Mes Aïeux
Mes Aïeux (My ancestors) is a folk music group from Quebec, Canada founded in 1996.
Although a leader of the Quebec "neo-traditional" scene, the band takes a definitely modern slant on that style, borrowing stories and characters from French Canadian folklore (the devil, the chasse-galerie, the shepherdess, the coureur des bois, drinking songs, etc.) to write about modern themes with a touch of humor. These themes include globalization (Qui nous mène?), politics (Ça va mal), generational conflicts (Dégénérations/Le reel du fossé), over-medicating (Remède miracle), the frenetic pace of modern life (Train de vie (le surcheval), Continuer pareil), recent Quebec history (2096 (chanson à boire)), etc. Some of their songs involve personalities from Quebec history such as "La Corriveau" (La Corrida de la Corriveau), "The Great Antonio" (Antonio) and "Alexis le Trotteur" (Train de vie (le surcheval)). The band also wrote humorous songs about Québécois cultural phenomena such as poutine (Hommage en grain).
In November 2005 their album "En famille" went platinum (100,000 copies sold) and their two earlier albums, "Ça parle au diable" and "Entre les branches" both went gold (50,000 copies sold). In December 2006, "En famille" was certified double platinum (200,000 copies sold) and their latest album "Tire-toi une bûche" went gold after only three weeks.
In 2005 Mes Aïeux was honoured with a Félix Award for the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album for "En famille", in addition to being nominated for Group of the Year.
In 2007 Mes Aïeux won 3 Félix Awards for the Group of the year, Best selling album and song of the year.
[edit] Members
Its six founding members include:
- Marie-Hélène Fortin
- Éric Desranleau
- Stéphane Archambault
- Frédéric Giroux
- Marc-André Paquet
- Benoît Archambault.
[edit] Albums
Since their founding, the group has released five albums:
- Ça parle au diable (2000)
- Entre les branches (2001)
- En famille (2004)
- Tire-toi une bûche (2006)
- La ligne orange (2008)
