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December 6, 2005
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September 21, 2005
The two-hour service brought 2,000 people to Carnegie Hall, not only almost every big name in broadcast journalism, past and present, but also notables from Hollywood and politics, a fellow tennis player and the president of a homeless-aid group for which he volunteered in New York. "Peter's life was incredibly full -- full of adventure, full of learning, full of teaching, full of love," said Dr. Tim Johnson, the ABC News medical correspondent who grew even closer to Jennings during his illness. Jennings died Aug. 7 after a five-month battle with lung cancer. Several speakers recalled Jennings' two-decade-long stretch as one of the Big Three anchors and one of the most powerful journalists in the country. But more striking -- and much more prevalent -- were reminisces by family and friends of the times he spent off the air. Personal snapshots of Jennings -- always handsome, always full of life and often with a wry smile -- flashed on a screen throughout. The speakers painted a picture of a man fiercely devoted to his two children, Christopher and Elizabeth, and to his marriage to Kaycee Freed. "Ultimately he would judge his own success over how good a father he was to Chris and Lizzie," ABC News president David Westin said. Near the end of the service, Christopher and Elizabeth Jennings brought the most poignant tributes to their father. "The same qualities that made him a great journalist made the parent he was," said Christopher, who told of his father's sense of awe at the world, his inquisitive nature and his deep sentimentality. "The slightest achievement by his children, or even his dog, could wet his eyes," he said. "Even the sound of bagpipes tuning up could make him cry." "World News Tonight" senior broadcast producer Tom Nagorski, a longtime friend and associate, also recalled Jennings' emotionalism and touching gestures even while he was frail from illness. Nagorski read from a letter his daughter Natalie received from Jennings in response to the get-well card she made and sent to him. Jennings wrote that the colors on the card "really cheered me up. ... Whenever an adult is sick, there is nothing quite as good as a young person's kindness to make them feel better." "Nightline" host Ted Koppel recalled Jennings' magnetism to both men and women and his simple act of kindness to a homeless man the two encountered years ago on 67th Street in Manhattan. They both contributed money to the man, but Jennings did more. "Peter stayed and talked to the man for about 10 minutes," Koppel said. "He asked about his life and listened." Jennings didn't talk about it much, but he was "a great friend to homeless New York," recalled Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, executive director of New York-based Coalition for the Homeless. Sullivan called Jennings "someone of concrete action" who often rushed out the door after the end of "World News Tonight" to deliver hot meals to the needy or to visit with the homeless in the flophouses of the Bowery section of Manhattan. He did that without attention and listened and spoke to the people he encountered. "He knew instinctively that homeless people were first and foremost people," Sullivan said. Mourners heard the sound of bagpipes, courtesy of two members of the NYPD Emerald Society, at the beginning of the service. They were escorted by two tan-hatted and red-jacketed members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of many nods to Jennings' Canadian heritage. Fiddle, string and jazz music filled the service played by Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster, musician Alison Krauss, celloist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz greats Jon Faddis, Wynton Marsalis and Clark Terry. Elizabeth Jennings said it was hard not to have Jennings there. "Without him, I find myself stumbling around in the dark," she said. She recalled her father's speech at her high school graduation as well as lines from "Romeo and Juliet," once used as a eulogy to President John F. Kennedy by his brother, Robert: "Take him and cut him out in little stars/and he will make the face of heav'n so fine/that all the world will be in love with night/and pay no worship to the garish sun." "He was famously, almost notoriously attractive to women," Koppel recalled. "Even so, he only married four of them." That drew a laugh from the audience; Koppel said that each of the four women played a key role in Jennings' life, especially Kati Marton, the mother of his two children, and Kaycee, who took care of him through his illness and passing. Journalists in attendance included Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, Brian Williams, Bob Schieffer, Dan Rather, Steve Capus, Jim Murphy, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Aaron Brown, Jonathan Klein, Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. Others included Alan Alda, author Tom Wolfe, top Disney executives Michael Eisner and Bob Iger, talk-show host Larry King and Barry Diller. Alda said his friend Jennings was a "truly authentic person" and added: "He was complex and simple at the same time. He was knowledgeable and inquisitive. He was kind and tough, all at the same time. He was graceful and direct." He pointed to a dinner party where Jennings stayed to help wash the dishes at Alda's house, then said: "Now that everyone's gone, if I were you I would send that wine back where you got it, it's a little off." Then Alda said, remembering, "Graceful and direct." Morton "Skip" Goldfein talked about his friend's grace and competitiveness on the tennis courts, his devotion to speaking with disadvantaged children in the tough Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, and his connection to people no matter what walk of life. He recalled an event at Lincoln Center: "One minute, he was talking with the director of Lincoln Center and then he was helping a waitress serve wine." .........................................................................................................................................
August 27, 2005 In a personal note on the inside of her new CD with her uncle Buddy, Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster recalls how she got the idea for it while listening to a homemade tape of the senior MacMaster playing with the late John Morris Rankin. It occurred to her that the circulation of recordings made at parties, halls and dances is a key part of being a true lover of Cape Breton music, but something that's rarely experienced by those living off the island. Meanwhile, the rarity of some of these tapes can be frustrating for those who don't have access. So why not make that experience more accessible by making a "home tape" with her Order of Canada-member uncle that everyone could enjoy? The result is the simply titled Natalie & Buddy MacMaster, recorded with her aunt Betty Lou Beaton on piano and featuring guitar work by Dave MacIsaac. The compact disc will be launched Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at a sold-out release party at the Judique Community Centre. "It's a huge part of keeping Cape Breton music alive," says MacMaster during an interview from her parents' home in Troy. "It's the pulse of what's happening, really, all those tapes. That's where it's coming from. I never heard Winston ("Scottie" Fitzgerald, the Cape Breton fiddle legend) play in person, I never met him, but I've got his music and I certainly feel like I know him and his music pretty darn well. He was at a party and, thank God, someone started up the tape recorder." Then something eerie happens as MacMaster names respected Cheticamp fiddler Arthur Muise at the exact same time that his name pops into my head. Revered by many of today's crop of young fiddlers, Muise is something of a legend, yet his music remains an elusive treasure. "Well, Arthur never even made a record. At least Winston Scottie recorded all those 78s, which you can now get on CD," says MacMaster. "It's a shame, but holy jumpins thank goodness I've got home tapes of Arthur. He's one of my favourites, without a doubt. I always listen to Arthur. "I've picked up so much from those tapes, and there were rumblings of getting Arthur to record a few years ago, but I don't think he ever did. But mom and dad heard him at a party up in Cheticamp the other night and he was just awesome." Natalie & Buddy MacMaster may not be a "live" recording, but she describes the lively batch of sets recorded at Bob Quinn's home studio in Hubley as the rawest thing she's ever done. Against the conventions of normal studio recording, the players all sat close to each other, they didn't wear headphones and the tapping of feet and chatter between tunes was not suppressed. MacMaster says with ProTools and other studio tricks "you can polish a piece of coal" and make just about anything sound great. But when she listens to this new recording, it's just the sound of the musicians playing, "exactly like I grew up with. It's the real thing." "I feel very comfortable playing with Buddy, I could play along with him forever. He's got such great timing and tone, he just carries you along. All you have to do is just jump on and enjoy the music. "All we had to do was press the record button, and it was 'One, two, three ... go!' " For those who can't make Sunday's party, they can at least hear it online at www.capebretonlive.com, a new weekly musical webcast which MacMaster and husband Donnell Leahy are launching. The site will feature live music recorded across the island for Celtic aficionados and "for the Cape Bretoners who've moved away." "You can sit there and listen to the webcast out in Alberta, and it's probably people that you know, maybe that you're related to, that you hang out with in the summer and the important part is that you get the vibe of the crowd at The Red Shoe or wherever. It's as important as the music." The new CD and Internet radio show aren't MacMaster's only big productions this year; she and Leahy are expecting their first child in early December. Obviously it'll mean big changes for the two travelling musicians, but they're taking things in stride. "I'm ready for a child," says MacMaster confidently. "I'm definitely not ready to give birth, though. Donnell and I haven't studied any kind of breathing, we don't have a plan together yet, but it's still a bit early for that, so I'm not even thinking about it yet. "The morning sickness and awkward feelings of basically having a new body inside of you are all very exciting, though. The first time I threw up I called Donnell and told him, 'Guess what! I threw up!' I just want a family so bad, and here it is, we're actually having a family and that is absolutely thrilling." .........................................................................................................................................
July 26, 2005
Natalie MacMaster is
expecting her first child and with motherhood on the way she's seen as
the "perfect fit" for a new campaign by a Halifax-based auto dealer.
"After a great discussion
with Natalie, it was so obvious, her approach to family values is very
consistent with Dexter's Subaru's approach to business." .........................................................................................................................................
July 15, 2005 Fiddler Natalie MacMaster stands at the intersection where the age-old tunes of her ancestors and the rock of her peers meet. Hers is a peerless sound, a fresh, utterly captivating musical experience melding the timeless and the new. Hailing from craggy Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, MacMaster evokes a reverence for traditional fiddling, yet with delightfully modern tweaks and twists. "I feel so blessed to have been brought up (with) that tradition," she said of her island home, boasting more fiddlers per capita than anywhere else. In her irresistible way, MacMaster spread the joy and effervescence of Maritime fiddling with a friendly, happy crowd of almost 1,500 concertgoers at Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheatre. Kicking things off with the blithe "Silver Spear," the new-mommy-to-be had everyone enchanted from the get-go, especially after deftly handling a little early sound glitch. The atmosphere only got more buoyant with such giddy songs as "Jig Party," as merry as it sounds. Just before launching into "Inappropriate Dipstick," a fabulously named number if there ever was one, the 33-year-old bubbled over with news of her impending special delivery. "I'm very, very excited," she said of her baby's December birth, "but I had to make three trips to the bathroom before I got onstage." Such off-the-cuff banter is typical of MacMaster, who has a rare and lovely stage presence. People love her for the stunning sounds she draws from her fiddle and for her warmth and keen sense of fun. Certainly her pregnancy hasn't slowed the girl down much. For a mesmerizing five minutes, MacMaster wowed all on hand with her off-the-chain step dancing. Wearing a peacock-hued baby-doll top and black pants, the lady danced and danced, a whirligig of color, motion and percussion. A dozen or so little girls joined in the fun offstage, kicking up their heels along with the nimble Miss Natalie. And spurring each other on to new levels of energy was MacMaster's superb band. Each of the five -- Miche Pouliot on drums, Alan Dewar on piano, Matt MacIsaac on bagpipes, white and banjo, guitarist Brad Davidge on electric guitar and John Chiasson on bass -- received spotlight time during the show. Chiasson's folky "Summertime" vocal solo was sumptuous, and Davidge's slow and sweet "Danny Boy" was lovely. Who can forget MacIsaac's little "Play That Funky Music" riff on his tin whistle? So cool! All night, the music was convivial, boisterous, just daring folks not to get off their lawn chairs to clap and do their own version of a jig. But it wasn't until the encore when people finally did just that, incited at last to join in the fun. When a fan yelled "Come back next year!" MacMaster was quick with a reply: "I will, and there will be two of me then!" I have a feeling 1,500 thoroughly satisfied music fans will hold her to the promise. .........................................................................................................................................
July 10, 2005 Last summer, Nova Scotian fiddler Natalie MacMaster wowed the crowd at Frederik MeijerGardens with her spritelike energy and astonishing way with the fiddle. Everyone had such a great time, Summer Concert Series organizers lured her back for more razzle dazzle and a taste of Celtic music, Cape Breton Island style. This year, however, the 33-year-old pixie will be slightly less sprightly, for good reason: MacMaster and husband, Donnell Leahy, a fiddler with the acclaimed Celtic band Leahy, are expecting their own wee lad or lass in December. "I'm feeling great," MacMaster said in a phone interview from Vernon, B.C., where she was to play a concert. "The only thing is I can't quite dance as much onstage. Everyone keeps telling me, 'Listen to your body.' Well, my body is not really telling me anything yet! But I'm erring on the side of caution." Even dialing down her step-dancing, from frenetic to just plain energetic, won't change the whirlwind of sound that comes from her fiddle. The musician thrives on performing and creating ways to comingle ages-old melodies with modern sensibilities. In her decade-long career, the virtuoso has tilted back and forth between the traditional Cape Breton Island Celtic folk and the sounds of her era. MacMaster is thrilled about a project in the works that features herself and her 80-year-old uncle, Buddy MacMaster. "It'd be a shame if this world ended without me doing this album with my uncle," she said. "It's blood, it's family tradition." The Grammy nominee becomes even more exuberant than usual when she talks about Uncle Buddy's influence in her life and music. "I play more like him than anyone else. It's his rhythm and timing I've got, and the lilt, like a babbling brook." Her lilt, courtesy, she says, of an octagenarian master with whom she shares a gene pool, has caught the ear of Carlos Santana, the Chieftains, Alison Krauss and Faith Hill, whom MacMaster opened for last summer at a Whistler, B.C. concert. "We had one week's notice that we were going to open for her," she says. "It was crazy but great." Often, her crazed touring schedule clashes with Leahy's, and the couple end up seeing each other much less frequently then they would like. "We played together in Vancouver last night, and at 11 p.m. we had to go in two different directions to play. We won't see each other now for over a week. When I left him, I felt a bit empty inside for about an hour, but then I was fine. We've both been doing this for most of our lives." When October comes, MacMaster will take a few months off, slowly resuming her touring in February to meet commitments she made before she knew about the baby. "We'll tailor our plans around the baby, but I have no predictions about how it all will work before he or she comes." One thing Natalie MacMaster knows for sure is how awesome her project with Uncle Buddy will be. (She's also working on a new major release with her band.) "We recorded it in seven hours, at my cousin's little recording studio on Cape Breton Island. My Aunt Betty Lou was playing the piano, and my parents were sitting right there," she said. "It's very natural, with not a whole lot of editing. It's refreshing, down home. Raw. It's wonderful to celebrate our family history of fiddling." .........................................................................................................................................
July 6, 2005 If your pulse quickens at the sound of a fiery, soaring fiddle; if the weave of rich, sibling harmonies over expert musicianship means anything to you then you really don't have a lot of choice: you're going to the MacMaster/ Leahy show tonight for the kickoff show of this year's Sea Vancouver festival. It's a rare thing to have them performing together, a Celtic summit.
Now 33, MacMaster has
learned a thing or two about touring although she doesn't presume to
have it all figured out. "Just when you think you have it down pat you
get thrown a curve ball," she says. "You're travelling in a tour bus in the middle of the night, with a driver you just met, for eight hours, from two in the morning until 10 in the morning. You have to sleep in a little bunk that's not much bigger than a coffin. It can get pretty scary at times and I need to have that thing around my neck or I won't fall asleep." .........................................................................................................................................
June 29, 2005 At the age of nine-and-a-half Natalie MacMaster subconsciously knew she was going to be a performer. My mother has a cassette tape of my brother (David), he was 13, interviewing me," said MacMaster. I had been playing fiddle for a day. He was putting on a fancy interview voice and I was talking in an adult voice and I was telling him 'Yes. I'm going off to Calgary tomorrow to play with the symphony." MacMaster said she isn't sure at what point exactly she decided she would choose her music as a career. I do know when I started playing music I knew I'd never stop. When I hear that little interview I think 'maybe I was serious.'" MacMaster, now in her 30s, won a number of East Coast Music Awards for her early traditional Cape Breton recordings. She has mixed Celtic music with elements of jazz, Latin music, and vocals by Alison Krauss. She's also won two Juno Awards for Best Instrumental Albums and several Canadian Country Music Awards for Fiddler of the Year. She has shared the stage with Carlos Santana, the Cheiftans, Paul Simon, Luciano Pavarotti, Alison Krauss, Mark O'Connor and a number of world class symphony orchestras. MacMaster's traditional and contemporary fiddling can be heard in Vernon, July 7 at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre. Concert goers may also get to hear a few of MacMaster's own tunes, as she has begun to record her own compositions. I've composed my own tunes since I was 10," said MacMaster. Now I'm writing more and I'm more confident in my writing. I never used to like my own stuff. The repertoire of tunes available for fiddlers is overwhelming. My attitude was 'I can't write anything better than what's in those books.' But only I can write what I write. My attitude has changed. But it (the tune) has to be good. It can't stink. Lord knows I've done a few." Some of MacMaster's own compositions are included on her 2003 album, Blue Print. MacMaster has been called Canada's fiddling virtuoso and for every contemporary album she releases, there is a traditional one to match. While her roots to traditional Cape Breton music run deep (she is the niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster) MacMaster said she doesn't often think about the importance of keeping traditional music alive. "I don't really think about it," she said. "I don't think about it because I don't have to. Traditional music in Cape Breton is thriving. My father tells me it wasn't like this when he was young. Our future is very bright. I absolutely adore Cape Breton traditional music. It remains deep within me." Having spent time travelling across the country to perform, MacMaster has been able to experience the response audiences have of her music. "Every spot is different for sure," she said. "Fiddle music goes over well no matter where you go. Usually Canada is very similar." However, she said it is a tad different in Quebec and Nova Scotia. "French people are just very enthusiastic and in Nova Scotia, the music belongs to them." For MacMaster, the fiddle could be considered a Canadian instrument. You can see the different styles right across the country," she said. From coast to coast there's strong representation." .........................................................................................................................................
June 8, 2005 Still touring behind her 2003 studio album Blueprint, Cape Breton artist Natalie MacMaster will make the rounds this summer. In support of the 13-track record, MacMaster’s first studio album in four years, the Grammy-nominated fiddler will hit 12 cities with a full backing band including bagpiper Matt MacIsaac. Her next performance is June 18th in West Mabou, Nova Scotia, after which MacMaster is set to play a few Ontario dates before heading down to the sunny state of California. Taking up residence in San Diego for a week, she’ll put her scholarly foot forward when she instructs the next generation of fiddlers at the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp. Another well-known Canadian Celtic act taking to the road this summer is Ontario octet Leahy. Planning incredibly far into the future (the band is all booked up until March 2006), Leahy is touring in support of 2004’s In All Things. Following its stint on the summer festival circuit, Leahy will launch a very extensive tour of the States. As it so happens, Leahy and Natalie MacMaster will be sharing the stage when they hit the Sea Vancouver festival on July 6th, and once again for seven shows in October. For all of MacMaster’s upcoming performances, go to www.nataliemacmaster.com. To see what the future has in store for the Leahy siblings, go to www.leahymusic.com. See Natalie MacMaster and Leahy tear it up together:
July 6, Vancouver, BC –
Sea Vancouver Festival .........................................................................................................................................
June 2, 2005 Boston's business leaders, including Governor Mitt Romney and Mayor Thomas Menino, attended last night's ''Presidents at Pops" concert at Symphony Hall. The event raised $1.25 million for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its community outreach efforts -- and featured a mingling of new and old musical traditions. Technology's contribution to sound was well-served in the world premiere of ''Jeux Deux," a concerto for the computer-enhanced ''HyperPiano," written by Tod Machover of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. But it was counterbalanced by a festive, ancient-feeling set from Cape Breton folkie Natalie MacMaster, who dynamically turned the Boston Pops Orchestra's violins into fiddles for the night. Anticipation was high for Machover's ''Jeux Deux," a stirring piece that proved the HyperPiano -- a Yamaha grand customized with computer mechanisms -- could make emotionally evocative music rather than be a sterile side show. Machover and Pops conductor Keith Lockhart discussed the music before it began, with Lockhart telling the crowd ''I guarantee you've never heard anything quite like this before." He joked about the orchestra being ''stubbornly analog" with some members playing ''300-year-old instruments," but it was a welcome sign of openmindedness that the orchestra delved into this unusual concerto at all. Michael Chertock played the HyperPiano, opening with a rumbling ostinato pattern, as the internal computerization triggered other notes that showered around it. The piece moved from dark to calming, before the orchestra added some surprisingly effective dissonance in what was a beguiling emotional rollercoaster. And the HyperPiano never got too loud, though it was clear that if Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer had ever gotten hold of this, we'd all be deaf by now. The music was enhanced by interactive graphics on a rear video screen, as Marc Downie, stationed at a computer by the soundboard, improvised images much like a technician does at laser rock shows at planetariums. MacMaster's subsequent set was an organic delight -- spiced with nimble fiddling on jigs and slow airs (''If Ever You Were Mine" glistened), along with a passionate folk/classical exchange with Pops violinist Tamara Smirnova. And the show peaked for the many corporate chiefs in attendance with Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, coolly conducting ''The Stars and Stripes Forever." Lockhart looked on gleefully, knowing the night had been a banner success. .........................................................................................................................................
May 28, 2005 Although she had just performed her way through a two-hour-long, high-octane show, she sat there, fresh as a daisy and with all the time in the world, perched on the edge of a table, talking merrily to concert-goers, signing CDs and posing for photos. If nothing else, Natalie MacMaster is fit. But of course, she is much more than that, as the concert at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center showed. She is an exquisite fiddler, full of fire and finesse, a delightful dancer with elegance and agility and an extremely entertaining all-round performer with a deep-felt desire to demonstrate and share her Cape Breton culture. For some, an evening of traditional music might seem a little dry. MacMaster performs in such a way that she brings out the best in her music, making it accessible to one and all. She has always attracted some of the best accompanists to help enhance her approach and her current lineup is no exception. Long-time guitar partner Brad Davidge is joined by multi-instrumentalist Matt MacIsaac, bassist and singer John Chiasson, Allan Dewar on piano and Miche Pouliot on drums. During the two sets, the six musicians appeared in various permutations, ranging from the full band to Natalie standing alone. And the music ran the gamut from straight-up traditional to jazz, with almost everything in between. There is such life in MacMaster's approach to playing. The bow sits lightly in her right hand, yet flies across the strings while the fingers of her left hand perform an intricate dance. There is never a feeling of being rushed. Her sense of ornamentation and embellishment show a mastery of not just the instrument, but also the style. And she is able to fit all this into complex arrangements that enhance the tunes, allow her colleagues to shine and keep the focus on her as group leader. It was an evening of highlights and contrasts: Dewar and MacMaster playing alone in the old style, Chiasson's vocal performance of "Autumn Leaves," a pipes solo by MacIsaac, Davidge singing "Danny Boy" in a most original and enlightening way -- but it alway came back to Natalie MacMaster. Reels, strathspeys, jigs, marches -- a rainbow of typical Cape Breton tunes, many with connections to related styles such as Scottish or old-timey, but all played with the skill and vibrancy expected from this talented musician. She took a solo set, standing alone center stage, tapping her feet in time, progressing from one timing to the next as she moved through the tunes. Her technique is to be marveled at: the delicate touch of her fingers, the consummate control of the bow. The set ends and she slips into a strathspey with the full band, taking advantage of the driving rhythm section while weaving harmonies and switching lead with the pipes. She understands the music and its effect better than most. There is rarely a moment when her feet are still. She taps and moves and sways, adding her own foot percussion as she plays. And at times, she bursts into a complicated routine worthy of Gene Kelly. With her dancing, fiddling and charming conversations, she is a complete performer. Fit as a fiddle, too -- over two hours of playing and still enthusiastic and welcoming to her exhausted fans. .........................................................................................................................................
April
29, 2005 At some point, all fiddle music would seem to reach a certain level where technical competence and derivation of style blend, and you are left with just the music. Natalie MacMaster, the Cape Breton fiddler who will be playing at the Nock Middle School in Newburyport this Sunday, perhaps provides the clearest indication of that possibility. "I'm not very good on the actual history of the music. I've been told by people that they are connected; bluegrass, Celtic and Cape Breton music. I know that my own music came from Scotland. But people like (bluegrass legend) Ricky Skaggs have told me that there is a connection between all these styles going way back." For MacMaster, that connection is something that she feels very viscerally. When she got into the studio to record her latest CD, "Blueprint," she found herself playing with some of the most inventive and prolific bluegrass players of the modern era - people like Sam Bush on mandolin, Bela Fleck on banjo, Edgar Meyer on bass and Jerry Douglas playing dobro. These are the players who have inspired a whole new generation of "newgrass" musicians to press boundaries and create affinities between bluegrass, jazz and world music. MacMaster, who has seven CDs to her credit, released "Blueprint" in 2003. On the CD, she and producer Darol Anger provided a strong foundation to support MacMaster's ongoing evolution as an artist. Working with world-caliber musicians for her last studio album came about as the CD went into production. MacMaster's producer was Darol Anger, whose work with Windham Hill in the '80s helped forge new vistas for American acoustic music and eclecticism. "Darol was amazing. He taught me a great deal. He has a great ear for music, and sounds, and how they combine. More than that, he showed me how to see the beauty in everything, which is like a gift. He is an incredible guy, who brings an incredible freedom to the studio." More than that, Anger apparently has one serious rolodex. "He told me, 'Hey, let's do this right,' and started calling all these amazing people. Sam, Bela, and Edgar Meyer, and Jerry Douglas. I was thinking there is no way they'd do this project, but they did. A lot of that has to with Darol and the respect people have for him." And how did Natalie feel stepping into a room full of bluegrass heavyweights? "I personally was very relieved," she says. "They're professionals. These guys are so knowledgeable and skilled that I could just let go of a lot of stuff and play. The first time we started playing, it clicked. We realized that it would all fit together. I could close my eyes and just let it rip." "When I got into the studio with all these wonderful musicians, I was amazed at how real and easy it was. There was just no learning curve at all for anyone. The first time I played something, 'presto,' there it was. No one said, 'You're going to have to change what you do' to make this work." Celtic or Scottish? That meant a great deal to MacMaster, who is considered one of the premier Cape Breton-style fiddle players in Canada; in the world, for that matter. She has a Grammy nomination, several Juno awards (the Canadian Grammys), and a mantle-full of other regional awards. She isn't convinced that the desire to compartmentalize music needs to be exercised as often as it is. "That happens a lot. People try to put a label on a piece of music," she says. "That might have helped in the past, when people didn't travel a lot, and musical styles were more distinct. You learned within your own style. But these days, people do travel, and what you get I suppose is exposure to and the chance to learn other styles. You get this great cross-over. "People ask me, 'Do you consider yourself a Celtic artist or a Scottish artist?' I don't have an answer for that," she says. "There are so many different kinds of music in Canada alone. Although, you could say the same thing about any country - Africa, for instance. Even in one geographic area, there are a lot of different styles." MacMaster grew up in the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia, and remains very much connected to the land of her birth. "It is very important for me to go back home and play the places and pieces that I grew up playing," she says. "I get back for holidays and every two months. My music is very connected to the people and especially to family." "When I'm back home, I get out and play a lot," she says. "I make sure that I get down to some of the dances, which might involve a more traditional arrangement of musical instruments - fiddle, piano and guitar, for example." For MacMaster, these hometown gigs amount to something like musical calisthenics. She laughs about it. "What you see on stage is about 5 percent of the energy that happens at one of these local Cape Breton dances. Something about being at home, and playing in front of people you know," she says. "There's no getting by. The sheer number of jigs and reels and other tunes you need to know by memory and have at hand to play is amazing." Composing herself Natalie MacMaster has not limited herself in her artistic endeavors. She independently produced her own television special and has also produced an instructional video. "I would like to do more work in film," she says. "I've done the soundtrack for a short movie, and have had my work appear in a couple of movies and TV shows, like 'Dawson's Creek.' One of the reasons I chose this line of 'work' is that it really doesn't limit me as in the ways I can creatively express myself." Composing is a relatively recent addition to the MacMaster musical vocabulary. "I just sort of stumbled on composing six or seven years ago, after promising myself that there was enough music in my style I'd never have to compose," she says. "Then, boom, I needed to find a sound that wasn't out there and suddenly, slowly, I started composing." She is not proprietary when it comes to playing her own compositions with her band; there is no specific "right way." "We all have to be on the same page, but they can very much explore the music. That isn't much different than the traditional we play," she says. "Each of the guys has something unique to add to the piece." That goes for the entire sound of the band. "We have a lot of different ways of making the music. My live album, for instance had two CDs - one that was recorded with our full band, the other in a more traditional setting with a more traditional musical arrangement, piano, guitar and fiddle. So we'll present our music using all these different groupings. And we've just recently added a banjo player, so we'll see what does for our sound." MacMaster just finished recording her first studio album in since "Blueprint." She's excited. "We just finished in the studio two days ago. It's about 80 percent complete," she says. "We'll have something for this fall." MacMaster is one of a growing number of Canadian musicians who are finding welcoming audiences here in the states for their traditionally based and multi-culturally informed muse. Newburyport seems to be one of the stopping points for this parade of talent. In addition to hosting MacMaster and Vancouver-based The Bills in the past month, we will see fiddler April Vertch, another rising star, this coming fall. ......................................................................................................................................... April
24, 2005 Fiddler Natalie MacMaster's most recent album, 2003's "Blueprint," effortlessly welds bluegrass traditions with those of her native Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. But she insists she's still only scratching the surface of the American genre. "The bluegrass world is something that continually gets opened up for me," MacMaster said in a phone interview from her home in Lakefield, Ontario. She performs Thursday at Harrisburg's Whitaker Center. "It wasn't like, oh, here's bluegrass and here are all the players. I got exposed to bluegrass, and I'm still getting exposed to bluegrass, through just little bits of musicians or songs or people that I know coming into my life." One of those chance happenings came in 1987 when she and renowned fiddler/singer Alison Krauss were presenting a workshop at the Vancouver Folk Festival. Both were just 16 at the time. "I was quite taken with Alison because she was very pretty, and she was my age, and she played the fiddle -- and she was really good at it," she said. Her interest in bluegrass was further piqued as a university student after hearing Krauss sing. "Because I had a personal connection with her in a very small way, I was really intrigued," she said. "And that was when I started really getting into her stuff -- that was really the openings of the bluegrass world for me." She wasted no time finding the luminaries of that world. A litany of guests appear on "Blueprint," including banjo master Bela Fleck, Dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas (who plays with Krauss in Union Station) and upright bass genius Edgar Meyer. Fleck even wrote "Bela's Tune" specifically for the album. Even though MacMaster says this is the first time she's played with any of them, they sound as comfortable and in sync as if they'd played together for years. The Cape Breton tradition -- a melding of music brought to the island by Scottish and Irish immigrants combined with that of French settlers and native peoples -- and the bluegrass one have a common vocabulary, hence the mutual familiarity. "The focus for all those guys was the music," she said. "It was never the money, never the time, never an inconvenience. And that impressed me more than anything. I've never met musicians so true to the music. And there was no learning curve." MacMaster's soft-spoken demeanor belies her positively incendiary playing. Quiet and demure in her speech, she's the exact opposite with a fiddle in her hands -- fiery and aggressive, percussive yet intensely melodic. Fast jig or reel, stately waltz or emotional ballad, she shines. "I love slow tunes," she said. "I think I like them more. I think the reason why I like them more is because I don't play them as much. "[But] I'm a live performer, and I find when you're on stage, it's the fast stuff that really gets people going. I use my slow pieces sparingly, and when I play them, I want them to be special," she said. Daughter of noted fiddler Buddy MacMaster, Natalie began playing the instrument at 9, performed her first live gig at 12, and recorded her first album, "Four on the Floor," at 16. She's won two Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) and was nominated for a Grammy for her 2000 album "My Roots Are Showing." She is married to Donnell Leahy, who has his own band, the family outfit Leahy. Their families go way back, and the couple have known each other indirectly since they were young, appropriately enough, through each other's music. MacMaster had seen Leahy's group perform when she was 13. Then, years later, a cousin brought her Leahy's first album. Little did she know the process also was working the other way. Leahy had come across her first album, too. "It was a copy of my recording, so there was no picture or anything," she said. "He didn't even know what I looked like, but he had some sort of interest in me." He asked her out during her first year at university. They dated for two years, broke up for 10, then finally married in 2002. The one song MacMaster sings on "Blueprint," "My Love, Cape Breton and Me" was performed at their wedding. "I don't consider myself a singer, and I don't work at it, nor do I aspire to be one," said MacMaster. "But if the opportunity presented itself, I would definitely give it a shot." It remains to be seen whether she'll do any singing on her next record, which she says is almost complete and might be out by fall. Listeners at Thursday's show will get a sneak preview of four new tracks from it. MacMaster has written the majority of the album's tunes herself, but says she writes more "out of necessity." "If I'm putting a medley of tunes together, I'm in the key of B flat and I want a reel in B flat, and [if] I can't find any that I like, well, then I consider writing one," she said. "[And] there have been times where I'll sit down and pick up the fiddle and just start doodling, and slowly an idea develops and you have a seed of a tune," she added. But one thing about the new record is certain. "It's a total left turn; it's nothing like 'Blueprint,'" she said. "Everything is different for me -- I get in my little phase and I go for it and then it's something else," she said. "It's great because the creative juices are continually being inspired." ......................................................................................................................................... April
11, 2005 Maybe Celtic music doesn't remind everyone of home. Maybe it shouldn't remind me of home either. My family lives in Idaho and my ancestors were mostly English. The other assorted countries that my family originated from certainly don't give me a claim to the music of Scotland and Ireland. But I did grow up listening to Colcannon - a traditional Irish band who often played around Boulder - and also a lot of bluegrass, which is a close cousin of Celtic music. I lived in Scotland for six months, which was a long enough time to pick up a little bit of Scottish loyalty and a taste for Scottish folk tunes. My sister played her share of fiddle tunes growing up, and as a harpist, I performed more than a few renditions of "Danny Boy" and other Irish favorites. So maybe it makes sense that, for me, really good Celtic music feels homey. Maybe for other people, Celtic music is just another miscellaneous genre with which they feel only a small connection. But for Natalie MacMaster the magic of Celtic music - and specifically Cape Breton music - obviously lies in its connection to her background, her family and the place where she was raised. MacMaster probably owes a good deal of her success to that connection - audiences can feel the heritage of a long line first of musicians, first from Scotland and then from Nova Scotia, throughout her music. MacMaster's home in Cape Breton is obviously an amazing place and it is a place of which she is proud. The ease with which the fiddler talks about her home and her music easily puts an audience at ease as well. This is not to say that MacMaster and her backing band are not amazingly talented in their own right. MacMaster is a dynamic performer with unbelievable energy. Her fiddling is impeccable and she may not step dance on the level of a professional dancer, but she's certainly no slouch. Her band plays together beautifully; some musicians just don't have chemistry, but these five guys come together exactly like a good Celtic band should. However, there's something about the window into the culture of Cape Breton Island that this music provides that makes these musicians especially powerful. There are probably relatively few people in the world who think to connect the name Nova Scotia with the words New Scotland and probably fewer who realize how direct the link between the first Scottish settlers and the music of Cape Breton today is - this is certainly not something that had ever occurred to me. But if Cape Breton music truly is a purer Celtic form than the music of Scotland today, then the island is evidence that there are always people who know, love and live by their traditions. MacMaster is refreshing partly because she is so obviously proud of her home and its music. "There are more fiddlers per capita in Cape Breton than in any other part of the world," MacMaster said. "Look how we've blossomed. "It's true that the music has evolved a bit. Modernizing Celtic music is not an uncommon pastime and is not always a pleasant one, but Natalie MacMaster and her musicians introduced some different musical elements to the equation quite successfully. The second half of the show was certainly less traditional than the first, and featured more electric guitars, jazz notes and other sounds foreign to Celtic music. Guitarist Brad Davidge obviously has a penchant for blues, rock and other less than Celtic genres, as he demonstrated in a rendition of "Danny Boy" that fell somewhere between Ireland and North American pop radio. Bassist John Chiasson took the vocal on a number that might have been heard from a combo in a jazz and blues bar. But there can be no mistake about the identity of this band - these are Cape Breton musicians playing Cape Breton music. Whether their music reminds us of our own homes or just gives us a window into the amazing place that these people call home, we can all hope that Natalie MacMaster and all of Cape Breton's fiddlers continue to make music for a long time to come. ......................................................................................................................................... April
08, 2005 If you're the kind of person who loves a top-notch fiddler, this is the time to turn out. No, she's not Irish, she's not Scottish and she doesn't play bluegrass. Natalie MacMaster and her music are pure Cape Breton. But you might be surprised at how familiar MacMaster's music sounds. This Canadian strain of the Celtic genre dates right back to settlers from the 18th century Scottish Highlands and has stuck as close to the Celtic tradition as just about anything out there. "They say the music of Cape Breton is an older form than the music of Scotland today," MacMaster said. "We always call it Cape Breton music because it sounds so different, it's not really the same any more." The name Cape Breton might not pop up too often on the musical map. But if anyone can put it there, it's MacMaster. The musician has been touring the United States for a decade, attracting anyone who loves a good Celtic reel or jig. In 2000 she won a Juno award, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy, for her 1999 release "In My Hands." In 2001 she was nominated for a Grammy for her 1998 release "My Roots are Showing," an album of traditional Cape Breton music. MacMaster is certainly one of the most renowned Celtic artists on the musical scene. Over the past several years MacMaster has had the opportunity to perform with Carlos Santana, The Cheiftains, Paul Simon, Luciano Pavarotti, Alison Krauss and other legendary musicians. MacMaster doesn't always play strictly traditional music - "In My Hands" is a mix of Celtic style, jazz overtones, Spanish-style guitar and other sounds. In 2003 she released "Blueprints," an album recorded in Nashville with bluegrass greats Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush among others. "Well, it's funny because I had not played with any of those musicians before," MacMaster said. "To plan a recording that you are going to do in two weeks can be scary. In the final outcome there was no learning curve, no bending - people just played music, and it totally blended, totally fit together. It totally felt right." But Cape Breton music is MacMaster's first and foremost love, and her albums always come back to that. MacMaster's concerts are known for more than just great fiddling. The artist has been playing fiddle since she was nine and a half, but her mother taught her to step dance when she was five, and MacMaster always dances in her concerts. "It's not like fiddle," MacMaster said. "I don't practice dancing, I'm not a trained dancer in that regard. It's certainly a hobby. The dancing may not be the main draw, but adds to the renowned energy and appeal of MacMaster's shows."I think the greatest virtue [of Cape Breton music] is the rhythm," MacMaster said. "It comes from years of playing for step dancers. You'll find a lot of people in Cape Breton who dance, just to be able to move to the music." MacMaster also owes more than a little to a great backing band. Brad Davidge on guitar and vocals, John Chiasson on bass and vocals, Allan Dewar on piano and keyboards, Matt MacIsaac on bagpipes and whistles and Miche Pouliot on drums and percussion are all excellent musicians in their own rights and are a big part of what makes MacMaster's tours so successful. So if Celtic music is your thing, this is not a show to miss. And even if it's not, Natalie MacMaster might be the musician to turn you around. "The greatest compliment I've ever received after a show was a lady who said she didn't like fiddle music, but loved my show," MacMaster said. "So if we can convert non-fiddle-lovers, I'd recommend everybody come out to the show whether you like fiddle music or not." ......................................................................................................................................... April
07, 2005 MADISON, Wis. -- Fiddler Natalie MacMaster began performing at age 91/2 but, according to the petite musician, "I already had 91/2 years' experience." To the native of Cape Breton Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, learning the fiddle was like learning a language, something that began in the cradle. "You pick up words here and there and all of sudden you're 'speaking,'" she explained. MacMaster and her band will "speak" to an audience in Leighton Concert Hall at Notre Dame Friday evening. It's the high-energy performer's favorite thing to do. "Just give us an audience and they will respond," she said. "My dad taught me," she said, in her lilting Nova Scotia accent. "He doesn't play, but he has a really good ear." In Nova Scotia, it seems, everyone plays the fiddle. Everyone, at least, in MacMaster's family. "I have other relatives who are fiddlers," she said. "But they have jobs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then they play at night and on weekends for parties and weddings and such." Only her uncle, Buddy MacMaster, has come close to achieving her fame, which did not come overnight. "I'm one of the young ones," she said. "The timing was right." "It (success and recognition) came very gradually," MacMaster said seriously. "There was no big break. It was going a little further every year. A CD, an award, travel, a CD, an award, travel." To date, that list is very impressive ... and growing all the time including Grammy nominations and similar top awards from Canada. Although bluegrass and Celtic music have been called close cousins, MacMaster noted that "Bluegrass is bluegrass, but there are lots of forms of Celtic music -- Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Spanish. I fall into the Scottish category," which, as she will tell you is "the oldest existing form of Scottish music today." "It came to Scotland in the mid- 1700s, then on to Nova Scotia," she said. "I grew up with it." Today, she shares her music in 100 shows a year, leaving a half year to return home. Donnell Leahy, her husband of 21/2 years, also is a fiddler and she is quick to note proudly, "He plays with Leahy, which opened for Shania Twain." They met on the island. "His mother is Cape Breton," MacMaster explained, adding with a laugh, "That makes him half Cape Breton which is, of course, the half I fell in love with." She likes her flexible schedule because "I work like a dog for the first part of the year and then take the rest off." MacMaster likes all kinds of music "as long as it is quality." Playing her music, she concluded, not only makes her happy, it makes her entire family happy. "This is their dream," she declared. "I'm playing the music of my father, my grandfather ... the music of my ancestors." ......................................................................................................................................... April
4, 2005 Natalie MacMaster was raised with a mix of Scottish, Celtic and Nova Scotian influences. When she picked up a fiddle at age nine, the jigs, reels and traditional tunes just kept coming. Since then, she's won a Juno Award (Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) and shared the stage with everyone from Carlos Santana to Luciano Pavarotti. She will stop in Madison for a show on Monday. The Daily Cardinal recently talked with her about Cape Breton Island, working with Alison Krauss and the kind of Celtic artist she is. The Daily Cardinal: What about Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia made you make the music you have? Natalie MacMaster: It's very rooted in the fiddling traditions and I grew up with that tradition not only in my home, but in my community and also in my bloodline. I tell people I started playing the fiddle when I was nine, but I had nine years of experience before that, just because I heard it so much. DC: You performed on ABC's New Year's Eve broadcast at the request of Peter Jennings. How did you feel when you heard the request from Mr. Jennings? NM: He left me a message on my voice mail, so it was him who called me himself. I was pretty shocked to come home one day, check my messages and Peter Jennings is talking to me. It's always flattering to think that someone of that rank in the world is interested in what I'm up to. DC: You worked with Alison Krauss on your album In My Hands. What was it like working with someone of her musical caliber? NM: She is just a beautiful, beautiful singer. I've been a big fan of hers since I met her. We were both 16 years old and that was in 1987 at the Vancouver Folk Festival. She's had a special place in my collection for a long time and is a wonderful person to work with as well as an incredible artist. What I like about her is that she has never sacrificed anything for her career. She stayed true to her music and to her roots and that's very inspiring for someone like me. ......................................................................................................................................... April
3, 2005 One by one, Natalie MacMaster brought together "half the bluegrass clan" for the recording sessions that resulted in the Cape Breton fiddler's "Blueprint," which she released in September 2004. At that point, she just kept issuing invitations. Her guests on the album include Jerry Douglas on dobro, Sam Bush on mandolin and Bela Fleck on banjo. The result, however, isn't a bluegrass album, although MacMaster's guests do give its Cape Breton tunes that flavor. Little wonder, too, because bluegrass and the traditional music of MacMaster's native Cape Breton island are two branches of the same tree, with both tracing their roots back to the Celtic music of the British Isles. "There are similarities in that we play the same types of tunes," MacMaster says by telephone from a tour stop in Iowa City, Iowa. "They have reels and breakdowns, and we play reels as well. The form of the tune is similar: There's usually the A section that's eight bars or 16 bars. The structure is similar. The guitar is part of their tradition and part of our tradition. The fiddle is common to both." There are differences, however, between bluegrass and the music of Cape Breton. Bluegrass uses banjos, mandolins and dobros, MacMaster says, but traditional Cape Breton music doesn't "really have that," just as bluegrass doesn't use the piano as much as traditional Cape Breton music does. The style of play fiddlers use, however, is "quite different," MacMaster says of the two musical forms. "I'm going to generalize, and this is not the case for everyone," she says. "I would say they play faster. The bluegrass style has more slurring. Slurring is putting more than one note in one bowing. ... Rhythmically, it's different. The emphasis for us is almost always on the one beat. For bluegrass, I found that it's quite varied." For her current tour, which stops Friday at the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, MacMaster is playing four songs from "Blueprint." She last played in South Bend on April 29, 1998, at downtown's State Theatre, where she gave a brilliant, musically diverse performance. To get the album's bluegrass flavor, MacMaster says, her piper, Matt MacIsaac, "has picked up banjo," her guitar player, Brad Davidge, picks the mandolin's parts on his instrument, and her bass player, John Chiasson, plays upright bass on those numbers. A native of Canada's Cape Breton Island, MacMaster started traditional dance lessons at age 5 and began on the fiddle at age 9, when her celebrated uncle, Buddy MacMaster, gave her her first fiddle. "Fiddle is the No. 1 traditional instrument, and I grew up in a very traditional household," she says. "When there are no options, it makes it easy to decide." Cape Breton's music, MacMaster says, represents her upbringing to her and moves her as no other music does. "I think our greatest virtue and the thing that sets us apart is the rhythm," she says. "It's a very strong rhythm. It sweeps you away. It almost puts you in a trance. I think the reason for it is the step dancers we've played for for generations. It has to be solid and firm to dance to it." For the past 16 years, MacMaster has combined her dancing and her fiddle playing as part of her shows. On some tunes, she dances while her band plays, but for the night's finale, MacMaster plays and dances simultaneously. "We save the best for last," she says. "I put it in my show. It's not spontaneous. A lot of the music can be spontaneous within itself, but the dancing I do works in conjunction with the music, so it's got to be the same until I change it. This piece has been in our show for only a couple of months." ......................................................................................................................................... March
19, 2005 Was that a gale-force wind that nearly blew the roof off the Jefferson Center on Thursday night? No, it was just your basic Natalie MacMaster concert. The Celtic-fiddling queen of the Maritimes tore up the stage with the speed and power of a thunderbolt. Her playing and energetic dancing made the music of Cape Breton Island seem hip and cool as she thrilled a sold-out Shaftman Performance Hall into a frenzy. "We're gonna get along just fine tonight," MacMaster said early in the 2 1/2 -hour performance, just after a medley of jigs and reels elicited a few good-old-boy "whoops" from the audience. Since starting as a fiddling prodigy on the windswept Nova Scotia island nearly 20 years ago, MacMaster has earned a reputation as a tireless, high-energy performer. She didn't disappoint on Thursday, as she whirled her way through songs that blended traditional and new sounds. She left room for her five-piece band to spread their wings, especially the multi-instrumentalist Matt MacIsaac who played bagpipes, Celtic flute and even a little banjo. Guitarist Brad Davidge contributed a sentimental rendition of "Danny Boy," perfect for St. Patrick's Day, and MacMaster and keyboardist Allan Dewer combined for a traditional Cape Breton-style fiddle and piano medley. MacMaster displayed a gee-whiz kind of humor between songs. She told a story about how she was able to obtain Canadian government funding to shoot a video merely by writing lyrics to an instrumental tune. The song's title, "The Appropriate Dipstick," presented quite the lyrical challenge, however. She succeeded, got the money and sang and played the song as one of the evening's many highlights. She ended the first set by showing off her fantastic dancing skills, mixing some modern jazz tapping with the traditional highland step-dancing. Clad in hip-hugging tartan pants and a sleeveless top, she spun and tapped up a storm as her long blond ringlets bounced with the beat. MacIsaac opened the second set with a modern-sounding bagpipe solo, then MacMaster came dancing onto the stage again. Bassist John Chiasson went jazzy with "Autumn Leaves" before a slow, pretty version of "Blue Bonnets Over the Border." MacMaster turned up the heat again with a fiddle solo, keeping the beat with a tapping right foot, then cut the rug with more vivacious dancing. She was in motion throughout the night, whether playing or dancing. Her talents produced not one, but two standing ovations. ......................................................................................................................................... March
17, 2005 Natalie MacMaster's Celtic-flavored music is actually typical of her home, Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia. Natalie MacMaster invaded the United States a decade ago with the sound and fury of a great Nor'easter. Toting a fiddle and wearing a pair of dancing shoes, she brought with her the traditional folk music of her beloved homeland, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Let's just say this wasn't your basic collection of fishing village sea chanteys. Audiences were enraptured by her performances, which were energetic and nearly exhausting to watch. Was it her fiddling? Her dancing? Perhaps the way her crazy blonde curls bounced and bopped as she played and danced? All of it, of course. MacMaster has earned a considerable following in the United States with her lively shows. She makes her first appearance in Roanoke tonight when she brings her band to Jefferson Center's Shaftman Performance Hall. Her Celtic-flavored music from the windswept island in the Canadian maritime province should provide the perfect soundtrack for St. Patrick's Day. "Tell 'em it's Irish if it gets 'em out!" she said by telephone following a recent show in Asheville, N.C. Actually, Cape Breton music is a musical chowder of styles that includes Irish, Scottish, French and Canadian influences. The island has a rich tradition of music that has been handed down for generations. It has been said that there's a fiddle player in every kitchen on Cape Breton. It's still that way "pretty much," said MacMaster, 32, who was born in the small town of Troy. "It's really amazing there and everybody can dance, too. I don't know why, but it's part of the culture, a part of everyday life. Your parents, relatives, friends and neighbors, everybody you meet can take a step and there's a fiddle in every house." That was the case in the MacMaster home in the 1970s and '80s. Her parents, Alex and Minnie, loved music and her uncle is the renowned fiddler Buddy MacMaster. Natalie began learning on a 3/4 -size fiddle as a child and immediately showed great talent and skill. "I took to it right away," she said. "I was playing gigs very early on. Mom and Dad said 'You've got to practice. Look what you've gotten yourself into!'" She made her first recording at 16, sticking mainly with traditional tunes. She made several Canadian television appearances, where her spirited shows made her a celebrity. Word spread to the United States, where she earned acclaim with her traditional releases "Fit as a Fiddle" and "My Roots Are Showing." As in Canada, audiences here were wowed by her dancing and playing. She was like a one-woman "Riverdance." Her latest album, 2003's "Blueprint," was released by Rounder Records and featured such notables as Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Edgar Meyer, fellows well-known by "newgrass" fans in America. Her music and stage shows these days are much more stylized and glitzy than her early, rootsy performances. Expect lots of dancing, some piping, a little singing and energetic playing. "And the odd corny joke," she said. "It's a very upbeat show." .........................................................................................................................................
March
11, 2005 So how does one of the world's top fiddlers describe her distinctive style? "I play Cape Breton fiddle music that originated in Scotland about 300 years ago," said virtuoso violinist and skilled step dancer Natalie MacMaster during a recent phone interview. "It's very danceable music with a very solid rhythm that just makes you want to grab hold and hop on." MacMaster's native Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, Canada, is similar to Prince Edward Island, the chief location for the 1985 Emmy-winning miniseries "Anne of Green Gables." "That is my favorite movie," she said. "It does represent this type of community, but we're not so old-fashioned that we use a horse and buggy (laugh). And the land here might be a little more rocky." Although MacMaster, 31, grew up in a provincial community she has grown to acquire some very cosmopolitan tastes thanks to a touring schedule that places her in concert halls across the globe. "I'm very much a gourmet kind of girl," she said in regards to her culinary demands. "I've never been one for traditional foods, never been a home style cooking person. I like meals with more of a fancy flare." MacMaster explained that she does most of the cooking for her and husband Donnell Leahy, a fiddler in the band who shares his surname. "Legally my last name is Leahy, too," MacMaster added. "I'm an old-fashioned girl in that respect." MacMaster grew up listening to artists such as Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Prince and her favorite rock band, AC/DC. But she was doing highland and step dancing rather than the moonwalk. And by age 9, MacMaster was fiddling under the tutelage of her uncle, famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster. "All the different music I have heard and continue to hear influences my music and influences my shows," said MacMaster. "My uncle was a great teacher and I give my dad a lot of credit, too." Anyone who has witnessed MacMaster perform knows that the visuals match the audio in terms of awe-inspiring entertainment. As was noted in a past concert review, "She may be the only violinist who can twirl across the stage while playing six notes a second and never missing a beat." To capture the complete show, MacMaster has a DVD planned for the near future. Her latest studio release, "Blueprint," came out on her longtime record label Rounder in 2003. Although staked in the Celtic sounds of her heritage, or what she calls "Cape Breton music," the album is populated by the best bluegrass pickers in the land, namely, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush. Although she offers backup harmony on occasion, MacMaster has no desire to become a singer. One person she would like to work with, though, is smoke and honey vocalist Norah Jones. "I really love her voice," she said. "And Sting, too, while I'm making a wish list." MacMaster, who tours frequently and brings as much energy to her shows as any metal act, sees what she does as "way of life." "We have a good time it's what we do," she said. "Yeah, 20 shows in a row can be tough but we make it fun. Maybe put water on one of the guy's chairs so he gets wet when he sits down or something. We're really a fun group of people." ......................................................................................................................................... March
9, 2005 The huge tour bus backed up to the stage entrance at the First Flight High School on a cloudy Saturday evening was a good sign. Inside, out of the drizzling rain, the Outer Banks Forum stage was set for the Nova Scotian fiddler Natalie MacMaster and her band. Her bus had disgorged a veritable music store, including guitars, banjos, basses, drums, keyboards, PA systems and monitors. Such exotica as bagpipes and a tripod-mounted solid-body electric standup bass were also well-represented. While a lively packed house thrummed, a stagehand went around dropping set-lists on the floor next to each microphone stand. Forum Executive Director Amy Huggins opened with remarks recognizing the contributions of the evening's underwriters and volunteers who helped put together the 22-year-old Forum concert series. Before she stepped into the darkness at the back of the stage she introduced Natalie MacMaster. First MacMaster's band came onstage, Matt MacIsaac, John Chiasson, Miche Pouliot, Brad Davidge and Allan Dewar, and settled into a quiet piano and flute air, MacIsaac's Irish flute playing low in a minor key to Dewar's spacious piano. Pouliot joined in with a sprightly march beat on drums, and Natalie MacMaster hit the stage running. In bell-bottomed jeans with a huge silver belt-buckle and a black top with long flowing sleeves, she hardly stood still all night. As she played she danced a little a-la Bill Monroe, her golden locks and black sleeves twirling. Her long legs reached clear to the ground, when they touched down, but her fiddle-playing was muscular and precise even in mid-air. When the tempo picked up and she joined in a fast duet with MacIsaac, the band now in full roar, an audience member turned to her companion and said, "This is going to be a wild night." It was rare for a piece to be singled out with a title; as MacMaster said, the band liked "medleys" and the tunes ebbed and flowed into each other - jigs, marches, reels and hornpipes. The concert was kept fresh by the varied arrangements. After a little speech by MacMaster on the importance of tradition, she sat down next to Dewar's electric piano for a duet of traditional songs as played at her parents' parties in their house on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Asking if anyone from the audience was from Nova Scotia, and receiving a surprising affirmative, she ascertained that some of those were indeed from Cape Breton Island. "Are we related?" she asked, peering into the darkness. Her party medley began with a quiet, beautiful Scottish lament that showcased MacMaster's clean technique. This piece was almost certainly the inspiration for Jay Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell," which was written in 1982 and made famous in Ken Burns' "Civil War" television series. As it progressed to a jig, it was possible to imagine dancers at a house party in full swing. The taps on MacMaster's platform shoes helped. She sat for this medley, but her irrepressible feet were tapping out some fairly complex rhythms on the piano riser. The first piece identified with a title, "The Appropriate Dipstick" - that's right - came with a story about getting a grant from the Canadian government to shoot its video. The grant came on the conditions that two of the following conditions be met: that the composer, performer, producer or lyricist be Canadian. MacMaster fulfilled only one; she, the performer, was Canadian, while the composer was Scottish, the producer was a Californian, and as a fiddle tune, it had no words. But when she found that the lyric "didn't have to be heard," she wrote one. She sang it quickly, acapella, to the audience. "Remember, it doesn't need to be good." That accomplished (in about 20 seconds), she and the band played "the instrumental version," for which the video was produced. The individual musicians had their own solo and feature turns, too. MacMaster came on stage sans fiddle for a step-dancing duet with Pouliot's drums. And we thought she could dance while fiddling! She could teach Savion Glover a thing or two. And she will never have a weight problem. Guitarist Davidge rolled out a beautiful, slightly jazzy, acoustic vocal version of "Danny Boy," accompanied by Chiasson on bass and MacMaster taking a pretty solo. Davidge hit the high notes spot-on, the words especially dramatic in the simple setting. And, for the first time since this reviewer has attended the Forum, the band was rewarded with a standing ovation before intermission. MacIsaac appeared onstage alone for the second set wrapped in bagpipes and let loose a medley of his own. To those who cringe when bagpipes are mentioned, remember that an early usage was as battlefield intimidation. MacIsaac's melodies were free of the intentional dischords of the warriors. One tonic-note drone was all that reminded that this was not a fiddle. (Indeed the night's performances featured many fiddle-bagpipe duets.) By the end of MacIsaac's performance his hands were fingering furious magical polyrhythms and his toe was tapping away, while his curiously deadpan face seemed elsewhere as it rhythmically, passively, supplied air to the bellows. The other (accompanied) vocal performance of the night was from bassist Chiasson, who with quiet backing from the others, sang a great version of Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prevert and Johnny Mercer's "Autumn Leaves" in a clear, ringing baritone. While a long evening, the variety of styles and performances made it pass quickly. At the last piece the audience, powerless to resist, rose in a standing ovation and would not be quieted save by a return of the musicians to the stage. They played a piece slated for their next album, which had "never--ever--been performed before," and which is already taking MacMaster's music in some new directions. The audience, ragged from an evening of toe-tapping, hand-clapping and hollering, stepped into the cold, clear night. The clouds were gone. ......................................................................................................................................... February
21, 2005 SYDNEY - Home turf was good luck for Big Pond singer-songwriter Gordie Sampson, who picked up five trophies at the 17th annual East Coast Music Awards on Sunday night. Sampson took home nearly a third of the 17 ECMAs won by Nova Scotian artists before a crowd of more than 5,000 in Centre 200 and a live, nationwide CBC-TV broadcast. Among the hardware Sampson took home was male artist of the year, album and pop recording of the year for his CD Sunburn and single of the year and SOCAN songwriter of the year - with Blair Daly and Troy Verges - for the record's title track. Picking up his first award for male artist, Sampson described his win as a nice reward for "the busiest year of my career," which included frequent trips to Nashville to write songs, as well as recording and promoting Sunburn. "Winning for my own work is really very special," Sampson told reporters backstage, referring to his frequent awards for co-written material recorded by other artists. "This is a sign that the record is getting into the right hands and people are responding to it. That means a lot." Asked about what it takes to become a great songwriter, Sampson said, "It's just expressing what's inside. There are no rules, no Songwriting For Dummies. You just do it a lot, do it every day and maybe you'll find you're creating something worthwhile." Sampson's friend and occasional collaborator, Pictou County country singer George Canyon, also had a good night. Besides a prestigious gig as host for the broadcast, the affable Nashville Star runner-up proved to be a winner in Sydney, earning three pewter treble clefs, including the fan-voted entertainer of the year, rising star of the year and country recording of the year for his album One Good Friend. "Country music's always been a fixture in homes in Nova Scotia," the strong-jawed singer said backstage about his recent success and putting Maritime country music back on the map. "It's what we all grew up with, it's ingrained in our culture. I'm really tickled that I'm able to let people know that it's as strong in this region as anywhere else. "In Nashville, they can't believe there's country music on the East Coast of Canada, but they know the names of people like Anne Murray and Hank Snow." Fortune also smiled on Cape Breton, with Troy fiddler Natalie MacMaster and Cheticamp singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier coming up double winners. MacMaster was named female artist of the year, while her CD Blueprint picked up roots/traditional solo recording of the year. She'll have to have the statuettes shipped to her Ontario home; the tireless performer was busy Sunday night honouring a promise to perform a previously postponed concert in sunny Albuquerque, N.M., far away from snow-covered Sydney. "Even though I can't be there tonight, I want everyone to know that it's always very inspiring to be part of East Coast music," MacMaster said in a pre-taped acceptance speech. .........................................................................................................................................
February 18, 2005 Cape Breton Island is the literal end of the line. At the eastern extreme of Nova Scotia, the island juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, its northernmost shore a breathtaking panorama comprising verdant highlands that drop suddenly, precipitously, and magnificently hundreds of feet into the wine-dark sea. It is this rural countryside that nurtured and inspired the traditional Celtic fiddler Natalie MacMaster as she grew. It is, by her own admission, a quiet life and a hard one. When we spoke recently, she described her Cape Breton upbringing as "for me, a normal life. What do people do? Well, when winter comes, not much." One thing they seem to never tire of on Cape Breton Island, no matter what the season, is gathering to play and share the traditional music that the area’s earliest settlers brought with them from Scotland and Ireland. Mainly, that means fiddle tunes, the various reels, jigs, and strathspeys that have informed MacMaster’s work from the beginning. "I was step dancing when I was 5," she recalled, speaking from a Santa Barbara, Calif., hotel room before a gig. "I’d played a little bit of guitar, and I played a little bit of piano and was doing some singing." When MacMaster was 9, a relative who lived in Boston sent a small, child-size fiddle to family members who were still living on the island. A number of youngsters were taken to view the instrument, but it was Natalie who fell in love with it straightaway. A year later, she made her public debut. "It came very naturally for me," she explained, "and word travels fast in traditional circles. I’m the niece of Buddy MacMaster [one of the region’s finest musicians], so everybody pretty much knew about me as soon as I started. Of course, you’ve got to be good too." By her final year of high school, MacMaster’s schedule had her playing at clubs, parties, and festivals on the weekends, which meant she sometimes missed either a Friday or Monday at school. Thinking it would provide a schedule flexible enough to accommodate her musical career, MacMaster decided to become an elementary-school teacher and began studying at a teacher’s college in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the teaching that soon took a back seat: with demand for her fiddling talents escalating, she eventually dropped out of school and concentrated on music full time. Six full-length Natalie MacMaster albums are available in this country on the Rounder label (in Canada, she is signed to BMG/Sony). The most recent of these is Blueprint, which was released in the fall of 2003. A number of today’s finest bluegrass players — Edgar Meyer, Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, and Jerry Douglas among them — join MacMaster and members of her touring ensemble on Blueprint, highlighting the link between traditional Celtic sound and the Americanized bluegrass of the Appalachian Mountains. Despite the bluegrass infusion, the material is uniformly based on the "medley" method of performance that is indigenous to the Celtic tradition. Rather than playing a single tune and breaking before starting another piece, five or six individual melodies are traversed in one stretch, lending diversity of melody and rhythm to the performance. Although she occasionally pens a song, most of MacMaster’s repertoire is made up of traditional songs that have been handed down through the generations. "I grew up with rock and roll," MacMaster said, "and I like the Dixie Chicks. I like James Taylor. I like Maroon 5, AC/DC, Prince ... but fiddle music from home is always No. 1 for me." The next MacMaster project, untitled but set for release in the fall, will mark the first time she’s accompanied only by her longtime backup group. "We’ve only done one session thus far," she pointed out, "and we recorded four songs, all of them in a studio in Halifax. Our next session will be in Kingston, Ontario," which is where the fiddler and her husband make their home. When she plays Albuquerque’s KiMo Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 20, and Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center on Monday, Feb. 21, she will be accompanied, as always, by guitarist Brad Davidge, piper Matt MacIsaac, bassist John Chiasson, pianist Allan Dewar, and drummer Miche Pouliot. On one of the Blueprint tracks, MacMaster plays some tenor banjo, and on another she does some singing. Asked whether we’d hear some banjo or vocalizing when she plays at the Lensic, MacMaster was adamant that neither would be part of the act. The banjo is something she "fools around with," but never onstage. She was even more adamant about the singing — regardless of the boost it might give her "crossover" appeal, as in the case of fellow fiddler and labelmate Alison Krauss. "If you want a fiddler, this is where you go," she said. "If you want a fiddler who also sings, go somewhere else." ......................................................................................................................................... January
28, 2005 Like B.B. King strumming his guitar Lucille, Nova Scotian songwriter/step dancer Natalie MacMaster and her fiddle were meant for each other. She’s been immersed in a culture rich in the Celtic fiddle tradition: at age nine, MacMaster’s father taught her to play for six months before she began formal studies with Stan Chapman, a respected Cape Breton fiddle teacher (she is also the niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster). She was playing publicly by age 12 and recorded her first album, Four on the Floor, four years later. By 1993, the then-20-year-old’s third release, Fit As a Fiddle, won the East Coast Music Award for Best Roots/Traditional Album. Onstage, MacMaster, now 32, roams from slow, haunting ballads to fast-paced jigs and reels, alldelivered with limitless energy and passion. "Traditional music can be so beautiful that I just bubble up inside with joy whenever I play it," she says. "But at the same time, I listen to everything from Maroon 5 to the Dixie Chicks to AC/DC, so I do have this creative desire to stretch my musical palette." This adventurous spirit percolates throughout her latest release, 2003’s Blueprint, a collection mixing her native fiddle music with modern American string music, featuring bluegrass pickers Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and others. The result is a seamless set of reels, breakdowns and jigs where the common threads linking bluegrass and Celtic music are clearly highlighted. Well-known singer/songwriter/fiddler Alison Krauss was the first musician to get MacMaster interested in bluegrass, but oddly enough, MacMaster didn’t specifically want Blueprint to be a quasi-bluegrass recording. She simply went after the best musicians she could find. "I wanted to create a sound that was a little bit different for me," explains MacMaster. "There really are no banjo, dobro or mandolin players in my world, and Bela, Jerry and Sam [respectively] are known as the best at what they do. So I was more attracted to these players than the kind of music they necessarily play." Themes have become a central focus, as well, and MacMaster’s songwriting has begun to blossom recently. One of Blueprint’s highlights is the lovely "Minnie & Alex’s Reel," a selection she wrote for her parents. MacMaster also composed three fiddle tunes and co-wrote the rollicking "Jig Party" with her bagpipe player, Matt MacIsaac. But didn’t MacMaster once say there’s no need to write any new songs because there’s already a gazillion good ones out there? "Yes, I have said that," she answers, chuckling. "At that time, I just didn’t have the desire to write any songs. But when I just couldn’t find any tunes that fit the sound and style I was after, I sat down and eventually came up with ‘David’s Jig/Valerie Pringle’s Reel.’ I think anyone can be a writer as long as the interest is there. And it’s an amazing feeling when you actually produce something you’re proud of." ......................................................................................................................................... January
23, 2005 There was at least one spot in London last night guaranteed to bring a sprightly thaw to winter's ice and snow. With Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster as a guest with Orchestra London, the 854 fans at Centennial Hall were sure to feel the Down East warmth immediately. "My gosh, I am impressed with you fellas," MacMaster greeted her fans. "Coming out on a night like this, you're making us feel special." The first half of the concert had MacMaster, gorgeous in white, and her bandmates, guitarist Brad Davidge and pianist Allan Dewar, at their kitchen party best. As the first half drove to a heated finale, during the extended Carnival Medley, the fiddler, her mates and the orchestra, sounded like a big, warm party. At other times, the orchestra, conducted by Scott Macmillan, who did most of the arranging, might have been tuned in from a house across the road. MacMaster and pals were always audible, dominating the mix. This was definitely not the case on the beautiful If Ever You Were Mine, a lovely ballad MacMaster introduced by calling it her most requested song ever. No wonder. With Macmillan's arrangement and the balance between star and orchestra just right, the sound would melt hearts anywhere. When concertmaster Melvin (Mel) Martin came up front to engage MacMaster in a blend of a Bach partita and a jaunty tune called Devil's Dream, there was classical-Celtic fusion, too. The audience loved it. MacMaster, 32, is back today at 2:30 p.m. to complete the two- concert Pops appearance. MacMaster, who began performing on the festival circuit when she was 12, is now based in Lakefield, near Peterborough after her marriage to Donnell Leahy, of the Celtic-roots group Leahy. Word of her switch to Ontario from Nova Scotia has tended to produce good-natured booing from some MacMaster fans. It is a sign of the strength of those down east ties. Last night, MacMaster neatly detoured around the relocation issue by saying how nice it was to be play "four hours from home." Among last night's selections were traditional fiddle tunes arranged by Macmillan. The program also called for two of his orchestral works, A Hail to the Gaels and Grand Cercle Overture, co-written with Paul Gallant. A Hail to the Gaels opened the concert. It has a lovely, moody start, which, unfortunately, encouraged some audience members to give it the traditional London opening act greeting -- chairs moving, conversation rising above whispers, feet impatient to stomp to the star. Macmillan's work builds to a powerful conclusion and is a salute to the Gaelic melodies that inspired him. Maybe this afternoon's audience will tune in to the entire Hail. As fleet as she was with her fiddle and stepdancing moves, MacMaster did engage Macmillan in one odd bit of stage banter. At one point, the two down east stars kept kidding each other about their lack of details about the composer of the Celtic gem, O'Carolan's Concerto. The duo's arrangement was a perfect fit. But can this be the same blind Irish harpist of legend whose memory is worshipped by Ireland's supertraditionalists, the Chieftains? If so, it must be said that, for all the concert's warmth, the audience was being sweetly snowed during that part of the concert. ......................................................................................................................................... January
21, 2005 "From the room far back a fair-haired girl/ Came forward and took the bow/Then she wiped the dust from the old violin/ And tightened up the strings/ She played a tune so pure and sweet/ You could hear the angels sing." These lines, from a song called "Touch of the Master's Hand, neatly sum up what Natalie MacMaster has done for Cape Breton fiddle music. Like the old violi being auctioned off in the song, this traditional Nova Scotian music shot up in audience appeal and commercial value when she got her hands on it. MacMaster's uncle was a well-known Cape Breton fiddler. She started playing when she was 9, with no inkling that she would turn into a Canadian superstar. At 32, MacMaster already has won 11 East Coast Music Awards, five Canadian fiddle player of the year honors and two Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent of a Grammy. She's performed with Carlos Santana, the Chieftains, Paul Simon, Luciano Pavarotti, Mark O'Connor and Alison Krauss. And on her sixth album, "Blueprint," MacMaster plays with an all-star lineup of con- temporary bluegrass musicians, including Bela Fleck on banjo, Sam Bush on mandolin, Edgar Meyer on bass and Jerry Douglas on Dobro. "None of the musicians were showoffs," she says. "They're all just totally devoted to music - no matter what the style - and they were a total pleasure to work with." The instrumental tracks on "Blueprint" lean toward speed, with turn-on-a-dime shifts in dance rhythms (for example, "Blast"). But some also swing lightly ("Gravel Shore," "Devil and the Dirk"), and two are slow, low and sad ("Eternal Friendship" and "Johsefin's Waltz"). The album also includes two vocal tracks, with John Cowan singing lead on the upbeat "Touch of the Master's Hand" and MacMaster's cousin, Kate Quinn, singing a love song written by her father: "A song that will speak of the magic of three/ My love, Cape Breton and me." MacMaster and her band will be back in Eugene on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. show at the Shedd Concert Hall, 285 E. Broadway. The show is part of the Now Hear This series presented by the Oregon Festival of American Music. ......................................................................................................................................... OLDER PRESS: 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999
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Cape
Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and her husband Donnell Leahy are proud
parents of a girl. Mary Frances Rose Leahy came into the world on
Saturday at 8:32 a.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 2 oz.
NEW
YORK -- With music he loved and stories of his devotion as a father and
his work on behalf of the homeless, family and friends said goodbye to
Peter Jennings on Tuesday with a memorial service that brought laughter
and tears in memory of the ABC News anchor. 
Natalie MacMaster, of
course, is the hair-flinging, high-stepping Paganini of Cape Breton
Island, steeped in the ways of the rosin and bow since girlhood by her
famous ace fiddler uncle, Buddy MacMaster.