Annotation:Lévis Beaulieu

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LÉVIS BEAULIEU. AKA - "Beaulieu," "Reel a Lévis Beaulieu," "Reel Beaulieu," "Reel de la honte (Le)," "Reel en la (1)." French-Canadian, Reel. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB: AA'BB' (Demers). The tune was in the repertoire of Lévis Beaulieu (as "Reel en la"/Reel in 'A'), a diatonic accordéon player with the influential Quebec group "Les montagnards laurentiens" (The Laurentian Mountaineers). Beaulieu was a later addition to the group (which had been formed in 1931), playing with them from 1945 through their disbanding in 1962. The tune has since become a contra-dance favorite.

Source for notated version: accordion player Lévis Beaulieu (Québec City) via Lisa Ornstein & Denis Pépin [Hart & Sandell]; piano and fiddle player Heather Pinney (Portland, Oregon) [Songer].

Printed sources: Olivier Demers (1000 airs du Québec et de l’Amérique francophone), 2020; p. 28 (as "Beaulieu"). Hart & Sandall (Dance ce soir), 2001; p. 49 (as "Reel en la"). Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 125.

Recorded sources: Avocet Records 103, The Glasnotes - "Live from Contrafornia" (1989). Great Meadow Music GMM 2002, Rodney Miller & David Surette - "New Leaf" (2000). Sage Arts SA 1101, Erin Shrader & Edith Farrar - "Enrichez Vouz!" (1991). Varrick VR-038, Yankee Ingenuity - "Heatin' Up the Hall" (1989. Learned from the first record of the band Eritage). Betsy Branch & David Kaynor - "Midnight in Montague" (2010). Lisa Ornstein & Denis Pépin – “Les Danseries de Québec…de l’autre bord de l’eau” (1986).

See also listing at:
See Pascal Gemme's blog entry on the tune [1]