Les Cowboys Fringants (English The Frisky Cowboys or The Dashing Cowboys) are a popular band and cult phenomenon from Quebec, who perform Québécois néo-trad music (modernized Quebec folk music with a rock flavour), the band also draws on Country music. They have gained an international underground following, especially in France and Switzerland. There is even a group of French fans called Les Cousins Fringants (a take on the expression cousin that the French and Québécois use to affectionately call each other). They hail from the Montréal suburb of Repentigny, Quebec. The entire band collaborates on the lyrics, although guitarist Jean-François Pauzé often contributes more than the others. The fundamental aspect of the band are their explosive live performances, captured on the Attache ta tuque live album and the Centre Bell 30 décembre 2003 DVD.
Les Cowboys represent an important part of modern Québécois music. They are part of the néo-trad movement that appeared in Quebec around the turn of the 21st century, and they embody a resurgence of political songwriting (after the draught of the 1980s and parts of the 1990s, political songwriting had been a victim of Post-Referendum Syndrome). As the néo-trad movement adapts Quebec folklore into contemporary crafts, the political message of the band is a re-occurrence of 1970s chansonnier activist messages of left-wing solidarity and sovereignism, although in a more distinctly modern way. They also sometimes adopt a minimalist & dadaesque style, a trend of the Quebec music scene of the 2000s - a decade of voluntary simple yet nonetheless quite intelligent and Joual lyrics, therefore subversive and akin to a sort of lyrical naïve art. (The 1970s did see the first wave of voluntary Joual art, like the songs of Robert Charlebois and Aut'chose, and the plays of Michel Tremblay, although not as willingly exaggerated. This is present even more so in the music of Les Trois Accords, Les Denis Drolet, Daniel Boucher, or in Martin Lapalme's song Carole).
