With a sibling slap on the shoulder Lennie Gallant’s brother leaned in.
“There goes your music,” he said, pointing upward.
The prolific songwriter remembers the summer of 2009 clearly; when Canadian astronaut Julie Payette chose to take his album When We Get There aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.
“It was pretty cool,” Gallant said, phoning in from New Brunswick.
He recalled the July evening as his brother pointed out a light in the sky.
“I said ‘yeah my music is finally in high rotation’,” Gallant laughed. “What my mother always told is finally true, my music is outta this world.”
When We Get There was also nominated for a Juno Award. His latest album, If We Had A Fire, won the 2010 Roots Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards.
The Nova Scotia musician has recorded nine albums (seven in English and two in French), which have earned many awards and nominations at the Junos and East Coast Music Awards. After a tour in the west he’ll head back to PEI as a nominee for four East Coast Music Awards: Fan’s Choice Entertainer of the Year, Francophone Recording of the Year, Recording of the Year for If We Had a Fire, and Songwriter of the Year.
“I’m glad that the industry feels that my stuff is relevant and worthy of notice,” Gallant said. It focusses people on what’s happening and brings talent from Canada’s maritimes to the worldwide industry.
“It’s what I feel like I was made to do,” Gallant said. “I feel fortunate that I’ve got the kind of support that enables me to keep recording and keep traveling.”
Originally from PEI, Gallant enjoys bookending the country; hitting the west coast for the warmer weather.
“Audiences are great out there, very receptive and I seem to have a bit of a following out there,” Gallant said. “The audiences are a lot like the weather, it’s great.”
Gallant appears in the Charlie White Theatre on March 30 at 8 p.m. All tickets $25. Call the box office at 250-656-0275.
Despite the serious songs, laughter is always an ingredient in the show that’s been getting a good response in the east.
“We have a lot of fun on stage … I think it’s a pretty entertaining show,” he said. “There’ll be some new stuff and some songs that seem to have become favourites of mine.”