Quebecoise folk music has never sounded cleaner. Each stroke clips its way clearly out of the fiddle, each foot-tap trots out of the speakers with the precision of toenails being snipped: that swift click. The voices are less sharp than the instruments, more human, friable. They give songs such as “La Piaster des Etats” an undercurrent of longing that the fiddle accentuates. Dans les Airs is honest as polished floorboards, everything exposed to your judgment, the looped grain of the wood shining through. There’s a quality of earthy clarity that you can only get in folk bands like this, and these Canadians nail it.

By: Deanne Sole