A Summer Serenade by Lilianne Labbe with Don Hinkley

On a lovely evening in July, Peter and I went to the beautifully constructed and aesthetically pleasing, outdoor, Seaside Pavillion, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. My friend, the incredibly gifted French Canadian singer, Lilianne Labbe, and her amazing guitarist/singing partner, Don Hinkley, were giving a concert together after a ten-year hiatus. It was a great night for it. The air was warm and birds chirped from the eaves before the music began, adding to the ambiance of the summer night.

Lilianne and Don performed mostly traditional French Canadian folk songs. I don’t speak French, but it didn’t matter. Lilianne translated the songs into English, and many of them had very surreal stories. Such as the one about a girl who eats some peas from a field behind her house, gets sick in bed for three months and no-one visits her. Then her lover shows up carrying a white glove in his left hand saying, “Let’s get married next Sunday, and we’ll make love day and night.” Not a word about her being sick in bed for three months. What was he thinking? As Don said, they don’t write them like that anymore.

There was also one about Marguerite who is going to pick hazelnuts. She is petite, pricks her finger on a thorn and falls asleep. Twenty years later the cavalry rides by and someone says,

Isn’t she small,

isn’t she pretty?

I’ll marry her,

we’ll have three children

who will become captains.

That’s another quizzical story that leaves you scratching your head.

Lilianne is a tall slim, silver haired woman, with a relaxed and humorous air and a seemingly effortless ability with a melody. Her voice is in the class of Judy Collins, very full and powerful. Don had a very warm spirit and the guitar proficiency of Richard Thompson. He sang harmony with Lilianne and also performed a lovely Portuguese song by Jaimee’ O’Vallee, for which he rewrote the lyrics in English, called, “Me and Room for You”.

Many of the songs were very lively, and Lilianne played the spoons with enviable rhythm, as well as clicked her boots in time. She explained, the left foot goes up and down on just the heel, and the right foot goes, heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe. We practiced as an audience, but she creamed us.

After the boot tapping lesson, they performed, “La Destinee La Rose Aux Bois”, which was translated:

I was my mother and father’s only child.

When they sent me to the local school,

all the girls wanted to kiss me.

It’s not a girl’s place to be kissing boys,

she should be sweeping the house.

When the house is clean, all the boys come in,

entering four by four and stamping their heels.

That’s the way it is in our township.

And boy, I bet the girls wanted to kick those boys right in their arrogant little shins. After hearing songs like these, how could anyone question the origins of the women’s liberation movement?

One of the really gorgeous tunes was one that they said Samuel de Champlain sang with his men when they first arrived in Acadia, but I didn’t catch the name. It was truly lovely.

Another very moving song was called, “Un Canadien Errant”, which Lilianne translated:

A wandering Canadian,

banished from his homeland,

roamed strange countries with tears in his eyes.

One day at a river’s edge he was thoughtful and sad and spoke to the stream,

‘If you see my sad land, tell my friends I remember them,

O days of happiness, you are gone and, alas,

I will never see my country again.’

Lilianne and Don have performed together for over twenty-five years, at festivals, schools, and many other venues, including Prairie Home Companion. It was a great pleasure to attend this unique concert. Anyone who appreciates folk music would thoroughly enjoy their interpretations of these old songs, as well as their original compositions. Lilianne graced us with a very lovely version of the Stephen Sondheim song, “Send in the Clowns”, as well.

It is always great to get out and hear music live, and doubly great when it is performed with such high quality and beauty. We drove home afterwards feeling very uplifted and inspired.