Acclaimed guitarist, songwriter Luke Doucet performs in Iqaluit

Veteran musician and performer Luke Doucet, and his daughter Chloë Doucet-Winkelman, will perform at Inuksuk Sat., Oct. 18. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

When the bell sounds to end the school week at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, you might expect students would be eager to begin their weekend.

But when a nationally-renowned blues and rock musician offers a free guitar workshop, that’s not the case.

About a dozen students piled into the music room at Inuksuk High Oct. 17 to learn guitar skills from two-time Juno award nominee, and the male half of the critically-acclaimed duo Whitehorse, Luke Doucet.

Doucet, who has had a successful solo and band career — as well as playing with the likes of Bryan Adams and Sarah McLauchlan—will perform a concert with his daughter, Chloë Doucet-Winkelman, Oct. 18 at Inuksuk.

During the workshop, students asked Doucet how he started playing music.

“My first gig was at a pizza parlour,” Doucet explained. “Me and a couple friends — we were in Grade 10 — started a band and got a gig there. But Armand, who ran the pizza parlour, said we needed at least one person over 18 years old, because the parlour was licensed. So I hired my dad.”

As his band shifted from covers of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones to strictly blues, Doucet’s father — also a professional musician — and his father’s friends replaced Doucet’s friends in the band.

“But I was still the boss, which was strange because I was 15,” Doucet said.

Students also asked about his guitar, a Gretsch White Falcon, made famous by Neil Young.

“If you buy this guitar today, it’s worth $4,000. I wouldn’t, but it’s because that’s a lot of money and I’m not a lawyer — I’m a musician,” Doucet said.

Playing in singer Sarah McLauchlan’s band for more than 20 years, and writing three songs on her most recent album, Doucet explained, means instrument manufacturers will sponsor you and sell you instruments at a fraction of the retail price.

Doucet, given his first guitar at age 13, found a clear focus and drive in music, he told Nunatsiaq News in an interview.

“In high school I found myself cranky and adversarial and combative — I didn’t enjoy the social setting of high school,” Doucet said.

“But when I found music, I directed so much of my attention into that, that I no longer cared about all the other stuff. I went down the rabbit hole and just had my head inside a guitar for five years, and the other stuff didn’t matter anymore.”

Music, Doucet said, or any other art form, can be an antidote for almost any social or personal problem, but his father instilled in him a strong work ethic too.

“If you want to be a musician, go ahead, but it’s going to be harder than you think so get to work,” Doucet remembered his father saying.

“Treat it like a job. Work your ass off, or forget it. People might tell you that you’re talented, but that’s not going to get you anywhere.”

Doucet remembers practicing before school when he was a kid, as soon as he got home from school, until dinner time, and then after dinner until bedtime, as long as homework was done.

But his 18-year-old daughter, Chloë, who has been performing with her father since she was seven, finds time for many different interests, even though music is her focus right now, she told Nunatsiaq News.

“I want to play music, I want to write a bunch of music, play shows, start a band,” Chloë said, “but the question of what I want to do with the rest of my life is a big one.”

Chloë, training to be a yoga instructor, said she’s interested in literature and philosophy and psychology, but music has always been a big part of her life.

“It was always a lot of fun,” Chloë said. “My dad would bring me up on the stage at festivals. I’d be wearing my bathing suit, running around, and then I’d run up to the stage, jump up and sing a tune.”

“It’s funny because when she was small she didn’t realize there were stairs to come up to the stage,” Doucet laughed. “She’d just climb up the front — run through the audience, and then climb up the stage.”

Doucet said he can’t take full credit for Chloë’s blossoming musical career, as both her mother and her step-mother have been musically influential in her life.

“As a parent, you want to give your kids as much as you can, whatever you have to offer. Some parents have money,” Doucet said, “I don’t have that to offer her. The only thing I really have to offer — besides my friendship, support and love as a parent — is music.”

“It’s really a gift to be able to learn something from your parents, to have knowledge passed down like that,” Chloë said.

Chloë and Luke’s concert at Inuksuk High, presented by Alianait and initiated by Lynne Feasey of Points North Creative, begins at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18. Tickets can be bought at the door for $25 ($15 for youth 13 to 18 years old, and free for youth under 12 and for elders).

The pair will then fly to Cape Dorset for a concert Oct. 21.