Home recordings are fine and dandy, but I wanted to go into a proper studio this time.
So I traded my beaten up but faithful pick-up truck for some studio time. The Yukon is that kind of place.
I also managed to rope in some musician friends to tag along.
Matt, who of course had never heard of Brassens, turned out to be the best bass player I ever played Brassens with. He was my Pierre NIcholas.
I had been singing Leonard Cohen with her before, so I asked my friend Marie-Hélène whether she’d sing along with me. At that point I strongly felt that I wanted to have a female voice heard along mine. She reluctantly agreed, not being a Brassens fan herself, and then totally gave herself to it.
Last, I didn’t want the requisite guitar noodling for flourishes, so I turned to a firebrand fiddler to bring another dimension. Again, I had to educate her in Brassens, but my did she pick up! Keitha is an awesome fiddler.
Both in studio and on stage, what a trip that was! I cannot thank them enough.
The Yukon is indeed that kind of place.
Didier Delahaye: voice & guitar
Marie-Hélène Comeau: vocals
Keitha Clark: violin
Matt King: standup bass
Track 3 (The Gorilla):
Pat Braden: Chapman stick
Ed White: drums
Track 13 (Tush):
Pat Braden: bass
Barb Chamberlin: organ
Recorded at Rainbow Studios in Whitehorse, Yukon
Engineered and mixed by Laurie Malo
January 2007
EP CD version released for the 2007 Arctic Winter Games concert, Whitehorse, Yukon
By the simple act of bringing the poetry of Georges Brassens to a Yukon audience, Delahaye is surely enriching our culture. It is as if someone had decided to recreate a vintage wine in our neck of the woods and present it for the world to taste. This music is from a talented interpreter and scholar of music… Like a log alight on a roaring fire, Delahaye warms your soul with a rich, sonorous singing voice. His delivery in French and English is, like the original Brassens, distinctively enunciated and articulated to perfection.
Bill Polonski, What’s up Yukon – full review
Brassens REDUX: In Brief, the debut CD of Didier Delahaye, is the weirdest music to come out of the Yukon in quite some time. Weird in a good way, however. Excitingly creative, fast and inspiring. Using a collection of gypsy-influenced folk tunes originally written by Georges Brassens half a century ago, Delahaye has taken the songs, laboured over them and reworked them to become something new.
Andrew Hoshkiw, Whitehorse Star – full article
Your new release is wonderful wonderful wonderful. The “Yukon style”, is it? The introductory and intermezzo descants are so lush as to be almost edible. Your bass is much richer and sonorous than GB’s baritone, and I would lief as listen to you as him for the rest of whatever existence is left to me. I am ever captivated by delicate two part harmony with a fine soft soprano enriching the male melod, and your examples of L’amour marin and Natural mate with Marie-Hélène filling that fine role are as satisfying as apple pie. I can’t desist without mentioned the quality of the studio work. The subtle “presence”, as we used to call it, which has vanished in a lot of modern mixing, is perfect. For now, thank you, thank you, and bis! bis!
William Hinshaw, Georges Brassens American Fan Club
