Kevin Parent

With the release of his first English album, Fangless Wolf Facing Winter, Kevin Parent is fulfilling a natural artistic phase. Twelve years after the release of his first album, "Pigeon d'argile", Parent felt he could finally express what he calls his 'duality' of growing up in the the gaspesian bilingual area of Baie-des chaleurs (border of northern New Brunswick) surrounded by the language of "Dylan" as much as the one of "Ferland". Far from abandoning his French-language roots, Fangless Wolf Facing Winter represents a new stage, and is intended by Kevin to be sincere offering-- one he is making to himself and to the public.

Kevin Parent has always understood the value of being surrounded by the right
people. On Fangless Wolf Facing Winter we find him side by side with Rob Heaney and Manuel Marie on sound and mix, as well as musicians Dominique Messier, Tony Levin, Jeff Smallwood, Jocelyn Tellier, Dan Georgesco, Daniel Bélanger, Paul Picard, Rick Haworth, Catherine Ledoux, Sheila Hannigan and John Webster. Dan Georgesco is a collaborator on one of his songs (There She Goes), and the composer of Down in Mexico. In addition, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy appears on one song (Every Now And Then, co-written with Malcolm Burn), and the voice of Damhnait Doyle is subtle but undeniably present on the album's title track.

Fangless Wolf Facing Winter, which is being released by Audiogram, features twelve deeply introspective, personal tracks. On every song, we find a warm and familiar voice, easy to distinguish from thousands of others. Though Kevin is best known as a French-speaking artist, the first songs he ever wrote were in English, so this musical evolution is a natural one. The release of Fangless Wolf Facing Winter gives a public voice to a little-known part of him, an opportunity to know and understand one of Quebec’s (and all of Canada’s) most respected singer/songwriters.

Discovered in 1993 when he participated in a songwriting competition, Kevin Parent signed to Tacca Musique shortly thereafter. His first album, “Pigeon d'argile” sold over 360,000 copies, making it one of the greatest Quebecois successes of the decade. With hits like “Nomade sedentaire”, “Seigneur” and “Boomerang”, Kevin quickly became one of the biggest names in Quebec music in the ‘90s, earning the respect of peers and critics alike, along with numerous Felix Awards in the province and tour dates on both sides of the Atlantic. Two years later, Kevin released “Grand Parleur, Petit Faiseur”, which also sold more than 350,000 copies and earned Kevin the Felix Award for Rock Album of the Year in 1998. His follow up albums, Les Vents ont changé (2001) and Retrouvailles (2003), which featured collaborations with Claire Pelletier, Catherine Durand, among others, both achieved multi-platinum status and earned him numerous Juno Award nominations (including a win for the best selling Francophone album of 2002) and Felix Awards.