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Lisa LeBlanc mixes sounds to create ‘folk-trash’

What: Lisa LeBlanc Where: Upstairs Cabaret When: Wednesday, doors at 7 p.m. Tickets: $12 at Lyle’s Place or door This banjo-playing former metal-head likes to call her music “folk-trash.
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Lisa LeBlanc remembers a warm response when she played Victoria last year.

What: Lisa LeBlanc

Where: Upstairs Cabaret

When: Wednesday, doors at 7 p.m.

Tickets: $12 at Lyle’s Place or door

 

This banjo-playing former metal-head likes to call her music “folk-trash.”

When Montreal’s Lisa LeBlanc started out, she wondered how to describe her sound. She needed a catchy tag that would pique people’s curiosity.

“I said: ‘Screw it. OK, I play folk-trash. No questions asked. That’s it,’ ” said LeBlanc, on the phone this week from her parents’ home in Rosaireville, N.B. (population 51).

The 25-year-old Acadian-Canadian’s music combines blues, country, rock and bluegrass. Some might call it roots, some might call it Americana. One critic compared LeBlanc’s music with the folk-acoustic sound found on Led Zeppelin III.

A good introduction to LeBlanc’s music is her song You Look Like Trouble (But I Guess I Do Too). It starts off as banjo-dominated folk, then upshifts to hard-driving folk rock — or rather, folk-trash.

Meanwhile, LeBlanc’s raspy voice comes off as a cross between Ann Wilson of Heart and Lucinda Williams. And that’s a good thing.

You Look Like Trouble (But I Guess I Do Too) is from her 2014 Highways, Heartaches and Time Well Wasted. The disc marks LeBlanc’s first foray into the English-speaking market. Her other recording, a full-length self-titled debut, contains songs with French lyrics. Lisa LeBlanc sold 100,000 copies, a remarkable achievement that reflects her star status in French Canada.

Elsewhere, she’s still relatively unknown. Still, LeBlanc says she received a warm response when she played Victoria’s Lucky Bar last November, around the time her EP was released.

“It was hilarious,” said LeBlanc, who often interrupted her sentences with a husky laugh.

“We had a ball. People were so primed. I was like: ‘What is happening in Victoria?’ It might have been on a Monday or something and people were just hammered. It was great.”

LeBlanc, who switches between guitar and banjo, comes to the Upstairs Cabaret next week with her drummer and a baritone guitarist. She said they’re all “old metal-heads.” As a teen, LeBlanc adored Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Iron Maiden and Slipknot.

One form of music she detested back then was bluegrass. It was all the rage in the region where LeBlanc grew up speaking an Acadian dialect, “chiac,” a mixture of French and English.

“Now I love it. I just got back from a bluegrass festival in Rosaireville, my hometown, this weekend. I was there the whole weekend and I had a blast — it was great.”

An accomplished finger-picker, LeBlanc started playing the banjo only about four years ago. Before that, she played guitar, but mostly as a rhythm instrument. Typically, there would be three or four guitarists at jam sessions. So she picked up the banjo, hoping to contribute something different.

“Now I’m more comfortable on banjo than guitar. For me, it’s more inspiring.”

After her debut album was released in 2013, LeBlanc “had a blast” touring French Canada and Europe. The English EP has made it easier for her to get bookings farther afield, she said.

As for her next recording, she’s unsure what language the lyrics will be.

“I’m wracking my brains in another way when I write in English,” said LeBlanc, who was educated in French. “[Writing lyrics in] both languages is challenging. They bring two different kinds of things. I really like both.”

One of LeBlanc’s musical heroes is Lindsey Buckingham, who plays with Fleetwood Mac and also has a solo career. She loves his fingerpicking. And she admires the way he offers passionate performances for such songs as Big Love.

That’s what LeBlanc aspires to, as well.

“You know when someone’s completely sincere and completely 110 per cent into it,” she said.

“I like someone who has their heart out and is completely transparent.”

achamberlain@timescolonist.com