Barachois

Get ready for an Acadian house party with la musique Acadienne supplied by Barachois. The four-piece group from Prince Edward Island has a reputation for tearing up the stage, not just with their music, but with step dancing and clogging, as well.

The group, led by brother and sister Albert Arsenault and Helene Arsenault-Bergeron, along with Louise Arsenault and Chuck Arsenault, play everything from fiddle and piano to bones and sousaphone. Their music carries on the traditions brought over from France by the earliest settlers.

In fact, they take their name from the French barachois, or tidal pools left over by receding waters-referring to the expulsion of the French Acadians in the mid-1700s. Not all the Acadians were displaced-some of them hid in the forests and remained behind, much like the tidal pools. The Arsenaults and their music descended from those settlers.