Julien St-Jean

Shawvile August 22, 2021

Phil Denault will perform medleys and country hits on Sunday night at the Shawville fair this year, making him one of many local musicians who will perform over the course of the weekend.

Denault will be joined on stage by his son, Brandon, on drums, Willy Rivet on bass, Ben Futz on the fiddle, Yvan Petit on guitar and Stephane Teraspe on piano. Denault said though excited for the fair, they only found out they’d be performing recently.

“It was kind of a surprise. I didn’t think [the fair] would go on,” said Denault. He added because of the short notice, the band decided not to rush to learn new songs, but instead to play some of their usuals. “Trying to learn new tunes in a month’s preparation was not in the plan. So we’re basically just going to keep up the with top songs that we were doing before.”

He described their style as modernizing older classics from the ‘90s and early 2000s.

Denault has performed regularly at the past fairs. He expects that he’ll continue a tradition of bringing his wife on stage to sing “how great thou art” together. “Even though she’s not on the bill, I usually invite her up.”

“Everybody is really excited to play the fair and can’t wait to get on stage,” said Denault. “The people that are there, they’ll be there for the music and local artists.”