Ville Émard Blues Band was a Canadian progressive rock band from Montreal, which played a significant role in the development of francophone rock music in Quebec in the early 1970s.
[1] A rotating collective featuring anywhere between seven and 25 members at any given performance, the band was led by bass guitarist Bill (Roland) Gagnon and included singers Lise Cousineau and Estelle Sainte-Croix, pianist Pierre Nadeau, percussionists Denis Farmer, Michel Séguin and Christian St-Roch, saxophonists Carlyle Miller and Renald Montemeglio, and guitarists Rawn Bankley and Robert Stanley.
[1] Almost all of the members were simultaneously members of other bands, such as Harmonium and Contraction, or session players for solo artists, including Robert Charlebois, Claude Dubois, Franck Dervieux and Renée Claude.
[1] They undertook a 30-city tour of Quebec in 1974, as well as playing a show on the Toronto Islands.
The band performed a number of reunion shows in this era, with new members including Kathleen Sergerie,[6] and a 2007 performance in Montreal was released by ProgQuébec in 2009 as the live album Live au Festival des musiques progressives de Montréal 2007.