LOUGAROU

The Quebec Folk Rock scene seems endless and Lougarou were another band in the list, found in 1974 by brothers Marc Lalonde (bass, vocals) and Michel Lalonde (acoustic guitar, vocals) and featuring also drummer Michel "Stan" Deguire, guitarist George Antoniak and keyboardist Steven Naylor.Lougarou were lucky enough to use Le Studio in Morin Heighs during its off-hours and the band finally signed a contract with Canadian label London Records, releasing the self-titled debut in 1976.

Unlike the mass of Quebec Folk groups using traditional instruments, Lougarou were standing on the opposite side, having a rather rockier but still very delicate and warm sound, mainly to the nice use of synths and piano by Steven Naylor.Their style contained inspirations from Heavy Rock, Classical Music and Progressive Rock, all mixed with some good folky tunes coming out of the band's musical influences and listened both on the instrumental parts and the multi-vocal arrangements.The album certainly lacks some killer tracks or even trully adventurous arrangements with the band focusing more on producing elegant sounds and folky memorable choruses, but there are also some great guitar leads, beautiful piano lines as well as some light and interesting interplays to be found.Especially the keyboard/piano work by Naylor is excellent with a bit virtuosic solos and somewhat intricate passages.

This is certainly the definition of Folk Rock.Catchy folky vibes blended with the rock dynamics next to some evident prog stylings.Nice album indeed and warmly recommended.