Thursday, September 15, 2005, The Halifax Herald Limited
Gallant finds spiritual direction When We Get There
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter

On the title track to his new CD, When We Get There, singer-songwriter Lennie Gallant is talking of spiritual destinations more than physical or geographical ones, but it's certainly been a season of arrivals (and, of course, departures). With a summer of festivals and concerts, and days in between spent finishing the album--his first all-new English studio record in seven years--September and the CD's release seem to have crept up on the Halifax-based P.E.I. native.

"When you're performing and traveling, the days just vanish," muses Gallant, gazing out the window of Cafe Vienna on a greyish morning.

Tonight, Gallant performs at the Atlantic Film Festival's IFC Opening Gala, an outdoor bash being held on Argyle Street from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets are $20 each at the IFC Film Festival box office, the Zip.ca online box office, or the ticket hotline 422-6965.

Not having talked to Gallant since his performance at last summer's Congres mondial acadien, there's a lot of catching up to do, and there's talk of making the new album, performing his own Mademoiselle Voulez-Vous Dancer with Jimmy Buffett in front of 16,000 parrotheads in Toronto in June, and the joys of fatherhood with daughter Amelie approaching two-years-old. But the initial topic is the same one that everyone seems to be discussing, the destruction of hurricane Katrina and its devastating effect on Louisiana.

Gallant remembers performing at a festival in Lafayette this past April, feeling the connection between Acadian and Cajun cultures and being welcomed there like a long lost family member.

"I was blown away by the way the festival took over the whole city, with huge stages and bands from all over the world; French bands, Acadian bands, Cajun bands," he says. "Everybody was so into it and so friendly. I don't think I've ever been treated with such absolute kindness as I have by the people down there.

Storms are a recurring theme in Gallant's work, the force of nature finding a mirror with internal emotional turbulence, and When We Get There kicks off with The Gypsy Wind, written after sailing from Mahone Bay to the Caribbean with distant relative Tom Gallant on the schooner Avenger.

Originally recorded in French as the title track for the CD Le Vent Boheme, Gallant make an English version because thought it deserved to be heard by a wider audience, and to further preserve that memory of being far out at sea, where the crossing winds made the sound of an unearthly choir.

"I loved being there, it was kind of scary, we broke a mast in a gale," he recalls. "When we hit the Gulf Stream, the boat was like it was being sloshed around in a teapot, you had to hold on with both hands all the time for about a day-and-a-half. Rocking and rolling like crazy, if you let go at the wrong time you could snap both your arms easily.

"But after all that time being focused on what was going on in the boat, I came home with my mind clear, and I started knocking off a song a day, sometimes two. I couldn't believe it."

Gallant treasures his relationship with the muse, and never fails to be amazed at how a song can come from a story told over a drink with a friend, like the ode to inspiration, There Must Be Another Song, or simply looking at his daughter and summoning the record's first single, I Want to Save the World for You.

But even with seven years between English studio albums, time had its way of playing tricks, like when Gallant became double booked with studio time clashing with a prestigious show at New York City's Knitting Factory. In a variation of the CD's title, he handled it while he got there.

"So imagine driving this van through New York rush hour traffic, trying to get to the venue, and discussing mixing and mastering on the phone, well it was insane. It's not the way you want to be driving through downtown New York."

Thankfully, when Gallant performs tonight on Argyle Street, it will be blocked to traffic.