Raoul Roy

Roy, Raoul

Raoul Roy. Folklorist, collector, singer, b St-Fabien-sur-Mer, near Rimouski, Que, 6 Jan 1936, d Montreal, 30 Jan 1985. He attended the École de Marine in Rimouski 1954-6, after which he studied the oral tradition of folk literature at Laval University. In 1958 he decided to concentrate on research into folklore and the collection and recording of folksongs. He studied and performed 1959-61 in England and in 1961 founded the boîte à chansons Le Pirate in St-Fabien-sur-mer. As a folksinger he took part in Canadian Folk Songs: A Centennial Collection, a set of nine LPs produced by CBC IS for RCA Victor and RCI (1967, CS-100; reissued on CD in 1990 in the Anthology of Canadian Music collection, 5-ACM 39) and he was one of those who conceived the idea and he wrote the French liner-notes. In the 1970s he recorded four albums of folksongs for Select: CM-298.068, M-298.095, SSP-24.152, S-398.235 and a fifth, which was a co-production of Select (SSP-24.177) and RCI (RCI 273). In 1979, Select reissued his greatest hits on the LP 20 Chansons folkloriques (SQ-20.002). His wife, the singer Louise Poulin, took part in some of the recordings. The 700 to 800 songs or variants which he collected on tape in many parts of Quebec are deposited in the Archives de folklore of Laval University. He published a collection of 50 Canadian folksongs, Le Chant de l'alouette (Quebec City and Montreal 1969).