12/07 Press Release . . .    Short paragraph . . .    Band members . . .   Tech/sound sheet . . .

Recently named to the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpiece Roster by the Vermont Arts Council, Franco-American heritage group The Beaudoin Legacy is carrying on the musical traditions of Vermont's reknowned Beaudoin family. Daughters and grandchildren of fiddler Louis and singer Julie Beaudoin are performing again with musicians and friends who were nurtured and apprenticed by the family in the 1970s and 1980s.

Family patriarch Louis Beaudoin was the first French-Canadian fiddler to record for the fledgling Philo Records in the early 1970s. "The extraordinary thing about the Beaudoin family’s music, particularly Louis’ fiddling, is the strong rhythm that comes from playing for dancing. Other fiddlers may play more notes or fancier tunes, but no one played with more drive and passion than Louis Beaudoin and the Beaudoin family!" says Andy Wallace, folklorist and presenter of the family's music for almost 40 years.

So it's no surprise that "Louis Beaudoin" on Philo sparked a huge interest in French-Canadian fiddle music, helped along by the family's appearances at the National Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and at Jimmy Carter's 1976 Inaugural Celebration. A whole generation of fiddlers was devasted along with the family by Louis' untimely death in 1980. The family regrouped under his widow, Julie Beaudoin, performing throughout Vermont and the region as the Julie Beaudoin Family.

Louis' generous spirit is alive and well and Julie at 86 is alive and present at Beaudoin Legacy concerts, where you find family mixing with friends and apprentices with fifteen singers, fiddle players, piano and guitar players and step-dancers. Guaranteed are fiddle tunes to make you want to dance, songs in French to make you weep with joy at their beauty, as well as songs to make you howl with laughter at the singer's antics and delivery. It's a grand soirée, indeed, a French house party, a kitchen junket that could go on all night!

Young singer, fiddler and tunesmith Daniel Boucher, from Rhode Island, is creating comic havoc with his multi-gendered and -generational characterizations. Beaudoin sisters Carmen Bombardier and Nina Beaudoin bring genetically matched alto voices to French ballads like "J'irai la voir un jour," as well as chansons à répondre like "Au bois du rossigolet" and "La destinée la rose au bois." Their mother, Julie Beaudoin, now 86, joins the singing and Carmen's spoon percussion adds a true French flavor.

When Carmen's children, Glenn Bombardier, Elena Alexander and Nicolle Charbonneau, take the stage in tap shoes, their energetic step-dancing shifts the show into overdrive! Unable to contain themselves, these three dancers can stay airborne long enough to amaze anyone!

Glenn plays his grandfather Louis' fiddle along with fiddlers Daniel Boucher, Donna Hébert and George Wilson. Donna and George, also project founders and strong French fiddlers themselves, were mentored by the Beaudoins in the 1970s and 1980s. Guitarist Liza Constable adds lush French jazz vocals to the show and pianist Selma Kaplan provides just the right rhythms.

2007 performances included the Lowell Folk Festival, the Champlain Valley Festival and the Catamount Arts concert series in St. Johnsbury. 2008 performances will include a weekend of French-Canadian music with Chanterelle on March 28-29 at the Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland RI, plus the Champlain Valley Festival on August 2-3 and the American Folk Festival in Bangor ME on August 22-24.

While the band name has changed from The Beaudoin Project to The Beaudoin Legacy, reflecting the continuity of the family's music and the effect it has had on so many other people, The Beaudoin Project name remains to describe the group's overall efforts. These include establishing the Beaudoin Collection at the Vermont Folklife Center, where informal recordings of 60 years of family members' house parties and public performances are being digitally archived, funded in part by a GRAMMY Foundation grant.  And new audio and video recordings are being released of Beaudoin Legacy performances. The Collection and music archive at VT Folklife, the new and old recordings released on DVD and CD, and The Beaudoin Legacy band are all part of The Beaudoin Project's efforts to "document, preserve and present the unique Franco-American music, song and dance of Vermont's Beaudoin family."

PROGRAM-SIZED PARAGRAPH . . .

Recently named to the NEA's American Masterpiece Roster by the Vermont Arts Council, The Beaudoin Legacy is carrying on their family tradition of Franco-American music and dancing. Shows are filled with songs, fiddle music and stepping from Louis Beaudoin's daughters, Carmen Bombardier and Nina Beaudoin, and Carmen's children, Glenn Bombardier (fiddle, stepdance), Elena Alexander (stepdance) and Nicolle Charbonneau (stepdance). Joining them are group founders and Beaudoin apprentices George Wilson and Donna Hébert on fiddle, with Daniel Boucher on fiddle and vocal, Liza Constable on guitar and vocal and Selma Kaplan accompanying on piano. Recent performances include the Lowell Folk Festival, Champlain Valley Festival and the Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury. 2008 performances will include a mini-festival weekend with Chanterelle in March at the Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland RI, and the Champlain Valley Festival in Vermont and the American Folk Festival in Bangor ME in August. The Beaudoin Collection and archive at the Vermont Folklife Center, the new and old recordings released on CD and The Beaudoin Legacy band are all part of the Beaudoin Project's efforts to "document, preserve and present the unique music, song and dance of Vermont's Beaudoin family."

BAND MEMBERS . . .

Nina, Julie, Carmen onstage at the Champlain Valley Festival 2006	Carmen Bombardier . . . Carmen and her sister, Nina, are singing partners and best friends. They bring their genetically matched alto voices to the French-Canadian chansons a répondre and ballads that they learned from their mother, Julie. Carmen plays spoons and sings at all the shows. She is thrilled to be making music again and is especially happy to be singing with her mother and sister onstage.
	Nina Beaudoin . . . Nina and Carmen have sung together in church and at family gatherings since childhood. Their renditions of standards like "J'irai la voir un jour" and other bonne chansons put you in the middle of a traditional old-time French-Canadian house party! Nina sings at all the shows and makes a terrific tortière meat pie!
	Julie Beaudoin . . . Louis Beaudoin's widow, Julie brings her own family's singing tradition and repertoire to The Beaudoin Legacy concerts and workshops. Julie organized her daughters and grandchildren into the Julie Beaudoin Family band after Louis' death in 1980, performing in the Northeast in the '80s and early '90s. When Carmen's grandchildren join the group now, there are four generations of Beaudoins onstage!
Elena, Glenn and Nicolle dancing at the Chandler Hall, Randolph VT, May 2006 (Bill Spence photo)	Glenn Bombardier . . . Carmen Bombardier's son and Julie and Louis Beaudoin's grandson, Glenn has step-danced and fiddled with his family in Julie Beaudoin Family performances since the 1980s. Glenn loves playing his grandfather, Louis' fiddle. He and Donna Hébert are working together on Louis' music under a grant from the Vermont Folklife Center. Glenn performs at all Beaudoin Legacy performances and works for the federal government.
	Elena Alexander . . . Carmen Bombardier's daughter and Julie and Louis Beaudoin's grandaughter, Elena has step-danced for Julie Beaudoin Family performances since the 1980s. She joins the group at some Vermont venues. Elena has a bakery catering business in the Burlington VT area.
	Nicolle Charbonneau . . . Carmen Bombardier's daughter and Julie and Louis Beaudoin's grandaughter, Nicolle has step-danced for Julie Beaudoin Family performances since the 1980s. She joins the group at some Vermont venues. Nicolle works for the federal government.
	George Wilson . . . A mainstay of the Northeast's dance and fiddling community, George plays for dances with many people and performs with Groovemama, The Beaudoin Project, in Fennig's All-Stars with hammer-dulcimer legend Bill Spence and in the Whippersnappers with Peter Davis and Frank Orsini. George also plays for school dance programs in New York state with caller Paul Rosenberg. In addition to his French fiddling, George is an expert Cape Breton and New England fiddler who also plays great Southern Old-Time banjo, bass, guitar and sings a mean Uncle Dave Macon song. George is music director of The Beaudoin Legacy.
	Donna Hébert . . . A Franco-American concert and dance fiddler who learned Québécois and Acadian fiddling from Louis Beaudoin and Gerry Robichaud in the 1970s, Donna founded The Beaudoin Project and the band with fiddler George Wilson in 2005 to honor Louis and his family for their contributions to Franco-American music. Donna also directs The Great Groove Band of young musicians at both the Old Songs Festival in Altamont NY, where the program is in it’s 9th year and at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, now in its third. Donna teaches, performs and records in five-member string band Groovemama and with Franco-American heritage quartet Chanterelle. Six-times recognized as a master Franco-American fiddler by New England arts councils and a 2005 Massachusetts Artist Grant finalist, Donna has helped to create and nurture a community of fiddlers, singers and lovers of Franco-American music. She has recorded twice on Smithsonian/Folkways, with other recordings on Philo/Fretless, Flying Fish and Chanterelle labels. A national string educator and clinician, Donna is also the director of Fiddle & Strings Camps and Fiddling Demystified Camp and the author and publisher of Fiddling Demystified for Strings.
	Daniel Boucher . . . Franco-American fiddler from Rhode Island, Daniel Boucher grew up in the French community of Bristol, CT. A builder by trade, Daniel is a prolific tune composer and a master of crooked-metered tunes. Also a fine singer with a gift for comic timing, Daniel's funny French songs are bringing down the house at Beaudoin Legacy concerts.
	Liza Constable . . . Chanterelle's jazz and blues guitarist, Liza Constable has been accompanying and singing French music for 25 years. A Cajun singer/guitarist, she is also master of French-Canadian rhythms and chord patterns. Liza sings harmonies and response lines on the French songs and is featured on French and English language jazz numbers. Recorded solo and with Chanterelle, The Sevens, OK Bayou and others, Liza also plays jazz and folk music with fiddler and husband Nat Hewitt.
	Selma Kaplan  . . .  For over 25 years, fiddlers Donna Hébert and George Wilson have been lifted by Selma Kaplan's inventive piano backup. Having been profoundly influenced by the melodic and rhythmic complexity of the Québécois players she first heard in the seventies, Selma is honored and humbled to accompany the men and women bearing the musical tradition she so loves. Selma's musical sensitivity and joyous, energetic playing bring that extra sizzle to the mix!