RECORDINGS

 

FIDDLE

• "Louis Boudreault: Old Time Fiddler of Chicoutimi, Quebec"
  Tremendous solo fiddling--just fiddle and feet--in a style which I imagine is very close to that of Cruzatte.
• "Medicine Fiddle"
  Anyone who loves (or even just likes) the fiddle MUST see this. You can watch a streaming version or order a copy through Up North Films. From the video:
  • "Flowers of Edinburgh" (Fred Allery)
  • "Red River Jig" (Fred Allery)
  • "Road to Batoche"(Mike Page)
  • "Lumberjack's Breakdown" (Coleman Trudeau)
    
• "The Metis Fiddle"
  YouTube video in which fiddler Trent Freeman talks about different aspects of Métis music.
• "Old Native & Metis Fiddling in Western Manitoba"
  If there’s one indispensable recording on the list, this is it. From Willie Mousseau’s Quadrille Set I stole, as best I could, my version of "Haste to the Wedding."
• "Plains Chippewa/Metis Music From Turtle Mountain"
  Another wonderful, authentic recording. Also includes Metis songs. Click on "Red River Jig," the source for my version.
• "Y'était temps!" -- Yvon Mimeault, Quebecois fiddler

SONGS -- English

• "Colonial & Revolution Songs"-- Keith and Rusty McNeil.
  The best compilation of early American songs I've found.

SONGS -- French

• "L'charbonniers de l'enfer"
  Magnificent a capella chansons à répondre (response songs). I can't vouch for the temporal authenticity of all the songs, but if any recording captures the feeling of a bunch of guys belting out songs as the drag themselves up a river, or as they dance about a campfire after a wee dram, this is it. Okay, so the harmonies of the Corps of Discovery may not have been this tight, but we'll never know for sure.
• "C'est dans cette maison de fête"
• "Songs of the Voyageurs"
  A choir sings these songs, so the recording definitely doesn't sound like the expedition. But the songs are all good, old voyageur songs.
• "Hearts of Gold" -- William Pint & Felicia Dale.
  Wonderful recording overall, but "C'est L'Aviron" only Cruzatte-oriented one.
• "Heritage Familial" -- Daniel Perron.
  This recording is *fantastic*, though some of the songs are too new, and the instrumentation is all wrong for Pierre.
• "C'est La Façon..." -- Hommage aux Ainés

COMBINATION

• "Mademoiselle, Voulez-Vous Danser? Franco-American Music from the New England Borderlands"
  Wonderful recording with a wide range of stuff. Great site, too: has lyrics to all the songs.

CONCEPT ALBUMS

• "Lewis and Clark"--The Trail Band
  The best of these sorts of albums thus far. Wonderful song about Patrick Gass.
• "Lewis and Clark: Songs of the Journey" -- Kindra Ankney wrote these delightful songs and Bobby Horton performs them. There's a beautifully illustrated companion book to go along with the recording.
• "Lewis and Clark: Sounds of Discovery"
  This one is the most ambitious attempt to put together a survey of the music of the expedition. I highly recommend this one, though the fiddling is a bit too clean and un-dancelike to be authentic (in my opinion, of course--not having heard Monsieur Cruzatte himself).
• "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery"
  Soundtrack to the PBS documentary about the expedition.
  Music is not necessarily authentic, but it's beautiful nonetheless.
• "From the Journals of Lewis and Clark"--Daniel Bukvich
  Classical work commissioned to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Great Falls Symphony (Great Falls, Montana). On CD.
  

MISC.

• "Canajun, Eh: A Collection of Canadian Dialects For Actors."
  I lied. I also found this recording indispensable. One track in particular, a native French speaker from Newfoundland (sample), spoke with the accent on which I modeled Cruzatte's. You can purchase the recording at TheatreBooks. I also found a copy at Samuel French in Hollywood.

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