A Debut 25 Years in the Making
Tremblay used
many accomplished musicians on the album, such as guitarist/producer Robert Walsh.
In addition to promoting his CD with shows across Alberta - he was the opening for
Michel Rivard's Edmonton performance in late November, Rivard being one of Tremblay's
biggest musical influences - Tremblay is active in Edmonton's theatre scene as a
writer and performer, is a columnist with Le Franco, Alberta's weekly
French-language newspaper, and is a planner with L'UniThéâtre, a
French theatre association, and is the founder of the Gala Albertain
de la Chanson 15 years ago, a showcase of up and coming French musical
talent, and he is still involved with it. He is also working on a book.
Tremblay's goals as a musician have much to do with the current state of
the music business, and a personal mission as well. "The business has
changed quite a bit. I think that 20 years ago or even less, people would
make an album, and put everything in that - all their cookies, all their
money, everything, and they'd go straight for stardom. I'm a little more
realistic because I have the advantage of age - this can't be the start of
another career for me at 47 - but also I have the hindsight of a CBC Producer
who has helped quite a few people start up their careers, so I know what
they have been through. This is not all rosy; it is a lot of work.
"If I had one goal out of this, what I want to do, is in 2005, for my 50th
birthday, I'd like to take the show, whatever it is at that time, to Normandy in
France, and what I would like to do, is to do a limited series of shows over a
two-week span, because that is originally where the Tremblays are from. We're
probably the best-documented family in Canada. We all come one ancestor, called
Pierre Tremblay. In 1991 I visited not only the village, but the house
where he was born. So in a way for me, in 2005 if this makes it to that
point, for me, that would close everything up pretty tight."
Next page > Ronald Tremblay: Back to Part One >
Photos © 2003 Paula E. Kirman