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The F-Holes are not what you might think

If you automatically think the name of Winnipeg band The F-Holes stands for something rude, you wouldn’t be the first.

If you automatically think the name of Winnipeg band The F-Holes stands for something rude, you wouldn’t be the first.

The group’s string bassist Patrick Leclerc admitted with a laugh that he gets this a lot. He’s not sure if the assumption then naturally follows that The F-Holes play aggressive, in-your-face thrash, punk, heavy metal or grunge music.

“Sometimes I do see punks out in the audience. Maybe they’re actually at the wrong show!”

In fact, Leclerc’s band — which plays on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at The Hideout, south of Red Deer — is named for those swirly little cut-outs on violins or guitars (who knew they were called f-holes?). And the group plays a tunesome, rustic blend of folk and country that’s referred to as “Manitoba roots music.”

Leclerc said Louis Armstrong and John Prine were actually his greatest musical idols when he was a 15-or-16-year-old growing up in Ste. Anne, Man.

“I picked up this Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald CD and it just blew my mind, it was so expressive,” said the bassist and harmonica player, who is now about 30-years-old.

All of the others musicians — guitarist/sax player Blake Thomson, banjo/steel guitarist Eric Lemoine, drummer Evan Friesen and trumpeter James McKee — bring various eclectic influences to a group that’s billed as being among five of the best live bands in Canada.

Leclerc explains that it’s one thing to blow the walls down in a club with “$3,000 of guitar gear.” It’s quite another for a band to “rock out” playing only acoustic instruments. “You can’t hide anything — what’s out there is very true. If you’re good enough, it’ll sound good.”

It’s funny then, to hear Leclerc describe his own proficiency at several string instruments as “enough to get by.”

He joked that he only took up music to get through the long Manitoba winters because he didn’t play hockey. “I’ve always been pretty stubborn, so I just did it. I didn’t realize that I didn’t have talent for many years.”

He concedes he did get better. But Leclerc still plinks out the original tunes he writes on the piano, rather than a guitar because “somehow it works better for me. I guess I’m more of a visual person.”

The F-Holes recently released their second album, Angel in the Corner. While the group’s debut was a hodgepodge of tunes the band gathered from playing at live venues, Leclerc said the songs on this latest one were written and selected specifically for the CD. “They are more personal.”

There’s a title song inspired by the “off-the-wall” stories Leclerc read by serio-comic American novelist Tom Robbins. He leaves that one open for interpretation. “I wouldn’t want to pigeon-hole that song.”

Another tune features a historic fugitive running through the winter cold from police, and there’s a cautionary tale about not sleeping with friends’ wives.

When asked to elaborate on the latter, Leclerc laughed and said “no comment” ­­— lest he incriminated himself or somebody else.

For more information about the show, call 403-348-5309.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com