Franco-Manitoban indie-folk musician, Willows (Genevičve Toupin) recently unveiled her album, Maison vent, showcasing her meticulous and spellbinding folk sphere of influence that characterizes her unique sound.
Proud of her Red River Métis roots, Willows, who was born and raised in Manitoba and now resides in Montreal, uses her music as a dedication to her heritage and the women of her life. The fourteen tracks on this new indie-folk album speak to all of the women in her family, both those who preceded the artist and those she knew intimately. They tell the stories and struggles of these women from different cultures and go on to explore motherhood from different angles: being a mother at the beginning of the century, the mother-daughter bond, the role of mother-in-law, and the reconstituted family.
Throughout the album, Willows weaves in elements of identity, talking about the tug of war between two languages, two provinces, and what it is to be a Red River Métis woman of Franco-Manitoban origin and now an adopted Quebecer.
“In my songs, you feel the connection to the territory. They evoke the wind, the earth, the lakes, the rivers, the wide open spaces, and the road. I follow my heart, which takes me on a 2000 kilometer round trip from East to West,” explains Willows, who sings mainly in French, while adding a little English and Métchif-Franēais, the ancestral language of the Métis Nation.
Willows will perform at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on June 3, 2023. Get tickets here.