The gentlemen of Genticorum will be showcasing their Quebecois musical talents Saturday at ArtSpace at 8 p.m. during a Warm Up to Coldsnap concert.
Genticorum - a nonsense Latin word - is the title of band-member Pascal Gemme's favourite song his grandfather used to sing to him.
Opening for the Quebec traditional band will be local band The Delightful Gang.
Genticorum started in November 2000 and has most recently received the Canadian Folk Music award for best traditional album for their latest work La Bibournoise.
Band members Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand, Yann Falquet and Pascal Gemme met while attending the same house parties and "quickly realized that we enjoyed playing together a lot," said de Grosbois-Garand.
"Pascal and Yann had already been playing for a little while when I joined them because they were looking for another member of the band and thought a trio would be a good format."
They released their first album in 2002 Le Galarneau, and the second album Malins Plaisirs in 2005 resulted in Genticorum winning best ensemble category in the Canadian Folk Music Awards and they were also nominated for a Juno and Felix Awards in Quebec.
"We are working on our fourth record which will be recorded in January and released in May," said de Grosbois-Garand. Title still to be determined.
For a trio, people often describe their sound as big, full and well rounded.
"I think one of the reasons for that is Pascal, our fiddler, does the foot percussion and singing at the same time. This is pretty typical of Quebecois fiddlers, but Pascal has very heavy shoes, powerful fiddle playing and singing, so just by himself he makes quite a lot of sound. Yann, our guitar player, has a wide approach that makes a big, full sound and myself on the flute and the bass I think I have a pretty big sound as well. The male vocals together makes a pretty big sound."
Genticorum wants to be accessible to everyone and they know most people in the world don't speak French so they have developed a way to communicate the meaning behind the songs they sing.
"At least 80 per cent of the shows we've been doing in the last six years have been in front of English speakers and other countries that don't speak French, so we really had to create a way to make it entertaining for them because they don't understand the lyrics and the songs are quite funny most of the time," said de Grosbois-Garand. "The presentations of the songs is a really big part of the show."
With more than 500 shows behind them de Grosbois-Garand said he thinks they're pretty good at it now.
Tickets are $20 from Books & Co., 1685 Third Avenue, or Studio 2880 and UNBC Bookstore for more information www.genticorum.com.
