Very talented performers during the "Archives" concert in Chéticamp. Left to right: Cédric Dind-Lavoie, Robert Deveaux and Dâvi Simard.
October 8, 2025
-by Rosie Aucoin-Grace
Le Conseil des arts de Chéticamp offers a busy hub of activities, and their calendar of events is certainly not slowing down. We are fortunate to have such an array of local fine talented performers and those who join us from outside the region. Such a variety provides entertainment for people of all walks of life, the young and those young at heart.
Just recently, on September 20th, at La Place des arts Père Anselme Chiasson – École NDA, there was a unique concert “Archives” featuring Cédric Dind-Lavoie, accompanied by Dâvi Simard, who brought to the forefront, a compilation of old Acadian traditional songs, that mostly originated from Chéticamp.
Canadian Composer and multi-instrumentalist Cédric Dind-Lavoie, based out of Montréal, Québec, is inspired by Archival research. He plays the piano, double bass, harmonium, accordion, guitar, ukulele, banjo, autoharp, Korg MS-20, percussion and sound effects. His recording “Archives” is a special anthology of songs from the 40s and 50s that have been drawn from collections of distinguished folklorists of the French-Canadian traditional music scene. He deploys a wide assortment of acoustic instruments and sound effects to both animate and accompany these precious archival recordings. This treatment of these archives is deeply respected as he takes care to preserve its authenticity while implementing his own original style of embellishments.
“I made this discovery in the early days of the pandemic. Folklore collections such as those of Père Anselme Chiasson, Helen Creighton and so forth inspired me to keep digging. I was studying during my solitude time at home. I realized that the Acapella genre left much room to create musical arrangements to accompany the material. I recorded the album Archives,” says Dind-Lavoie. He added, “As a tribute to those who initially recorded these songs, I try to stay as close to the original material as possible while adding my techniques.”
Throughout the concert, Cédric Dind-Lavoie, accompanied by Dâvi Simard brought so much life to the stage with their ability to play multiple instruments. A reel to reel recording would be playing voices, traditional songs from past that some had never heard or some who were familiar to them, especially family members. Quite fittingly, Ronald LaBelle was a special guest for the evening, a Doctor of Ethnology who was a key figure in Acadian studies. He presented the performers and spoke of this undertaking, its importance and the vitalness of keeping these traditional songs, our Acadian culture alive.
It was quite moving to see entertainers Robert Deveaux, Chester Delaney, Ashley Aucoin, Adrien Aucoin, Nicole Deveau, Michelle Deveau, Adèle Deveaux join Cédric Dind-Lavoie and Dâvi Simard performing to this unique method of delivering traditional songs. There were many goosebumps’ moments when the audience would hear the voice of one of their ancestors singing a portion of a song and family members on stage would perform the remainder.
Executive Director of Le Conseil des arts de Chéticamp, Robert Deveaux is well versed when it comes to our Acadian Folklore. He is a proud Acadian, highly skilled Cape Breton traditional fiddler and pianist. He enthusiastically spoke of this project, “I saw Cédric Dind-Lavoie perform in Montréal, it was nothing but magical for me. Since that discovery, I could not stop thinking about it. It was such an inspiration, and I gave myself an objective to bring back those old Acadian French songs, that belong to us in Chéticamp, to bring them back home. In Québec, there are many musicians that dig into our archives and bring them back to life. It is beautiful to see, and Cédric is but one of them.” He continued, “My goal, as my role with Le Conseil, would be to make connections, link our communities such as Chéticamp, the Magdalen Islands, some places in Québec, etc. where people are interested in this type of material. With Cédric coming here, who has performed all over the world, with his repertoire based mostly on songs from our corner of the world, for me it is huge! Imagine, Père Anselme Chiasson devoted his life to collecting these songs and stories and now it is our turn to carry the torch and keep these treasures alive. I really see it this way.”
“Robert Deveaux was instrumental in the realization of this project,” says Dind-Lavoie. He concluded, “First song I heard was Daniel Boudreau recorded in 1941. Robert started with a video about these pieces, then he shared more of Anselme Chiasson works, and it evolved from there. I continued researching and soon discovered Joseph Larade and so much more – I discovered a whole new world of archives. It certainly was not premeditated but one thing led to another, and my repertoire consisted of many songs from Chéticamp.”
These are such authentic voices. That’s what I find touching. I wanted to highlight the quality of these performers, as well as the work of the folklorists who, in a time when there was almost mothing archived, went out into the field to collect these songs, which had to represent a colossal amount of work. It is to this whole process that I want to pay tribute. – Cédric Dind-Lavoie
(Some of this information was derived from an interview by CKJM Radio Host, Daniel Aucoin with Cédric Dind-Lavoie and Robert Deveaux – with permission.)
