Garolou - Lougarou 1976

Garolou was a pan-Eastern Canadian group with members from Ontario through to the Maritimes. Its origins could be traced to Franco-Ontarian brothers Marc and Michel Lalonde who were living in Prince Edward Island in 1974 and part of a theatre troupe. Their musical career began humbly as a folk duo, but their interests and their popularity resulted in expansion to a full rock ensemble including keyboards, bass, and drums, performing revved up and re-interpreted folk songs with plenty of progressive flourishes, Canada's answer to Steeleye Span if you will. The group was ultimately based in Quebec, partly because a studio in the Laurentian Mountains was kind enough to provide free time to produce their first recording, even without any label signing, which eventually came. Their history is a turbulent one. While personnel changes were frequent and almost de rigueur for the communal lifestyles of the period, Garolou survived the indignity of a name change from their original Lougarou moniker, resulting of a threatened lawsuit from a folk dance troupe with a very similar name. The original name is a contraction of the French word for werewolf, while Garolou is a play on words at several levels, perhaps at least one being a slight at the dance troupe. One interpretation is "Beware the Wolf", while another is "Boy of the Wolf".

Their first two albums, Lougarou (1976) and Garolou (1978) are regarded as their best and sold well. The 80s brought forth Romanceros (1980), which received critical acclaim, and Centre-ville (1982), but by then the golden era of Quebecois folk had withered, and the group called it a day in 1983. In 1993 the band re-united and has performed on and off since then. Rekindled interest resulted in re-releases of the four albums packaged as 2 two-fers, a live album, and a 1999 studio recording, all testament to the band's enduring appeal.

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