De Temps Antan began life as a small Québécois roots band within a much bigger one. Pierre-Luc Dupuis, André Brunet, and Eric Beaudry first got together as a trio while playing and touring as members of La Bottine Souriante, a 10-piece outfit with horns. But while La Bottine opened up new horizons for the musicians, its size and volume meant they couldn't play in smaller venues for traditional music.

“The project for the trio was born in 2004, following a request by a friend who does bookings for a room,” says Dupuis from Memphis, where the three singers and multi-instrumentalists were showcasing at a music conference. “He wanted to hear the three of us playing together. It meant really bringing things down to basics, to the essence of the music.”

The trio's name harks back to its early days, and is a pun that's largely lost in translation. The words mean “of olden times”, but when spoken they sound the same as de temps en temps, meaning “from time to time”.

“It's because we were only able to perform every now and then, between our commitments with La Bottine,” says Dupuis, speaking in French. “We still managed to tour a bit and to make an album, A L'Année. Since then, André has left La Bottine, and I left last fall. But Eric—who plays bouzouki, mandolin, and guitar—remains a member.”

Touring outside of French Canada has become the lifeblood of Québécois roots bands these days. Dupuis, De Temps Antan's accordionist and harmonica player, notes that his group has become increasingly popular in parts of the U.S. Before he and his bandmates hit Vancouver on their current tour, they will be teaching at Centrum, a music and arts centre in Port Townsend, Washington.

“We were there last summer as well,” Dupuis says. “Traditional music is only really big in Quebec during the Christmas holidays.”¦Recognition at home always seems to take longer to come.”

Nevertheless, home is very much at the heart of De Temps Antan and the source of much of its music. “A lot comes from our own families,” says Dupuis, who, like the other two members of the trio, is a singer. “On the album, especially, there's a lot from the village of Saint-Cí´me, where Eric was born.

“He's got many songs and tunes from there,” he continues. “And he also inherited the work of someone in the village who collected back in the '60s, among them Eric's granddad, an excellent fiddle player. So you get a sense of the richness of just one little corner of the country. Our aim is to keep the essence of that music, but to have an open-minded attitude—in short, to let it live.”

De Temps Antan plays the Festival du Bois in Coquitlam's Mackin Park on Saturday and Sunday (March 7 and 8).