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February 17, 2012
This past Friday, Natalie
invited some musical friends and family over to her house to
officially release her 'Cape Breton Girl' album. Attending
were some of Natalie's band members including Mac Morin and
J.D Blair, members of the Leahy family, Fiddler/Guitarist
J.J Chaisson from PEI and more. This electric night of music
was recorded on video and will be shared with you here on
the website sometime in the middle of March.
View Natalie's video here
February 11, 2012
Back to her roots
Doug Gallant, The
Guardian (PEI)
I remember the first time I heard Natalie
MacMaster play as if it were yesterday. It was in Halifax,
1998, during the East Coast Music Awards. Barry Kent, then
the Maritime rep for EMI Music, had invited me to drop by
The Lord Nelson Hotel for the launch of singer-songwriter
Bruce Guthro's major label debut, Of Your Son.
Part-way through what was already an
exceptional evening of music, Guthro introduced MacMaster as
a special guest. I had heard MacMaster's name before but had
never heard her play. It was not intentional, I had just not
had the opportunity.
That night proved to be something of a
revelation.
Her playing was fluid and beautifully
expressive, adding a whole other layer of colour and texture
to Guthro's songs. It was clear that every note she played
came from the heart.
In the ensuing years, I have seen MacMaster
play more than a dozen times, and every time I hear her play
I take away the same sentiments. And it doesn't matter what
she's playing, whether it's the traditional music of her
beloved Cape Breton or something of a more contemporary
nature. I have enjoyed her excursions into rock, jazz,
flamenco and other genres of music and I applaud her
adventurous spirit and her diversity.
But I must confess that when she returns to
the traditional Celtic music that first brought her to our
attention, my level of interest in her work begins to rise.
And my level of interest is on the rise again.
That's because MacMaster just recently
released Cape Breton Girl, an album devoted solely to
traditional Scottish and Cape Breton fiddle music.
"I just wanted to do a straight-ahead,
traditional record," MacMaster said recently. "I find that
they're becoming less and less common."
Recorded at Glenn Gould Studios in Toronto
with a stellar group of players that included keyboard
player Mac Morin and guitarists Dave MacIsaac, Scott
MacMillan and Brad Davidge, MacMaster's first new album in
five years features a sterling collection of jigs, reels,
strathspeys and other tunes, broken into several medleys.
While MacMaster uses other instruments -
bass, snare drum, whistle, flute and occasionally bagpipes -
the bulk of the album is taken up by what she terms the core
instruments of Cape Breton music: piano and fiddle.
MacMaster feels very good about this record.
And well she should.
More than any other record she has done in
the last number of years it speaks to who she is. It
embraces those values which she holds most dear - family,
tradition, home and faith. It is a record filled with
passionate, heartfelt performances and brimming with the
infectious spirit of a Cape Breton ceilidh.
Those who've longed to hear MacMaster make
another record like those she recorded early in her career
will find what they're looking for here. For what it's
worth, we should count our blessings she found the time to
make the record at all.
Much of her time these days is taken up by
the never-ending responsibilities that come with motherhood.
MacMaster and her husband, acclaimed violinist Donnell
Leahy, have four children, all under the age of seven.
Choice offerings on Cape Breton Girl include
the Butcher's Jig Set which includes The Butcher's March,
Angus Chisholm's and McInerney's Fancy; the Stoney Lake
Reels set, which includes H. Mackworth, Lady Georgina
Russell's, Tom Marshe's Hornpipe and Stoney Lake; and the My
Brother Kevin medley, made up of The Fir Tree, Miss Gordon's
of Fochabar, Lady Muir MacKenzie, The Lasses of Stewarton
and Mrs. Norman MacKeigan.
And I love her work on Our Father / Ar n-Athair
(The Lord's Prayer / an Phaidir).
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
February 6, 2012
60 Canadians set to
receive Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal
Ontario Lieutenant-Governor David Onley has
confirmed the identities of 36 people who will receive the
new medal at Queen’s Park on Monday afternoon, including
broadcasters Lloyd Robertson and Peter Mansbridge, filmmaker
David Cronenberg, ballet dancers Karen Kain and Rex
Harrington, retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci,
and musicians Gordon Lightfoot and Natalie MacMaster.
[View
Press Release From the Office of the Lieutenant Governor]
January 12, 2012
MacMaster comes back
C.B. fiddler, mother of four makes up for lost time with
first CD in five years
Stephen Cooke, Halifax Herald
TIME FLIES when you’re having kids.
So it would seem to Cape Breton fiddler and
mother of four Natalie MacMaster, who is still amazed she
let half a decade slip by between record releases.
But she makes up for lost time by getting
back to basics with some of her favourite musicians on her
latest CD, Cape Breton Girl, a tribute to her Ceilidh Trail
roots that’s dedicated to her uncle, Judique fiddler Buddy
MacMaster.
"People have been saying, ‘It’s been five
years since the last album... ’and I can’t believe it’s been
that long," says the Troy musician from a tour stop in
Indiana just before the holidays. "I guess my book (Cape
Breton Aire) came out, and other projects have been coming
up, but it has been awhile."
The most important project is maintaining the
ongoing balance of music and motherhood, taking care of her
children with violinist husband Donnell Leahy: six-year-old
Mary Francis, four-year-old Michael, Clare, who turns three
in February, and one-year-old Julia.
"They’ve all done this since they were born,"
says MacMaster, who home-schools the older kids on the road.
"They like being on the tour bus, and the pools at the
hotels, and it’s exciting for them. On our Christmas tour
they were part of the show, except for Julia, of course.
"They came out and did a little number, and
they always get a treat as a reward for dancing in the show,
so life on the road is exciting for them. And the crowd
loves it because they’re so cute. . . . But that won’t be
the norm; it was cute to have them as part of the Christmas
show, but we want to keep it special."
Performing was also a family affair in
October when MacMaster and Leahy shared the stage for a
series of shows called Two Fiddles, Two Pianos with longtime
keyboardist Mac Morin and sister-in-law Erin Leahy, also
from the family band Leahy.
"I had someone come up to me and say,
‘Natalie, we’ve seen 14 of your shows in the last 20 years,
and this one’s your best.’ My parents say it’s our best show
yet, too.
"Donnell and I don’t plan on making that our
No. 1 touring priority, because Leahy is still so important
to him, and if he’s not playing with me, he’s playing with
them. . . . And I like the specialness of it; it’s not our
main gig, so we only do it part of the year and we want to
keep it fresh for ourselves."
MacMaster says she’d like to bring Two
Fiddles, Two Pianos back to the East Coast at some point —
it premiered during Celtic Colours 2010 — and currently
plans to make a Maritime visit with her band at some point
in the first half of 2012.
As far as recording with Leahy goes, the
question about their dual fiddle dynasty teaming up in the
studio has been hanging over their heads since they were wed
in 2002, and they want to make it happen.
"We keep trying to get it done, and things
keep popping up, life just happens, and my turnover time is
just not what it used to be; my priorities have completely
shifted," she explains.
"But yes, absolutely, it would be a shame to
leave this world without a documented recording. We will be
recording together, and sooner than later."
MacMaster’s last album, 2006’s Yours Truly,
combined Celtic and contemporary sounds, including the Irish
ballad Danny Boy sung by former Doobie Brother Michael
McDonald, but on Cape Breton Girl she assembles a small
circle of East Coast friends to tackle a traditional
Scottish and Cape Breton repertoire in the warm acoustics of
CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
It’s a familiar pattern for MacMaster,
alternating contemporary Celtic projects like 1999’s In My
Hands and 2003’s Blueprint with grittier downhome
collections like My Roots Are Showing (1998) and a 2005
collaboration with her uncle Buddy.
But MacMaster says her decisions about what
to do next aren’t determined by formulas or fan requests.
"I don’t ponder that question when I’m
recording; I just think, ‘What do I want to do?’ But I know
people always appreciate when I do traditional stuff," she
explains.
"I just felt like doing a straight-ahead
traditional record. On one of the last tracks (the Pretty
Marion set) I do branch out a little bit in terms of
bringing in percussion and making it a bit more ‘arranged’
in terms of accentuating certain elements of the melodies.
"But I don’t ever want to lose that
incredible gift that I’ve been given from my environment, so
I really focused on that."
January 5, 2012
Natalie
MacMaster: Cape Breton Girl Review
By Randi Beers, Exclaim.ca
Natalie MacMaster has been playing the fiddle
for 30 years. She has toured with Carlos Santana, Allison
Krauss, Faith Hill and Yo-Yo Ma, done two TED Talks about
Cape Breton fiddling and sold over 200,000 albums. She
really is the Queen Mother of fiddling. Cape Breton Girl,
recorded in another national treasure, Glenn Gould Studios,
is a study of Nova Scotian traditional music ― each piece is
made up of a number of traditional pieces and covers that
have been deconstructed and reformed to make a new whole.
The album is beautifully composed by MacMaster and mostly
pared down to simple piano and fiddle duets. From the
happier moments of "F Medley" and "Butcher's Jig Set" to the
lilting and morose "The Methlick Style," MacMaster's latest
effort is a fantastic listen.
(eOne)
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