Barn burning Festival shows by Les Barn Boys

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This article was published 03/03/2024 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last Festival du Voyageur, the musicians who make up Les Barn Boys did not know each other. After a jam session in a La Broquerie barn that went into the wee hours of the morning, they took Festival by storm and are looking at touring more this summer and making an album together.

“After Festival (last year), I decided I wanted to create a band. So I started looking around and found these awesome boys and decided to do a little jam at my girlfriend’s barn,” explained fiddler and mandolin player Miguel Sorin, who is from Lorette.

Other Southeast Barn Boys include drummer Caleb Arnaud from La Broquerie and singer/keyboard player Matt Reimer from Lorette. The Wrigley brothers known for their fiddling, guitars and singing with the band Double the Trouble are from St. Laurent, and singer/guitarist Caleb Dorge of the band Cht’Koot and bassist Sam Fournier are from Winnipeg. Soring also has his own band Les G-Strings.

It has been a fiddling flurry of activity since the Manitoba super group’s first live show Dec. 15 at La Broquerie Hotel, a show put on by Comité Culturel de La Broquerie.

With only two months to put together a set list for Festival, Les Barn Boys featured in eight shows over the two weeks at various locations.

“It’s pretty much the only time of the year that we’re all looking forward to. We’ve been going to Festival since we were very young, so it’s always a blast,” said Sorin.

Sorin did know one bandmate before they all got together for the first time last year. He and Reimer met each other at music competitions, something Sorin insists young kids try for themselves — and not just for the music.

“I wasn’t really a fan of competitions but I made new friends around that music region … It’s really a great experience,” said Sorin.

“And there’s a lot of teachers for fiddle players as well.”

Aspiring fiddle players and fans of fun music can expect to see Les Barn Boys around the Southeast, with Sorin hinting to keep an eye on rodeo musical lineups.

“They can expect good music, good time, good kitchen party. It’s a lot of good dancing tunes, singalong tunes, and just a great time in general,” said Sorin.