details. Workshop starts at 3:30pm.

Tuesday, August 4th, we head upstate to Schroon Lake, NY for the Boathouse Concert Series sponsored by the Schroon Lake Arts Council. For directions see http://www.schroonlakearts.com/location.html Price: $5 students/$12 adults Concert starts at 8pm.

For a list of our homecoming tour dates and more please see http://www.borealtordu.com Hope you all are having a great summer!

Lewiston, Maine Tuesday 7pm

We've returned from the first leg of our New York-Vermont tour with only a few scars and with many new friends. A warm welcome to them and many thanks to those who helped us along the way.

Special thanks to Will, Kevin, and the triple-A guy who helped us with a tire blow-out in the middle of nowhere, to Tony, Jim and the folks in Whitehall who helped us load in during a torrential thundershower, to Johnny III who played inflatable guitar along with us, and to Bruce Buckland who invented a soundpost setter when the bridge collapsed on Andy's bass. Big Kudos to Lissa Scneckenberger and her peeps who joined us at Caffe Lena, and put on a great show. Too many others to recount helped us make the tour a great success. Merci une mille fois!

We're pleased to be returning to our home base at the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston, Maine tomorrow as part of the New England Celtic Arts Music Series. See http://www.francoamericanheritage.org for more information.

Hope to see you all again soon!

Boréal Tordu
La musique originale des Acadiens du Maine
Original music of Acadian-Maineiacs
30 Mechanic Street
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 761-3931
robert@borealtordu.com
http://www.borealtordu.com

Champlain tour '09

This week Boreal Tordu heads back to the Champlain Valley for our second annual tour of New York and Vermont. Looking forward to seeing many of our friends from last year's tour and meeting many more. If you're in the area or if you know those who are, please help spread the word that Boreal Tordu is coming to town. Below are our main stops. Check our website for more information at http://www.borealtordu.com

Allons-y!!

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 7 pm
13th Annual Castleton Concerts on the Green
Castleton Village Green
Castleton, VT

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 4 pm
Barre Farmer's Market
Barre, VT

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 8pm
Langdon Street Cafe
4 Langdon Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
802-223-8667
http://www.langdonstreetcafe.com/events.cfm

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 7pm
The Uptown
9819 Graphite Mountain Road
Hague, NY
518.543.6202

Friday, July 10th, 2009 8 pm
Caffe Lena
47 Phila Street
Saratoga Springs, NY
http://www.caffelena.org/

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 7:30 -9:30 pm
Skenesborough Harbor Park
Skenesborough Drive, "The Boulevard"
Whitehall, NY

Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Sacandaga Valley Arts Network
Music in the Northville Lakefront Park
Northville, NY
http://www.svanarts.org/

For more info please visit: www.borealtordu.com

“They are a light-hearted, improvident, unenterprising people, more fond of the fiddle than the hoe.”
â€"Edward Elwell, Portland Transcript, on the Acadians of Maine, 1878

. . . And in 2009, representing today’s generation of Acadian-Maineiacs and inspiring the populace to forget toil and care, comes Boreal Tordu, bringing life to the many influences of Maine's poignant past. Referring to their style as a French-American mélange, Boreal Tordu represents both cultures that have stamped themselves so picturesquely on the Maine that is such a popular destination today. More than a revival, their music represents the reinvention of a culture almost lost to a new generation. Whether playing original creations inspired by their ancestral roots, or the traditional songs passed down through their familial heritage, the result is a rhythmically unstoppable, lyrically fantastic blend of French-Canadian traditions with original Americana sensibilities.

Their 2006 release La Bonne Vie was called "an inspiration to the Franco-American community" by Dirty Linen Magazine, and has been heard on the PBS series Now with Bill Moyers. The band features fiddler/accordionist Steve Muise, and Acadian singer-songwriter and dobro player Rob Sylvain, known for his work in the band Douce with Matthew Doucet of Lafayette, Louisiana.
Rounding out the rhythm section is Pip Walter on guitar and backing vocals, and Andy Buckland on upright bass. Thrice nominated for the Portland Phoenix reader’s poll award for Best World Music Act, Boréal Tordu continues to innovate and abide in a genre by itself.
Whether it's the lively fiddling of an Acadian tune by Steve Muise, the humorous refrain of "Quelle belle vie . . . Ma femme est partie!" (What a beautiful life . . . My wife is gone!) by vocalist Rob Sylvain, or the nostalgic songs taught by a doting mémé (grandmother), the music of Boréal Tordu is a crowd-pleaser.