Si je devais emporter un disque de Brassens sur mon île déserte, c’est sans hésitation le IX qui ferait l’objet de mon choix. Je lui rends ici humble homage à ma façon, insuflé d’un grand air de liberté…

English version

Didier Delahaye: voix, guitare, arrangements & FX
Jean Declinchamp: contrebasse sur 3 et 6

Enregistré à Kathleen Lake, Haines Junction, Mary Lake, Yukon (Canada), et Évreux (France) par Didier Delahaye, été 2012. Mastering à Whitehorse, Yukon, au Rainbow Recording Studio par Laurie Malo.

IX (1966)
Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète Supplication To Be Buried On The Shores Of A Faraway Isle
Le fantôme Ghost Story
La fessée Spanking
Les quatre bacheliers Four Sophomores
Le bulletin de santé Bill of Health
La non-demande en mariage Non Proposal
Le grand chêne The Oak Tree
L’épave A Wreck
Le moyenâgeux Middle-Ages Crisis

IX La Supplique… is my favourite Brassens album, the one that I’d take to the proverbial desert island. Brassens is at his writing peak and from start to finish the songs absolutely shine. They are also perfectly served by the intimacy of their unique recording setting. No frills, just plain goodness. This is Brassens’ only true home recording – done in the warmth of his living room rather than in a studio for practical reasons rather than artistic ones. The end result is perfect in its simplicity.
Having had the privilege to visit the hallowed place, I was stirred to pay it homage in my own way, and I reinvented this home recording using my own tools, and in my own world which happened to be the Yukon.

Version française

Didier Delahaye: voice, guitar, arrangements & FX

Recorded in Haines Junction & Whitehorse
Yukon Territory, Canada
July-August 2012

IX (1966)
Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète Supplication To Be Buried On The Shores Of A Faraway Isle
Le fantôme Ghost Story
La fessée Spanking
Les quatre bacheliers Four Sophomores
Le bulletin de santé Bill of Health
La non-demande en mariage Non Proposal
Le grand chêne The Oak Tree
L’épave A Wreck
Le moyenâgeux Middle-Ages Crisis

Retour aux sources musicales.
Guitare et contrebasse, selon l’incontournable formule Brassens. Voici donc.

Didier Delahaye: chant et guitare
Jean Declinchamp: contrebasse

Enregistré à Evreux, France
Juin 2013

The time had come to go and sing my English versions to discerning audiences, and I was invited to perform at a couple of Brassens centric festivals in France. I needed some merch (to try and recoup some of the travel costs, you know) so I printed a Songbook of my translations (which sold out) and pressed a home made CD (it did well too). Here it is.

Didier Delahaye: voice & guitar

Recorded in Whitehorse, Yukon
March 2004

Je viens d’écouter vos traductions anglaises. C’est un boulot extraordinaire. Chapeau!! J’avais déjà entendu des traductions en allemand, créole, espagnol, esperanto… Vous avez accompli un travail remarquable.
Christian Vanderwinnen, Belgique

I moved to Montpellier, France (a short drive from Sète) with my family two years ago and started to notice occasional posters and photos of a man with a pipe called Georges Brassens. I finally got to hear “Je me suis fait tout petit” on the radio and bought one of his CDs – a compilation which began with “Le Gorille”. What fantastic songs! Why hadn’t we in the English-speaking world ever heard of this man? I was hooked, and I’ve subsequently bought most of Brassens’ work. He’s been the gateway, for me, to the world of French chanson and I’ve enthusiastically recommended him to my friends in Ireland and England. I’ve looked for translations of his songs before and I’ve never found any that captured Brassens’ wit and earthiness – until now. Thank you so much for a superb job of translating the songs, or rather, of making it look like they have always existed in English. Your voice is perfectly matched to the material and conveys the same warmth as le Bon Maître. I’ll keep an eye on your touring schedule and try to get to see you whenever you come to the South of France.
Tom Kennedy, France

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

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