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1999 Press
Articles
12-30-99:
1999 The
Honour Roll |
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08-24-99:
Natalie's
New Album Is In Good Hands .........................................................................................................................................
December
30, 1999 Many talented members of our arts community took a giant step forward this year. As the new century begins, watch out for those who make up our honour roll. NATALIE MACMASTER, musician The fiddling sensation from Troy, Cape Breton continues to win new fans and impress old ones as she made her singing debut on her new CD In My Hands this year. On the title track MacMaster does a sultry songspeak ode to her closest companion, her fiddle. She also sings a duet with Alison Krauss, Get Me Through December. The 27-year-old with the cascading blond curls leads the nominees for the 2000 East Coast Music Awards with seven. MacMaster is nominated in the female artist category, entertainer of the year, video of the year, best album, best single, roots-traditional solo artist, and SOCAN Songwriter of the year for In My Hands with Gordie Sampson. The multiple ECMA winner picked up her first Juno this year for best instrumental album and a Gemini for her performance on this year's Juno show in Hamilton, a duet with flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook of Toronto, who also appears on In My Hands. And MacMaster, who has appeared in commercials for Tim Horton's and GM's Pontiac, will continue making her mark in television. An episode of Pit Pony was written for her in which her Cape Breton neighbour Ashley MacIsaac also appeared. MacMaster will be at sea when the millennium hits. On New Year's Eve she'll be taking part in a five-day "ecotour" cruise from the tip of South America to the coast of Antarctica. Fan favourite MacMaster is providing entertainment on a superluxury cruise liner, along with jazz siren Diana Krall and her old friends The Chieftains." .........................................................................................................................................
December
15, 1999 Since she began playing as a teenager, Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster has been captivating folk music fans -- first in Canada and then abroad -- with her fiery performances and virtuoso fiddling. Her new album, In My Hands, is her most ambitious project to date, and more than hints at the possibility that MacMaster may be on the verge of a crossover success that few traditional musicians ever experience. While in Tampa, Fla., recently, MacMaster spoke about the title song from In My Hands, a wonderful, intricate, highly contemporary song that is destined to hook rock audiences. "The song came about because I'm looking for more variety in my work, especially in my live show," MacMaster explains. "Since I do fiddle every number, I thought it would be nice to represent myself vocally, you know, so people could hear my voice. That thought came and went for a while. When it came time to do this album, I thought this might be a good time to try something like this. So I decided I'd write about my music, since that's a topic that's real and honest. "I wrote several different things, but nothing was really diggin'," she continues. "Finally I thought I'd write the song about a fiddle, since a fiddle can be so much like a man, and the song will sort of fool people into thinking that I'm writing about a guy. But then I canned that idea, because as I got into more meaningful stuff my thoughts on music got deeper and it was all about Cape Breton music and the people who play the music. I mean, how many years has our music thrived in Cape Breton? The people back home are still very passionate about their music and most of the song is written about that passion." After refining the lyrics with co-writer Amy Sky, MacMaster took the song to her producer, Gordy Sampson. "He just sat in the studio and listened to the lyrics, and then the first three chords he played on his guitar were perfect -- they became the riff you hear throughout the song," Macmaster marvels. "He's just got a really cool way of putting things together. For me, the thing that makes 'In My Hands' settle so well is the groove and the chord progression underneath it. And that's all Gordy's doing." The rest of the album is dedicated to what MacMaster refers to as "the hunt for good tunes," and attempting to incorporate styles and sounds she digs into her music. "Every time I hear a groove that I like, I always think, OK, how can I play that.'" MacMaster explores electronica on "Space Celidh" and takes a rip at flamenco with "Flamenco Fling." She also succeeded in getting Alison Krauss to sing "Get Me Through December" for In My Hands. Asked if she was pleased by this coup, MacMaster replied: "I was completely ecstatic. I still am. I can't believe she's on my album. And now we're doing a video together." MacMaster realizes that her talent, and the electricity she generates in concert, may take her beyond the bounds of the Gaelic-influenced music that is her roots. "The more that I achieve, the more I realize that there's even more to achieve than I let on to myself," she allows. "You know, people say, 'Dream the impossible dream,' but I've never been one to do that. I know I'm capable of doing a lot of things, musically, but I never assume that I'm going to achieve all these things. I keep myself low-keyed. I don't really know what the future holds for me, but I'm very excited about it. I'll go wherever my music takes me. I'm game for anything. I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere." .........................................................................................................................................
December
15, 1999 NEW WATERFORD - The coach of the Breton Education Centre (BEC) Bears boys basketball team says Natalie MacMaster came through for them. Lowell Cormier says the boys and girls division one basketball teams have been fund-raising for the past seven months to raise money for a trip to the United States but still needed more money. He said they planned a Christmas ceilidh as their last fund raiser and MacMaster agreed to make a guest appearance. You could say Natalie MacMaster came through for the Bears. The ceilidh is being held 7 p.m. Saturday at BEC. Cormier said it will be an event to remember, with other entertainers to include Richard Burke, Dougie MacPhee, Kintyre, Nipper MacLeod, Bhreagha McIsaac. Tickets are available at MusicStop in Sydney, Shoppers Drug Mart in Glace Bay, Brineís Hairstyling Ltd., in New Waterford, or Cormier at 862-3462. Cormier said the teams will be travelling to Boston, New York and North Carolina from Jan. 2-14. .........................................................................................................................................
December
14, 1999
"Listen to it,'' Chapman says as the giggles die down and the class gets under way. "Let your ears tell you what to do.'' There is little to indicate that this gentle, rumpled man is a legend among those who love the haunting, lively tunes of Celtic music, that his name alone inspires awe among those who strive to play like the Cape Breton greats. For Chapman, 53, has produced more fiddle masters than anyone else in Canada, maybe anyone else on the planet. Nine of his former students have gone on to professional recording careers. Two of them - Ashley MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster - are known around the world. He looks genuinely bewildered when asked the secret of his success. "Luck?'' he offers tentatively, running a thick hand through dark brown locks. ``I was lucky to have some really good students, I guess. Several have done awfully well, but I don't know if it's because of me or in spite of me.'' Chapman has been teaching music in public schools for 27 years, never more than a few hours' drive from the Pictou County home where he grew up. He started a private fiddle class in Antigonish in 1975, first in the legion hall, then in a high school music room. That class produced many of the musicians who fuelled an explosion of Celtic culture in the 1990s. Chapman credits the immense musical culture of the area for much of his success. Most of his best students came from families where the fiddle had been played - or at least appreciated - for generations. "A lot of them had heard the music since they were in the womb,'' he says. "They were all exposed to the music before they came to me. Their ear was accustomed to those sounds already, and that's tremendously important.'' Five years ago, Chapman quit. He closed down his private classes and decided to teach only in the public school system. Many wonder why one of the world's best fiddle teachers would stop taking some of the world's best students, but Chapman says it's simple: he just doesn't have the time. Nine years ago, Chapman married. It was only then that he began to explore the many joys of life beyond helping a youngster find the spirit and notes of a new song. "I like to have time for a swim, to go out on the boat, or just putter around,'' he says. "Maybe after I retire I'll start up again. I'm not saying I'll never have another private class.'' Kendra MacGillivary is one of the many professional musicians who first touched bow to string under Chapman's eye. MacGillivary, 27, is now working on her third CD. Both MacIsaac and MacMaster were in the classes that MacGillivary began when she was 9 years old. "It was always, always fun,'' she says. "He was very patient. I don't remember ever being pushed.'' Chapman is the antithesis of the tough-talking teacher who drives their students to excel. He hated fiddle competitions as a child and never wanted any of his students to enter them. Nor did he ever push his students to record. "I never imagined in a million years that these kids were going to make records, make a living, with the fiddle,'' he says. "If you had asked Natalie (MacMaster) what she was thinking of back then, she would have said she hoped to play for a few dances, maybe a wedding. That's about it.'' These days, Chapman teaches general music to 20 different classes in two public schools and offers fiddle as an extra-curricular activity. Chapman says his patience comes from his own struggles in learning to play. "I don't consider myself a great player. I find if you have to work at something yourself, it's easier to accept the mistakes of others. If everything comes very naturally, maybe it's harder to understand why someone else has difficulty.'' When Chapman reminisces about his career, it's not just the famous pupils he remembers. One of his biggest lessons came from one of his slowest students. Both MacMaster and MacIsaac played a tune within five minutes of their first lesson, he says. But another student took six months to learn half of a simple song. "It was really excruciating,'' says Chapman. "He just couldn't seem to get it.'' The student's parents finally came to Chapman and asked if their son would ever be a fiddler. "I didn't know what to say,'' he recalls. ``I almost said `No,' but then I thought, maybe he can if he tries hard enough. "Today, he isn't just good, he's excellent. He plays dances. He composes. He has real talent. People learn at different speeds. Just because it's hard for someone doesn't mean they won't be just as good, over time, as the person who learned easily.'' One of Chapman's purest pleasures is hearing new talent for the first time. Two years ago he was leaving a Cape Breton concert when the sound of a new fiddle player stopped him in his tracks. He turned to see a 13-year-old boy on stage. "When I hear somebody who's really good, who's new, it gives me the shivers. It makes the hair go up on the back of my neck.'' .........................................................................................................................................
December
6, 1999 Her roots are still showing, but has Natalie MacMaster matured into a seductive songstress? Just the fact she applies a brushstroke of soft sultry vocal rapping on a canvas of dreamy trip-hop to In My Hands, the title track from her sixth CD, marks a new direction for the 27-year-old blond fiddling sensation from Cape Breton. "I see your shape and I'm attracted/I touch your neck and I'm tempted/I feel the spirit that lies within/When I hold you in my hands," she sings, actually referring to the moment her grand-uncle Charlie gave her her first fiddle when she was nine. "I always wanted to try singing," says MacMaster, who brings her fine Cape Breton fiddling, step-dancing, accent and charm to the National Arts Centre tonight at 8 p.m. 'ADDS VARIETY' "It was an idea I'd been toying with. Then a year ago, I got together with my pal Amy Sky and (guitarist) Gordie Sampson and they helped me figure out how I wanted to get this across. "It adds a bit of variety to the album." Additional contributions to the CD include flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook -- with whom MacMaster duetted in an electrifying performance at this year's Juno Awards -- and bluegrass fiddler Alison Krauss. The shift also speak volumes about MacMaster's maturing career. Willing to explore new avenues, MacMaster has ventured into acting, appearing on the CBC series Pit Pony and in well-publicized commercials for Tim Horton's. Music, however, remains her sole focus. In the U.S., MacMaster recently inked a deal with Rounder Records, which released In My Hands. A SOFT SPOT FOR ITALY And her precision fiddle playing and toe-tapping step-dances, combined with her friendly, Maritime girl-next-door appeal, have captured the hearts of audiences the world over. MacMaster admits she has a soft spot for Italy ("Just an absolutely beautiful place!"), while she earned a new fan in Ireland -- a visiting Prime Minister Jean Chretien ("He gave me flowers for my birthday, it was totally unexpected."). Still, MacMaster says her heart will always come back to Cape Breton Island. "The quality of life there, the strong morals, and just the beauty of the place, it's so peaceful," MacMaster says. "It's like Alexander Graham Bell once said, 'For simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.' " As to how her older, more traditional rivals would react to In My Hands, MacMaster says not to worry: "The whole CD is still me." .........................................................................................................................................
December
6, 1999 OTTAWA - It's a safe bet that when it comes to performing, Natalie MacMaster has mastered the art of pleasing a crowd. Just give the soft-spoken 27-year-old blonde a fiddle, mix in some traditional jigs and reels from Cape Breton or Scotland -- maybe something a little more contemporary -- add some down-east friendly charm, accent and wit, and top it off with some solid tap-dancing. MacMaster and her clean-cut gentlemen quintet offered exactly that winning formula in front of a near-capacity crowd at the National Arts Centre last night. The end result was a pleasant evening to savour, as MacMaster and her fine fiddle playing were out to win audience approval. While other performers of her calibre (Ashley MacIsaac, Richard Wood, Eileen Ivers) have taken more fashionable risks, be it hip hop, high energy shows or, say Riverdance, MacMaster is happy to stick mainly within her traditional let's-please-everyone comfort zone. Sure, once in a while she'll try something different: Flamenco Fling, that Jesse Cook number for which he and MacMaster garnered raves at the Juno Awards earlier this year; In My Hands, MacMaster's first "song" featuring her sweet singing debut of which, frankly, she should do more; and a lovely piano-and-violin piece she plugged as The Tim Horton's Song (she appeared in spots for the company). But not for long. Then it's back to Josephine's Waltz, Blue Bonnets Over the Border, multi-part jigs and reels, and a little bit of tap-dancing in the first half, followed by a more powerful second helping of tap, tango (best use yet of Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street) and eight talented dancers from the audience who graced the stage. But hey, it's her show. And if MacMaster is content with playing it safe, the more power to her. .........................................................................................................................................
December
4, 1999 After putting out four albums, Natalie MacMaster decided she wanted to try something different with her latest effort In My Hands. "I've never wanted to be a singer, but with all my years of fiddling, fiddling, fiddling and doing live shows one after another, I thought it would be so nice if I could put a song in there so people could hear me speak the music," she says, sounding a little worn out after a month-long tour of the U.S. and a one-day trip to Dublin, where she shot a segment for a New Year's Eve special for the BBC. MacMaster, known for her virtuoso fiddling and frenzied step-dancing, tested her vocals on the CD's title track. It turned out to be the first single. The result was an exceedingly radio-friendly release from an already popular instrumentalist. The single took off. "I didn't expect it to do anything like what it did," she says. "I did it for a little change, that's all. A little variety... I certainly didn't think it would be a single." Despite the song's success, MacMaster says she's not shifting her musical priorities. "I'm not a singer and I'm not comfortable with it, really," the 27-year-old Cape Breton native admits. "But I figured, 'Well I don't necessarily have to be a great singer.' I thought I'd just write some lyrics. Amy Sky helped me with some of that. I figured, I'm just gonna say what I want to say." What she wanted to say was essentially an ode to something that has been close to her since she was nine years old -- her instrument: "I see your shape and I'm attracted/ I touch your neck and I'm tempted/ I feel the spirit that lies within/ When I hold you in my hands." MacMaster's Canadian tour, which started a few days ago, brings her to the stage of the National Arts Centre Monday. MacMaster performs about 250 gigs a year. She says her recent stint in the U.S. went particularly well. "It was our best American tour," she says. "Canada is much more open to Celtic-y things, but the States have much bigger festivals. They have everything we have, but it's 10 times bigger." MacMaster says she gets as much enjoyment from playing for crowds of thousands as she does in an intimate hall. "I need both," she says. "We do festivals in the summertime, so by the end of the summer I'm very anxious to get back to the theatres. We do that for fall and spring and then I'm anxious to get out on the big stage." MacMaster says the popularity of Celtic music shows no signs of waning. And although a steady stream of musical and fiddling talent has come from Cape Breton in recent years, MacMaster says standing out from the pack hasn't been a problem. "I'm unique because I'm a different person," she says. "I have never wanted to get away from Cape Breton and what it is Cape Breton gave me. Playing the music there is my number one love." Though her singing debut has been a success, she isn't sure if she'll do it again. "If I didn't do it again, I wouldn't be surprised," says MacMaster. "And if I did do it again, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm not going to force anything." .........................................................................................................................................
November
30, 1999 Natalie MacMaster doesn't drink much coffee. But when she does, she prefers Tim Hortons over any other brand. So the commercial that aired last year, with MacMaster's band piling out of the tour bus and into a friendly neighbourhood doughnut shop, was based on fact. "We usually have early mornings. So first thing, the bus stops at Tim Hortons and while the guys are doing the coffee thing, I'm in there getting orange juice and a toasted everything bagel with butter. "That's my Tim Hortons experience. If it's the afternoon I usually get a coffee and a honey cruller. Medium double double." The Celtic fiddler from Cape Breton has recent fond memories of Hamilton. The last time she was here, it was March and the Junos were in town. The night was hectic for MacMaster, to say the least. Not only was she performing, she was up for two awards and had to keep changing her costume. "It was like, 'Oh my God.' The whole day I don't think I hardly ate a thing and I was on 11 all day. "Haven't you heard that expression? You know, ten is all the way on a scale of zero to 10? Well, I was on 11." The 27-year-old obviously didn't let the anxiety overcome her talent. Her act with Jesse Cook on those Juno awards won a Gemini for best live performance in a variety program or series. She also took home the Juno for best instrumental album for My Roots Are Showing. Now MacMaster has a new album out and it's not purely instrumental. On In My Hands, MacMaster is credited with vocals for the first time. In the title track she speaks in time to the music and sings backup. "I see your shape and I'm attracted/I touch your neck and I'm tempted/I feel the spirit that lies within/When I hold you in my hands." Although MacMaster is happy with how her voice sounds on the recording and has had positive feedback on the song, she's not sure she'll ever sing again. She's just not very comfortable with vocals. "You can do something at home that you just sort of frig around with, like if you sing when you're cooking or in the shower. But when you go into the recording studio - even if you're used to performing - it has a totally different element." The original idea was to do something a bit different on the album and to be able to shake up her audiences. For MacMaster, the best compliments after a concert came from the people who hated fiddle music but were dragged there by friends, and ended up loving the show. "I originally wanted to do this because my concert is always fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. I want people who aren't into fiddle music to enjoy the show as well." MacMaster says she never thought the song would take off the way it has. When the recording was close to completion, her record company wanted to make the song a single, and thereby make it radio-friendly. For an artist known solely for great fiddling, getting on the radio is not an easy task. Radios like voices, so MacMaster hadn't really broken into that far-reaching market before. "I'm not a huge pop star or anything, but the song has opened markets that I hadn't been able to tap into before." Celtic music seems to be on a bit of a decline since hitting a peak over the past few years, but MacMaster says her career just keeps getting better. She chalks her success up to a number of things, including the resurgence of Celtic music, her personal popularity, her 18 years of experience, good publicity from her record company, and a fresh, contemporary new album. But MacMaster's enduring success comes at the expense of years of touring all the "nooks and crannies" of the country. She is popular above all because she is lively and engaging onstage. You see MacMaster's energy and her long blond curls go a-bouncing and you have to get up and dance. Then you tell your friends about the time you had. Although her career has been an exhausting journey down different roads to different holes-in-the-wall, there were only three or four times where MacMaster felt she couldn't go on. "Then I just pray. I pray to God that I'll get over it." MacMaster's learned to take things one day at a time, and she finds that the band gets better with every tour. She just finished a jaunt through the States and says it was possibly the best tour she's done. "But we had fewer shows throughout the week, we have the tour bus now, we have more people looking after us, we stay at nicer places, we work with better people and we play at nicer venues. It makes a difference. "That's when, because you've done the harder stuff, you can appreciate what is happening, and you kind of get inspired by that." .........................................................................................................................................
November
27, 1999 Natalie MacMaster, known for her wholesome overalls and angelic blond curls, is suddenly sexy as she whisper-sings on the title track of her new album, In My Hands. "I see your shape and I'm attracted/I touch your neck and I'm tempted," the Cape Breton fiddler coos, amid a dreamy mix of fiddling, drums and ambient music. But MacMaster, who was once featured in East Coast milk commercials, maintains that a diva makeover was not her plan when she decided to try songwriting and singing on this album. "With the words and the lyrics and the performance, the farthest thing from my mind was trying to make it sensual," she says. "So if it is, it is au naturel. Maybe I'm just a sensual person." MacMaster, who was in town last night to co-host The 1999 Prime Minister Awards at Roy Thomson Hall -- and plays Convocation Hall next Saturday -- says the song is actually about her love for the fiddle. But she can see how people may read more into it. MacMaster was apprehensive about her vocal debut. "I've always wanted to use my voice," she says. "I started writing some lyrics -- I didn't know whether they were good or bad. I was absolutely petrified. The first time I tried it in the studio, it was just awful. I was at the point where I thought it was a stupid idea." Wrong. In My Hands is the best-selling of her seven albums. MacMaster, 27, calls it more contemporary and more accessible than its traditional predecessors. "I was talking to mom last night and she was telling me about all the fan mail I've been getting about my song. That's really encouraging." Her sultry voice and CD cover have raised eyebrows, however. The picture shows MacMaster with her head down, face obscured by curls, while sitting in a short skirt and showing off her legs. "I was in Boston, and this woman came over to me and said the album cover made me look like some sort of drug addict sitting on the toilet strung out on coke," says MacMaster. "She kept asking, 'Where is the sweet Natalie we all know, the milk girl, the young, sweet precious Natalie?' "I haven't changed," she adds. "I'm still the same old Natalie." Yes that's for sure. MacMaster had to cut this interview short to avoid being late for Mass. ......................................................................................................................................... November 16, 1999Natalie MacMaster: All Grown Up By Ross Porter - The National Magazine CAPE BRETON - If the soul of a place can be found in its music, Cape Breton is a land of high spirits. Its unmistakable and infectious style of music is as natural a part of the landscape as the rock and the rain. Now the latest embodiment of that rich tradition is the fiddler Natalie MacMaster. Her popularity extends well beyond the shores of Cape Breton, as you can see from her hectic touring and recording schedule. The little island has produced yet another global star, but for Natalie MacMaster home is never all that far away. MacMaster might be the busiest woman in Canadian show business. Fans around the world are scooping up copies of her CDs. "I've been out there in big cities and playing all the big things," she says, "and it's truly wonderful. It makes you feel like a real star." With non-stop touring, her audience keeps growing and she's selling out concerts worldwide. It's success many only dream of, but for Natalie, she's just a fiddler from Cape Breton. "When I get back and get a little taste of home and hear the music, which is the greatest music in the world, as far as I'm concerned," she says. "It just makes me itchy to do that, to go that route." Natalie MacMaster recently played to a sold-out crowd at the community centre in Judique. What was different about that show was that there was no tour bus, no tractor trailers filled with lighting and sound gear, and Natalie's band had a rare night off. She played with her uncle Buddy, her mom Minnie and her brother Kevin (who, by the way, hasn't played in public in years and agreed only after Natalie had said she'd pay for a trip to the Vatican.) Natalie comes from a closely knit family with a strong set of religious and family values. She's the youngest of three children, raised by Minnie and Alec. Alec has retired from the pulp mill, where Natalie's brothers now work. Her mom runs the fan club and checks the books. "I get nervous playing at home, and I'm not nervous very much at all," says MacMaster. "I can play in front of thousands and thousands of people. But just even a little group of 500 people like last night in the hall -- I was nervous because the music is so much theirs and it's so much Cape Breton and I guess you can't get away with anything, really. You have to make sure you're in top form and the tunes are played right, and that sort of thing because that's where it comes from, right there." Cape Breton is an island rich in musical tradition. Many of Canada's best fiddlers have come from here -- including Natalie's uncle, Buddy MacMaster. "She's my niece and I'm very proud of her," says Buddy MacMaster, "and she's a very talented girl and a likable girl. It hasn't gone to her head at all; she's still Natalie, the same as she always was. And it's nice to see her come back here to play in Judique." Judique is close to where Natalie grew up. When she was nine, a child-size fiddle arrived from an uncle in Boston. She quickly became a fiddling sensation on the island; Natalie had a knack for winning people over. One was Ashley McIsaac, who grew up down the road. For him, her talent is obvious. "She is part of the tradition," says McIsaac. "It's her rhythm, her blonde hair -- both flying off her bow and her fiddle, and probably just the sound." Natalie's success has brought all kinds of opportunities including acting. She shot a segment for the TV series The Pit Pony. Both Natalie and Ashley were asked to appear as characters from the turn of the century but Natalie says she doesn't want to become an actress just yet. "What I do wanna do, is play little roles here and there and things," she says. "I haven't felt it, I'm not saying that 10 years down the road I wouldn't answer differently to your question but right now, if you ask me do I wanna be an actress, I'd say no." She has a lot on her plate, including offers of marriage from her longtime friend Ashley MacIssac. "I have been a bachelor fiddler my whole life," says MacIsaac, "but by God, I swear I would marry this girl if she would have me." Despite such proposals MacMaster, at 27, is single. "The only person I really have to think about right now is myself," she says, "and so I have freedom to do these things, which is great and that's a big part of the reason why I'm keeping myself so busy now and accepting all these offers that are coming in. Because I want to take advantage of them now while I can; while I have the great opportunity to. "I'm starting to think ahead a little more now and I think that there's definitely going to come a point where I'm gonna wanna have kids. Now I'm a long ways away from that, and I don't even know if that will ever happen for me, but I hope it would." "I'd love to be a mom and even just doing normal things like running the house, running the household." says Natalie MacMaster. "Mind you, I've got the worst domestic skills of anybody I know. I can't cook worth a darn. But there's hope. There is hope." In the meantime, there is a career to focus on. Natalie has fans around the world. she was part of a Celtic music special being prepared by BBC Radio. "I think when you get Natalie playing and dancing, it's an unbeatable combination," says Ian Anderson is from BBC Radio in Scotland. Natalie started dancing before she played the fiddle and she's good at it. Even Michael Flatley offered her a spot in his show Lord Of The Dance. Natalie passed so she could concentrate on her music. "I should say the only thing after each show that bothers me is my feet. Which really -- it's not what you would think, with all this movement up here. Then again, I've got lots of movement down here too, I suppose people would say." People such as the BBC's Ian Anderson say apart from this technical virtuosity she brings a dose of glamour to a scene that is essentially unglamourous. That's thanks to Natalie being marketed in an astute way. There's a website; there are music videos; merchandise such as clothing. The packaging of each album has become more and more sophisticated. On her latest CD, Natalie's fiddle has been left off the cover. "That's because first of all, all my other albums have fiddle," says MacMaster. "And I wanted to do something different. I just wanted to have a departure from that." It's a departure that Andre Bourgeois, Natalie's manager, supports. "Rather than the way that she'd been presented as everybody's you know daughter," says Bourgeois. "The daughter-next-door. She's now being presented as her own fully grown, fully mature, fully independent person and a woman, not a young, not a young girl. "I think a lot of that came from the fact that she started so young. You know she started when she was a young girl, so there were images, photos and so on of her performing when she was 15, 16, 17. And for a lot of people, those images stayed with them. So we almost wanted to erase some of that and create a sense of arrival at a new level." Another departure, aimed at increasing her appeal, was including Natalie's vocals on her new CD, In My Hands. "Natalie's situation is very different from most artists right now in that she does in fact pay for, or finance, her own recordings, her own videos and many of the other things that surrounds all the label activity," says Bourgeois. "For that reason, again, she's able to retain ownership and full control of her masters and that means that 10 years from now, should she want to do something with her material -- whether it's put it in a motion picture or put it on a compilation or re-record it or re-release it, those options are all there for her. And only one person really has to agree, and that's her." Even the dodgy area of being identified with a product is something Natalie managed to finesse. A commercial for Tim Horton's ended up being more about Natalie than doughnuts. And just how well is Natalie financing herself? "Well it varies. I'm not trying at all to dodge the question," says Bourgeois. "It depends on the type of event. Most of our highest-paying work is she does a fair amount of corporate work in playing private conventions for large companies, that sort of thing. "The corporate world seems very comfortable with her image and they seem to want that sort of thing. That work pays very well. Natalie commands as much as $30,000 or $40,000 a night. At the same time, at the other end of the scale, she'll play back home in Cape Breton for the love of the music and $200 or $300." Natalie herself says she's very satisfied with the structure of the business. "It is a business, in many senses," she says. "Here I am playing music that I love and that's what's important to me. But you have to have the other stuff together too; you have to have management and agents. "You know I've got agents in three different countries and three different record companies and it's a big business. It's a big old machine that runs, that operates and it doesn't stop; it just keeps going and going and you have to make sure. I mean Andre, my manager, he's the guy who makes sure that everything's in place and that everything's working properly. But you know you have to accept it, that it is a business." The record business is fickle. Natalie's potential to have a career that spans years is great. She has three important elements that never fall out of favour: honesty, integrity and talent. ......................................................................................................................................... November 15, 1999MacMaster And Friends The Boston Globe Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster may have been hundreds of miles from home on Saturday, but there were familiar faces in the audience at her sold-out Berklee Performance Center show. Chief among them, her parents, Alex and Minnie MacMaster (a former stepdancer), seated in the center of the auditorium nearly a dozen rows back from the stage. The couple had driven down from Cape Breton for Friday night's concert in Manchester, N.H, before catching the Boston show. During a break in the 2 1/2 hour show, MacMaster chatted with the audience, asking how many Canadians were on hand. When she received a large response, she kept narrowing it down to hometowns in Cape Breton, concluding that one audience member in the balcony must have been a relation. ......................................................................................................................................... November 12, 1999Natalie MacMaster Keeps Her Cape Breton Sound Pure Scott Alarik - The Boston Globe "Not true. Nope. Never happened. I don't even know how that story got started." Says the Cape Breton fiddle sensation Natalie MacMaster. Her normally shy, soft voice turned suddenly testy. As she has grown from fiddle prodigy to international star, a certain folklore has also grown about her beginnings on the far Canadian isle of Cape Breton. The particular myth she was hotly denying, which has been widely reported as fact, is that she was once urged by a record executive to lose her Cape Breton accent. "I'm asked about that all the time." she said with a sigh. "I think people keep printing it because it sounds good, but it never happened. I haven't come into any pressure along the way. Not to talk different, not to play different. That's why the story is kind of boring I guess. There's no juice, no gossip. It's really kind of perfect and fairy-tale-ish." While her saga may not be filled with backstage Svengalis, Machiavellian show-biz manipulations, or tawdry scandals, it is certainly the stuff of a modern-day fairy tale: A little girl grows up in a humble, music-filled and loving household. Going to sleep every night listening to the vibrant Scottish-based traditional music of her Cape Breton home. One day a child-sized fiddle arrives in the mail from an uncle in Boston. Anyone who wants to play it can have it and 9 year-old Natalie scoops it up, as everyone in the family knew she would. Her little head is so filled with music that she is immediately able to scratch out tunes. At 16 she makes her first CD, and by the time she is 27, as she is now, she is a bona-fide world star who has toured with the Chieftains, been featured on their "Tears Of Stone" CD alongside Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall, The Corrs and Bonnie Raitt and recorded with Mark O'Connor and Alison Krauss who join MacMaster on her adventurous Rounder CD, "In My Hands". Her concert tomorrow at Berklee is already sold out. "Being a fiddler was never a decision for me, something I wanted to be taught." she said. "It was more like learning to walk. Everybody around you is doing it; you're seeing it all the time. You can do it, you just have to practice. That's basically all it was, like a language or any of the essentials. I got this fiddle and knew fiddle music as well as I knew anything." The organic mastery sparks everything she plays. Her music is passionately joyful. Her bow at once raw and tender, muscular and sweet as she drives through ancient tunes that many experts, including Scottish fiddlers Aly Bain and Alasdair Fraser believe are closer to what Scottish music sounded like 300 years ago that what can be heard in Scotland today. That belief comes less from the remoteness of Cape Breton than from how the music remains such a living tradition. Played to the thundering pulse of hundreds of clogging feet at square dances. Single malt, whoop-it-up weekend music. ......................................................................................................................................... November 8, 1999MacMaster Sings In Praise Of The Fiddle 'In My Hands' By Serena Yang - CNN World Beat
"Living in Cape Breton, it's really all about fiddle music," she says "so it's not like there were other instruments out there that tempted me and it was like I had to decide which one. It was automatically fiddle, because it's the predominant instrument in Cape Breton Island."MacMaster, who's been playing the fiddle since age 9, breaks stride with her sixth and latest album, "In My Hands," in which -- for the first time -- she sings, pairing her alto on some songs with country star Alison Krauss' soprano. "'In My Hands,' the title track, is my very first vocal attempt and I'm not a singer as such," she says. "But I've always wanted to express myself vocally on my albums and I don't really have much of a capability for singing. The strength is in, I think, the lyrics and just speaking. It just comes from inside." Ultimately, she says, fiddling is the thing for her -- and not just any fiddling, but fiddling that promotes the Cape Breton style. "That's what makes me unique and I want to hold onto that. It's full of soul, it's full of fire and power and zest and it's so natural and so honest, it's such an honest music." "And I think we're just very fortunate in Cape Breton. For some reason it's maintained its very traditional sort of sound." The niece of influential Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster says the fiddle forms the core of any Cape Breton-style music. "If you took away even the drum section or the rhythm section with the drums and the bass and the piano and the guitar and all that, still the meat and potatoes is all there, just in the fiddle itself," she says. "It's a very rhythmical music and it's so closely associated with the dancing -- those steps are very much tied in with the rhythms pressed into the violin itself. ... It's very much dance music and very much an expression." Two of MacMaster's records have gone gold in Canada, and she's won her share of music industry awards. Most recently, she was named female artist of the year at the 1999 East Coast Music Awards. And earlier this year, she earned a Juno Award for best instrumental album, for "My Roots Are Showing." Although her album sales and near-constant touring schedule mean she's one of the most active proponents of Celtic music, she's modest enough to say the musical style doesn't need her to survive. "Celtic music will always be around, even if with the mainstream crowds it dies out," she says. "It doesn't matter if it's a fad or not, it will. It's been here for centuries and it will continue to live and thrive, especially in Cape Breton." ......................................................................................................................................... November 5, 1999Modernism Evolves In Fiddling Capital Jim McGuinness - The Bergen Record She's a traditionalist at heart. But the way fiddler Natalie MacMaster sees it, an artist should be allowed to add new ideas without losing hold of the old audience. A native of Canada's "fiddling capital" of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, MacMaster is very much in tune with the region's Celtic tradition (her uncle is influential Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster). But like her cousin and neighbor, fiddle sensation Ashley MacIsaac, she enjoys modern music and likes to incorporate some into her sound. "I love traditional music, and it's the bulk of what I do," MacMaster said in a recent phone interview. "But I also like a lot of other music and have a natural tendency to try different things. I don't want to feel stifled because of where I grew up." MacMaster's penchant for experimentation has helped make her a star in her homeland. At 27, she has already taken home six East Coast Music Awards (including 1999 female artist of the year), a 1999 Juno Award (best instrumental album), and two Canadian Country Music Awards (1997 and 1998 fiddler of the year). Her magnetic personality and delicate features have also led to Canadian television commercials, with the highlights being a national campaign for Tim Horton Donuts and a General Motors Pontiac spot where consumers were given a free MacMaster CD with a car stereo system. Meanwhile, MacMaster's vibrant stage show -- which includes backing by a five-piece, electric band -- makes her a must-see live performer. Like many Cape Breton fiddlers, MacMaster step-dances as she fiddles. She also throws in a few other moves, including an Appalachian clogging step called the wagon wheel, a few Irish steps, and a moonwalk that would make Michael Jackson proud. For MacMaster, who has been dancing since age 5 and fiddling since she was 9, it's a matter of keeping the audience in step with her music. "Step-dancing is part of our tradition," MacMaster said. "The other stuff I do, like the moonwalking, is just for show. I like to be an entertainer, so I throw those steps in for the entertainment value." MacMaster's yen to push the envelope can be heard on "In My Hands," her latest Rounder album. Produced by fellow Cape Bretonite Gordie Sampson, the album mixes a number of outside influences with MacMaster's Gaelic-based sound. "Blue Bonnets Over the Border," recorded with Holly Cole's band, has a cool jazz timbre, while "Flamenco Fling," which features Canadian Spanish-styled guitarist Jesse Cook, has an energetic Latin feel. MacMaster also utilizes electronic dance rhythms on the futuristic "Space Ceilidh." But the album's big surprise is the title track, which features MacMaster's first-ever vocal performance. On the cut, MacMaster recites a poem over a light hip-hop beat, interspersing the musical refrain from a traditional Irish reel known as "The Drunken Landlady." "I never wanted to become a singer and I still don't," MacMaster says. "But I always wanted to do some sort of vocal thing. I thought it would be cool for people to hear me speaking to them." MacMaster also ventured to Nashville to record with bluegrass star Alison Krauss. The collaboration with Krauss is interesting in that she, like MacMaster, has taken some heat in certain circles for veering away from her original artistic vision. "What really bothers me is when an artist starts in one place and people try to keep them there," MacMaster said. Despite her crossover potential, MacMaster is wary of straying too far from the traditional style she grew up with. At the same time, she tries to provide something for the non-traditionalists who might attend one of her shows. "I try to mix it up," she said. "Not everyone in the crowd is going to be a traditionalist. The coolest comment to me is when somebody comes up to me after a show and says, 'I don't like fiddle music, but I liked the show.' Usually they're there because somebody dragged them to the show -- and they come away being a new fan." .........................................................................................................................................
November
4, 1999 Germaine runs a bed and breakfast in the heart of Cape Breton Island's Acadian west coast. She's a booster of all things French, proudly directing my wife and I to the region's "best" food, woodcrafters and shopkeepers ... all French, but she has her standards. When I asked about Acadian musicians, Germaine smiled and said "Ah, the French fiddlers are good, but they're not Natalie." That would be Natalie MacMaster from the decidedly Scots branch of Nova Scotia's family tree. It's like this throughout the province, where MacMaster's fiddle licks waft from public sound systems and her videos line shop shelves. Anyone who's ever seen MacMaster knows why Nova Scotians of all ethnic stripes are so proud of their native daughter. For MacMaster, playing the fiddle is a total body experience. She not only plays flawlessly, she often breaks into step dancing in mid-bow. Think Michael Flatley with a fiddle and without the ego. Though MacMaster was dubbed a child phenomenon, recorded her first album at 16 and has wowed audiences around the world, she remains at heart a country girl. "I had the sense to go into recording young," she said, "and my promoters put me more in the public eye, but that's got more to do with publicity than ability. There's nothing special about me. There's lots more fiddlers like me around Cape Breton." Yeah, and there are lots of Rembrandts in the Riijksmuseum. But MacMaster is not modest to call attention to the island's musical riches. There are probably more fiddlers per capita on Cape Breton than anywhere else on the planet. Residents include luminaries like Jerry Holland, Howie MacDonald, the Rankins and Natalie's uncle, Buddy MacMaster. She hails from Troy, just across the narrow Canso strait separating Cape Breton from the Nova Scotia mainland. Troy is little more than a postage-sized village, but the community spirit of like-minded hamlets has kept musical traditions vital. Especially Scottish traditions. Many families settled there before the 1707 Treaty of Union that made Scotland part of Great Britain, and before Scots music was influenced by Victorian parlor stylings. Today Scots musicians come to the island to study their own indigenous traditions. "Cape Breton fiddling is different that what you hear in Scotland today," said MacMaster. "We have a 'backwards grace note' where instead of gracing the note above on the scale, we grace the one below." Islanders also play a "strathspey" a rhythmic melody favored by dancers that's nearly extinct in Scotland. Dance tempo so infuses the music that many, including MacMaster, learned step dancing before they picked up the bow. But heritage and luck will only take you so far. MacMaster has matured from a gangly teen who dazzled with rapid-speed jigs and reels into her current portrait of poise and grace. When I interviewed MacMaster in 1995, she expressed frustration with her command of slow tunes. When she took the stage at this summer's International Fiddles of the World Festival in Halifax, she opened with a slow air, holding an audience of several thousand silent while she patiently built the set. "As I've traveled I've gained more experience," MacMaster said. "I've had to learn to play with my hand in a different position to get the vibrato better. We don't concentrate on slow playing as much in Cape Breton because there's so much interest in dance." Just finding time to work on her art is a challenge; MacMaster is on the road well over 200 days a year. "I never systematically worked on playing slowly," she said. "I guess it's just a maturity thing." Her willingness to expand her musical horizons has paid off as well, especially her collaboration with Grammy award winner Mark O'Connor. "I first heard Mark's music eight years ago and I had never heard any fiddler like that in my life," MacMaster said. "It was like a flash: Technically he was a wizard and his tones were the smoothest and cleanest I had ever heard." MacMaster enrolled as a student in O'Connor's summer camp, but was asked to return as an instructor. She has done so every summer since and recorded a duet with O'Connor for her new Rounder album "In My Hands". That album sees MacMaster branching out in numerous ways. In addition to trademark jigs and reels, there are departures into everything from a spoken-word meditation to Flamenco and a postmodern bit of tradition-meets-techno called "Space Ceilidh". It's quite a contrast to her previous recording - to be released in the States in April - titled "My Roots Are Showing". That one featured traditional Cape Breton tunes served with consummate skill but minimal innovation. MacMaster insists that Cape Breton music is "dearer to my heart than anything else," but she wishes the purity-versus-innovation debate would just go away. "I'm from Cape Breton Island but I love all kinds of music," she said "I have to be aware of my audience. Those who understand traditional music would find two hours of it awesome, but it would just be awful to those who don't know it. I like to put some pizzazz into my performances to interest the ears of those who don't think they like fiddle music. But people get too caught up in the analysis. It's all music. Just listen and if you like it, great; if not, stop listening." No fear that MacMaster's audience will stop listening. But she's steadfast in how far she'll go. "If all you do is try to be 'worldly', where's your identity?" she asks. "What I do may not be traditional, but it's still valid. And if you take away the bass, the drums and the guitar, my fiddle is Cape Breton to the core." Just like Natalie MacMaster. .........................................................................................................................................
October
7, 1999 Natalie MacMaster has a cold. But the audience never would have guessed if the lively Maritime fiddler hadn't announced the unfortunate news, begged for sympathy and pointed to the tissues near her feet. But no lousy virus slowed her down when she took to the stage Wednesday at the Jack Singer Concert Hall for a raucous, toe-tappin', step-dancin', hand-clappin' Cape Breton kitchen party.
MacMaster,
27, concentrated on playing songs from her seventh and most recent
recording, In My Hands, including the dreamy fiddle-pop tune of the same
name, Blue Bonnets Over The Border and Welcome to the Trossachs (written
by her cousin, Wilfred Gillis). But she also She took the time to remind the audience that she and Canadian flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook have been nominated for a Gemini Award (to be announced Nov. 7) for their duet performance at this past spring's Juno Awards. Constantly on the move, MacMaster is an energetic performer who throws a step dance or two into every concert. Even one of her two keyboardists, Mac Morin, jumped up and danced for a tune. But MacMaster's between-song banter is every bit as entertaining as her music. She garnered plenty of laughs with silly stories and puns like "Did Juno, I won a Juno?" (She won one this spring for best instrumental album.)
At
one point, she even admitted that she's the same blond musician in a
popular Tim Horton's There was a down-home intimacy to the show that is seldom seen on a big stage, and the audience -- awestruck little girls, grandparents, families, couples on dates and fellow musicians -- lapped it up and clapped along. There probably wasn't a person in the crowd who wasn't completely charmed by her folksy mannerisms, fiery fiddling and lilting Cape Breton accent. Anyone who finds fiddle music old-fashioned and boring should be given a healthy dose of MacMaster's tunes (or better yet, one of her concerts.) ......................................................................................................................................... October 7, 1999Talent In Her Hands. Celtic Fiddler Natalie MacMaster Is The Master Of Putting An Audience At Ease By Lisa Walton - Calgary Sun
Her
laid-back stage presence and conversational manner charmed the
crowd of 1,300 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall last night.
Her
tall, slim frame was outlined by a blue backlight until a burst of
lights revealed her stylish stagewear: Loose-fitting black pants and a
draping, black sequinned halter top. ......................................................................................................................................... October 6, 1999Master Of Her Domain. Fiddling Is Her Passion, Her Destiny By Dave Veitch - Calgary Sun
It's
not exactly Love To Love You Baby, but Natalie MacMaster sounds like
she's in the throes of erotic rapture on the title track of her seventh
and latest album, In My Hands.
That
gramma was one wise lady. ......................................................................................................................................... October 5, 1999The Seduction of Natalie MacMaster Alison Mayes - Calgary Herald "I see your shape and I'm attracted," purrs a sultry Natalie MacMaster. "I touch your neck and I'm tempted. . ." What's this? The golden-haired sweetie-pie of Canadian Celtic music sounding as if she's dizzy with erotic desire? Well, yes, but the object of lust in MacMaster's first-ever vocal performance is, in fact, her fiddle.
In
My Hands, the title track on the Nova Scotian's seventh album, is a
seductive spoken ode to the instrument that initially fools the listener
into thinking she is "talking about a guy," as she says from a
tour stop in northwestern Ontario. The romantically
unattached MacMaster actually penned the above-quoted lines while
recalling the moment her grand-uncle Charlie gave her her first fiddle
when she was nine. It was an old, three-quarter-size instrument of
"As
soon as I saw it, I was attracted to its shape," she remembers.
"I was attracted to its size -- it was perfect for me. As soon as I
picked it up I had the desire to play it, right from the first
The
down-to-earth string goddess has nothing left to prove as a captivating
performer of the traditional Scottish reels, jigs, marches, airs and
strathspeys she learned while growing up in Cape Breton, as well as of
contemporary Celtic compositions. Her talent and lively persona
have taken her to stages around the world. She's in demand as a guest
fiddler with revered acts such as Ireland's The Chieftains. Her own
guests on In My Hands, released in Canada in August and south of the
border last month, include bluegrass superstar Alison Krauss, country
fiddle great Mark O'Connor, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon and
flamenco guitarist Jesse
MacMaster
step-dances as confidently as she plays. But she has never felt at ease
with using her voice, and she was determined to overcome that barrier by
recording the track In My Hands. "I've always wanted to do
something vocally," she says. "I wanted to tell people
something, and I knew it had to be something honest, that meant a lot to
me -- something I After tinkering with lyrics for several months, MacMaster asked her friend, Toronto singer-songwriter Amy Sky, to help her polish her ideas. East Coast musician-producer Gordie Sampson added the hypnotic music. The song mentions "the old times and old memories called to life beneath my bow." MacMaster, who is the niece of legendary fiddler Buddy MacMaster and the cousin of renegade bowmaster Ashley MacIsaac, never forgets the legacy of the rugged Cape Bretoners who came before her. "The music I have today comes from them. Through the years, fiddles have been passed down from generation to generation. There's a lot of stories in those fiddles, if they could ever talk."
Cape
Breton fiddling is a unique style, distinct from what is heard in
present-day Scotland. It's special enough that MacMaster has taught
classes in the style for the past six years at Mark
"The
best way is just to get both players to play the same tune -- then you'd
hear it," she says. "But if I had to explain it, there's a
rhythm -- a certain timing, a certain tempo, a certain pulse -- that's
very strong within all the tunes we play (in Cape Breton). I think it
comes from the ......................................................................................................................................... October 3, 1999Fresh Green Shoots From Deep Celtic Roots" By Craig Pulsifer - The Shuswap Harrier
Natalie
MacMaster may be on tour, but she is never far from her home.
The
conversation is so matter-of-fact that we all laugh in unison, like any
group of over a thousand people would, sitting around the kitchen table
on a Friday night. ......................................................................................................................................... October 2, 1999MacMaster Shines At Roots & Blues Festival By Craig Pulsifer - The Shuswap Harrier
Salmon
Arm was enraptured last night as Natalie MacMaster stepped gracefully
onto the stage playing a gentle Scottish air. The Cape Breton fiddler
has won accolades of praise internationally and was the headliner of the
8th Annual Roots and Blues Festival last night. .........................................................................................................................................
October
1, 1999 If you are going to talk about Cuban music, talk to a Cuban. Get it right the first time. Similarly, if you want to discuss Celtic music from Cape Breton, you had better consult a Cape Bretoner. It’s more than fidddles, jigs, and reels, although certainly violins and dance traditions run deep on the island. Muzik Etc. called on correspondent/musician Matthew Foulds who reports on Natalie MacMaster’s latest album, In My Hands. Writing an article about Natalie MacMaster ought to have been an easy assignment for me. Certainly, there is no shortage of material to write about. Everybody saw the twenty-seven year old artist on Canada Day, conducting the televised festivities on Parliament Hill. Add to that the records, touring, awards and all kinds of stuff with which writers have a ball. Furthermore, she has just released an album that will create a lot of talk. While it respects her Cape Breton background, it makes a few leaps into what some will say is unfamiliar territory. The problem is that Natalie and I grew up togetner. We’ve been friends for over ten years now and this poses a particular problem. How do I encapsulate all her mirth and intensity in a few pages. Furthermore how do I maintain objectivity? You see, Natalie is more than your average entertainer. She is a living tradition- a tradition of carrying the music of the common person to all walks of life. She is a vagabond minstrel, a world class performer and a fitting ambassador for Cape Breton. and its culture. And like other Cape Bretoners, even as she travels the world touring, her music and her heart resides at home. This is important when you consider her brutal schedule. One week she’s playing sold out concerts all in the United Kingdom and the next she’s playing a square dance at West Mabou Hall for 100 or so of loyal fans, just up the road from her Mom and Dad’s house. There’s a lot going on here. For Muzik Etc., I decided to focus mainly on her recent studio bouts in Canada, Scotland, and America. Natalie has four previous recordings that collectively have sold about 200,000 units. She is on three different record labels: WEA in Canada, Rounder in the U.S, and Greentrax in Europe. She has been a professional performer for over 3 years and she is only 27. She has played for the rich and famous, and for Presidents and Prime Ministers. “I’ve been trying to slow down for five years now,” she says. Actually, that is not immediately apparent, given she does 300 gigs a year. But the opportunities that arise are too significant for her to pass up. Just this last summer, she was touring Germany, boarded a plane for Ottawa to host the Canada Day celebrations, and then headed back to Germany the next day! Her touring band consists of some of the best musicians in Canada. Cape Bretoner Tom Roach plays drums, Chris Corriaan from P.E.I plays guitar, The ubiquitous John Diamond plays bass, while the most recent addition is 23 year old Cape Breton pianist Mac Morin. This crack unit is stretched to the limit at present. The musicians put on a lot of miles with Natalie, and she realizes there is little space left on her schedule to get busier. Her dilemma is that with the release of her latest recording In My Hands, things are destined to explode. I’ve been very lucky to be close to the making of the new record. I’ve worked with all the parties here, and producer, Gordie Sampson, is a close friend as well. I was nosy enough to see the progress from the pre-production straight through to the mastering session, overseen by Greg Calbi, at Sterling Sound in Manhattan. The seed was planted a year ago for Natalie and Gordie to work on this record. Although both have expressed a desire to collaborate in past, both have been too busy. What they did was to set time aside months in advance to ensure it would happen. Gordie’s knowledge of Celtic music and extraordinary musicality (see last year’s Muzik Etc profile) made him a sure bet for Natalie’s pre-production - although not necessarily as a producer. In fact, talk had turned to Larry Klein, Joni Mitchell’s ex-husband, and David Leonard. However, following meetings, Natalie was unconvinced that either would “get it” in the same way that the pre-production was going. Even a casual listen to Gordie’s album Stones confirms his command of both Celtic styles and firm pop background. Gordie accordingly took the reins. Enter engineer Jeff Wolpert, one of Canada’s finest. He was recommended by Steve Jordan Warner’s A&R rep. Natalie and Gordie jumped at the chance to work with him. The stars were in alignment as the trio started its first session at Cava Studios in Glasgow, Scotland. Talk about going to the “horse’s mouth!”. Their purpose was to record a couple of tracks with button accordion super-star, Sharon Shannon. Incidentally, Natalie and Sharon made a pact to appear on each other’s next record. If you listen to Spellbound, Sharon’s compilation LP, you’ll hear Ms MacMaster on a cut called “The Magic Foot.” A huge annual Celtic festival in Glasgow made the timing of this session perfect. A band was recruited from Britain’s elite traditional players. The rhythm section included Ray Fean on drums and James Blenerhassett on upright bass. Also accompanying Natalie and Sharon, were Laoise Kelly playing harp (not harmonica!) and Mary Shannon on mandolin and tenor banjo. After a week of music, drink, bonding - and some recording, too - the team headed to Toronto. Natalie recorded the majority of the album at McClear Pathe on Jeff Wolpert’s recommendation. Session man and veteran of Big Sugar, Al Cross plays drums on most of the tracks. Gordie hires Al frequently because his “attitude” - and the fact that power and finesse run neck in neck. Aaron Davis (Holly Cole, Manteca) played keyboards and did string arrangements. Next was Kevin Breit, who Natalie and Gordie checked out at Toronto’s Orbit Room. He showed up for the session with his Tele and a “guitorgan,” both which he used. Bass players included Toronto’s Scott Alexander and Maritimer Jamie Gatti. Rounding out the unit was George Coller (who also plays with Holly Cole) on upright bass and B3 expert Dennis Keldy. One of the sessions in McClear was like a Manteca reunion. Natalie has been using Latin rhythms and chord structures in the live show and decided to put together a selection for the record.
On
this material, Charlie Cooley plays drums behind Aaron Davis’ horn
arrangements, while Avolos plays percussion. Getting Mark O’Connor on board was coup. He has been reclusive of late. The fact that Natalie has taught at Mark’s fiddle camp for the last five years might have something to do with It. Surprisingly, Mark even made the trek to Cape Breton for an old time Ceilidh (house party) at the MacMaster household this past summer. He remarked on how much he enjoyed participating on the album and was excited at hearing all the old Cape Breton fiddle! tunes - especially in a Ceilidh, where they are at! their finest. Natalie met Allison Krauss at the Vancouver folk festival in ‘87. She’s always been a big fan, and tried to get her to sing on her “No Boundaries” record. They couldn’t seem to find the right song though - until they took a look at a Gordie Sampson/Fred Lavery tune called “Get Me Through December”. Allison loved it, to the point of bringing her brother Victor along to play bass on the session. Natalie says: “I’ve always wanted to express myself vocally, but I don’t consider myself a singer or a writer.” Gordie embarked on an experiment to satisfy that desire. What they came up with is the first single from the new record - “In My Hands.” Since Natalie had never written a song before, she did a lot of staring at empty pages, unsure about how to go about it. While in Toronto, she visited Amy Sky. They sat and wrote for a day, and came up with a creative way of looking at a fiddler and her fiddle. At first glance, it looks as if she is talking about nudging up to the opposite sex, but it’s not that at all. She mentions the tradition and cradling her fiddle, almost as if it were a newborn. There seems to be new light in Natalie these days. She has always been confident and gifted, but this time around she has become more true to herself. Natalie knows better what she wants to hear. On this record, she runs the gamut of styles, from traditional cuts to the dance mix- like “Space Ceilidh.” The result, she says is: “I enjoy playing music more than ever these days.” No question, the blood of generations of musicians and dancers runs through her veins, and although she respects tradition, her evolution is inevitable. Fiddlers today don’t sound like the fiddlers of a hundred years ago, although they still play the traditional tunes. These hold intensity equal to any of the musics of the world. There is a fiddler living today named Buddy MacMaster. He is Natalie’s uncle. An acknowledged artist on the instrument, he travels across America and to the Old Country to play Cape Breton music. It is widely held that he is the “King of fiddle players.” ... I guess that makes Natalie the “Princess.” .........................................................................................................................................
September
30, 1999 Life for Cape Breton's Natalie MacMaster isn't all glam and glory, concert halls and curtain calls. Sometimes there's damnable drudge work to be done, such as talking to the likes of me.
On
the day we spoke, MacMaster was holed up in London, Ont., working the
phone across the country, handling 15 back-to-back interviews in support
of a new album, In My Hands. ......................................................................................................................................... September 29, 1999MACMASTERFUL - Natalie MacMaster Is a Northern Star Ready to Shine By Kerry Dexter - Barnes & Noble Born to a family steeped in the Celtic-inspired music of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (her uncle Buddy MacMaster is considered a giant of the traditional style), Natalie MacMaster has brought the fiddle and step dancing of her childhood to audiences around the world. Touring with the Chieftains, sharing her Celtic charisma as opening act for Carlos Santana, MacMaster is already a star in Canada. On her latest release, In My Hands, she pushes the traditional envelope even further with original compositions, and counts on guest artists like fiddler Mark O'Connor, accordion player Sharon Shannon, nuevo flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook, and Grammy-winning vocalist Alison Krauss to fill out her vision. Deep in tour rehearsals, MacMaster took a break to speak with bn.com from her home in Cape Breton. Barnes and Noble: If you had to describe Cape Breton fiddling to someone who didn't know the style, what would you say? Natalie MacMaster: In my mind, its biggest asset is the rhythm. Somebody who doesn't know the music can certainly feel that. It's right there, the power and the lift in the tempo and the groove -- the feel of the music is just so strong. I think if you listen to the music, it's got a lot of spirit. It's raw -- there's nothing dainty about it at all. BN: The title cut, IN MY HANDS, is a pretty unusual song for you, with electronics and spoken word vocal. NM: It's an idea that I had tossing around in my head for the last year and a half or so. I just sort of worked on it here and there, but I never took it too seriously, never sat down and said, I need to write an amazing piece of music. I wrote some words down and I thought -- You know, maybe I can write some lyrics, maybe I could write a song to put on my next album. Should I make it a complete song? I'm not a singer, I thought. But there must be a way to do this -- I'll just say it! So that's what I did. There are some background vocals, and I'm doing those too -- which is a first. It's all a first. But the essence of the song is spoken. Writing songs with lyrics is not something I'm going to get into full swing on, but if I get inspired I can certainly see myself doing another one. BN: Whose music do you listen to? NM: Actually I was just listening to a CD of Donal Lunny, and I love Alison Krauss's new CD; I think it's just gorgeous. I listen to the Gypsy Kings and Sheryl Crow. When I want to get back to the roots, I get out old homemade tapes from parties and things, you know. I don't know if I should reveal this. I just bought a Backstreet Boys CD. I wanted their new single. BN: You grew up in a family of musicians, did you listen to other kinds of music while growing up? NM: When I was little, I didn't even know any other kind of fiddling existed really! But as far as singing goes, I listened to Anne Murray a lot as a kid, and then went through a Michael Jackson phase. BN: Your live shows are so electric -- how do you keep that energy when you are recording in the studio? NM: First of all, I absolutely adore both -- and being in the studio is just as much fun for me as being on the stage! What's good about the studio is that you have so much control and it's such a creative environment. That just excites me. The fiddle always sounds really good in the studio, and it's just inspiring to play. On the stage, you don't have those elements, but you do have the thrill of the live crowd, and if it's a festival, usually people are freakin' out, dancing and clapping and having a good time. That's what they're there for. It's very encouraging to me to play when I can see that. .........................................................................................................................................
September
27, 1999 In so many cases a musician's artistic growth comes down to finding their own musical voice, whether that voice comes through an instrument or directly from the vocal chords. At 27, Natalie MacMaster has pretty much mastered the instrumental angle, drawing on her Cape Breton roots to become one of the best known fiddler-bandleaders in Canada (she's a snappy stepdancer too, known for bowing and stepping all at once when she chooses to). Now on her newly released platter In My Hands (her fourth disc with Warner Music Canada) she tries out singing, and her fiddle bows into some pretty unusual territory, especially on the Celtic hip-hop style Space Ceilidh (that's kay-lee, as in a dance party). The album's opening title track is a bold reworking of a traditional number called The Drunken Landlady with lyrics co-written by MacMaster and Amy Sky. A musical arrangement by producer Gordie Sampson feels akin to electronic dance grooves despite the presence of two drummers. MacMaster first speaks and then sings the words, along with a mix of her own treated vocal samples. During a recent interview over pots of tea this scribe asked if she felt nervous about doing a vocal track for the first time and MacMaster's face winced at the memory: "It was very intimidating at first, but in the end I really enjoyed the experience. It was challenging for me to do. I enjoy something different and the unexpected. So if I get some more ideas about vocal tracks I'll certainly entertain them and if they go somewhere great. If they don't that's fine too." Don't expect to hear a lot of her vocals in the future, and MacMaster says she has no immediate interest to follow her cousin Ashley MacIsaac into the pop music sphere either. "I'm not aspiring to become a vocalist and I'm not really comfortable singing. I don't think I'm that great a singer. The fiddle is my number one thing and I'm much better at that than anything else, but who knows? Five years ago if someone suggested a vocal on a CD I would have said 'No way.' " She remains enthusiastic about working with other artists, and the new album also sees MacMaster bowing with guitarist Jesse Cook on something called Flamenco Fling, with American fiddler Mark O'Connor, and with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, not to forget a tune with Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon. "Collaborations with different artists totally get me going. It's so cool to hear two different styles that nobody would expect to fit together, to just go and work something out and presto, you come up with kind of a new sound. I would like to work with artists not just from Cape Breton but from anywhere." She couldn't bring those special guests on tour with her this fall but tonight's concert at the Winspear will feature a five-member backup band and some of her first attempts to translate the new album to live performance. MacMaster is confident that she can pull it off, reflecting her already long experience in music making. Both her parents played music, her uncle Buddy MacMaster is a noted fiddler, and MacMaster allows that in Cape Breton where she grew up. "There must be more fiddlers per capita there than anywhere else, and dancing and Gaelic singing." She started playing a small fiddle at age nine and made her first independent tape release at 16. Three years after that she took the best Roots/Traditional Artist title in the East Coast Music Awards, and soon found herself opening for Carlos Santana and The Chieftains on tour overseas before she eventually signed with Warner Music Canada in 1996. They re-released her 1993 debut disc Fit As A Fiddle and a compilation of two early tape albums (you can also find her guesting on The Chieftains' Canadian project Fire In The Kitchen and on their women's disc Tears Of Stone). The 1997 recording No Boundaries offered the first hints that MacMaster was made of more than just jigs and reels (winning three more East Coast Music Awards and a JUNO nomination too). Last year's My Roots Are Showing marked a return visit to more traditional fare but In My Hands has blown the doors wide open in a whole bunch of different directions. Says MacMaster: "In the end I don't think I'm perceived as being a musician in any one category per se. People know that I play traditional music and that I do other stuff, too. It feels like the door is open to me." .........................................................................................................................................
September
19, 1999
At the Delaware Valley Festival in Woodstown, New Jersey, 'iBluegrass' was able slow Natalie down long enough to gather some of the information her United States fans have been inquiring about. She shares details of her musical family, her love of her homeland music, her unique blend of traditional and contemporary stylings and what the future holds for this talented, vivacious musician. Debbie: Many of your U.S. fans don't yet know much about your background. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood and how your family influenced your musical career. Natalie: Both my parents are very musical. My father's brother, my uncle, is Buddy MacMaster and is the most well known of the Cape Breton fiddlers. He's about 75 and still playing brilliantly. All of my dad's brothers and sisters play. My grandparents played, but they sing and dance more so. My mother's a great step dancer and taught me to dance when I was five. Some of her family also dances. Her mother was a jigger of tunes. She knew all of these tunes and she would jig them...sing them. Her father was a great dancer. The community of Cape Breton itself is very musical. The music is very focused on traditional music that includes all fiddles, pianos and guitars. It's the traditional style of Scottish music, although it has it own blend now. Debbie: When were you first exposed to bluegrass? Natalie: The first time was when I heard Alison Krauss. I first met her at a festival in Vancouver. We participated in a fiddle workshop together, but at the time I didn't know she sang. It wasn't until a couple of years later that a friend of mine had a cassette of hers. She told me it was Alison and I said, 'Oh, my gosh, I didn't know she sang.' I always thought singing was her second thing. I didn't realize her singing IS Alison. I really got into her music. There's not a lot of bluegrass down home. We actually just started doing bluegrass festivals. It's difficult to put us in with a bluegrass crowd because we're not bluegrass. Sometimes it's tough coming to the festivals because it's so different. We just didn't know what to expect. We've done this festival, Delaware Valley, Winterhawk and Merlefest.
Debbie:
Have you been surprised at how well you've been accepted at the Natalie: Yeah, I have actually because it's quite a different style. When you're used to one style of music, just hearing another one in the midst of that other style can sometimes be hard to get used to. Debbie: Bluegrass traditionalists can be hard to please, but you certainly seem to hold their attention. Natalie: That's really cool to hear. Good! Debbie: Can you talk about your first professional work? Natalie: I started when I was nine and my first gig was when I was ten. It was a little community hall and I did a little number. It was a good experience and I remember not being nervous. I think I made twenty bucks. (laughter) Since then I've kept doing the community circuits. It didn't take long for the news to travel that Buddy MacMaster's niece played the fiddle. I got lots of gigs when I was kid. Debbie: Since then you've worked with the likes of Santana and the Chieftains. Can you tell us about those experiences? Natalie: We actually just opened for Santana. We didn't get to tour with them. That was amazing, though. It was the biggest crowd we played to...80,000 people. We got to tour with the Chieftains for about three weeks. I also recorded a couple of albums with them. They are just fabulous to work with. Debbie: You also do a lot of work with Mark O'Connor and his fiddle camp? Natalie: I do. Every year I go down to the fiddle camp and help teach. I started out there as a student six years ago. Mark heard me playing and said he wanted to have Cape Breton taught. Actually, Mark and I recorded together on my new album. The very last tune I played tonight, 'The Olympic Reel,' he wrote and is on the new CD. Alison Krauss also sings on the new project. Debbie: That new project is called 'In My Hands,' correct? Natalie: Yes, that's right. Debbie: It has already been released in Canada, but will not be released until later this month in the U.S.? Natalie: Yes, September 14th. Debbie: On the new CD you've included very diverse musical choices. Can you talk about what went into choosing the pieces? Also, what are you trying to convey to listeners with those choices?
of thing. My attention span is short so, I like to keep changing things up all the time. It's fun and exciting. It's sort of new all the time. I did some numbers and ideas I had been toying with for a couple of years. It's very exciting when you're in the studio developing new things. There is also a lot of traditional stuff on there, too. It also includes the first vocal track I've ever done. It's sort of a contemporary tune. There's a flamenco tune on there, an Irishy track featuring Sharon Shannon and some nice ballads. So, there's a wide variety. Debbie: You've recently won a couple of awards. One was the 1999 Female Artist of the Year award from the East Coast Music Awards, as well a Juno award. Natalie: Yes, I won the Juno for best instrumental album. Debbie: If you were asked how you classify your music, what would your response be? Natalie: I would classify it as very Cape Breton at the core. If you were to strip everything else away, for the most part, I'm playing Cape Breton fiddle. The rest is more or less stuff to keep it exciting and fast paced. To keep it fresh so that a listener, who didn't grow up in Cape Breton and may not know the music from there, can go to one of my concerts anywhere in the world and feel they understand the music. Basically, I'm trying to make the music a bit more accessible to everyone. Michael: What are some of the differences you find playing at bluegrass festivals as opposed to playing at other venues with groups such as the Chieftains. Do you find the audiences to be different? Natalie: I find bluegrass festivals are just that, they're bluegrass. They are VERY focused. With the other festivals and venues I play there's more diversity in the types of music being played. Some of them are more world music festivals. Bluegrass festivals, I think, tend to be a rarity in that they are so very focused. Michael: You're very animated on stage. Is that something that is just a natural extension of your music and the feeling it gives you? Or does it to help you convey the joy you feel to the audience? Natalie: It's just really my own thing. It's something that happens only on stage. I'm an entertainer and I want the people to enjoy themselves. If the crowd gets excited I just want them to know I'm right there with them. I really like to bond with the audience. I really feed off a crowd. When I'm home playing alone or in front of a few people I'm not anywhere near as rambunctious. (laughter) I'm not up dancing on the table or anything. Actually, my favorite way to play is sitting down. But if you sit down on stage to play you tend to be in your own little world. It becomes more for yourself than playing for the crowd. I just like to get into it...it helps make people feel alive with the music. Michael: Do you find that being an instrumentalist combined with your age and gender you've encountered any kind of walls? Or do you think people have been more willing to listen because of that? Natalie: I haven't noticed anything either way. Not at all an issue. Debbie: What does the future hold for Natalie MacMaster? Natalie: I'm just going to continue touring. I'd like to cut it down a bit. It's hard to keep up, with all the time we're on the road now. I love recording and I want to keep working on the traditional stuff. I also want to continue working on the experimental stuff. I love doing the festival circuit in the summer time and then doing the theatres in the winter. I also do some commercials at home. Things like that come up that are different and aside from the music, yet connected to the entertainment business. Debbie: That's great! Thanks for taking the time to talk with 'iBluegrass.'
Natalie:
Thank you! ~ Photos by Priscilla Warnock ~ ......................................................................................................................................... September 16, 1999Fiddlin' Around By Bartley Kives - Winnipeg Free Press Whoa there, Natalie MacMaster - we realize you've never really had the chance to speak, what with all the fiddling you do on your instrumental albums. But one thing we didn't expect from your first attempt at a lead vocal was the following set of sultry lyrics: "I see your shape and I'm attracted / I touch your neck and I'm tempted / I feel the spirit the lies within / When I hold you in my hands." All right, so it's not the stuff of pulp romance novels. But the lyrics for In My Hands are downright racy for the Celtic music superstar familiar to most Canadians as a gracious Girl Next Door. "Although it can fool the listener into thinking I'm talking about a man, I'm actually not," says MacMaster from her apartment in Halifax. "Those lyrics are totally coming from the viewpoint of my music. I'm basically talking about how the first time I saw my instrument, I was attracted to it." Ode to a French violin That's right - In My Hands is an ode to a 1927 Marc LeBert French violin. Besides, Natalie MacMaster probably doesn't have time for a man in her life, thanks to a touring schedule that makes hard-driving Stompin' Tom Connors look like a slacker. The fiddler has already played more than 200 concerts so far this year and is expected to play 250 gigs before Y2K. And when you add in the recording of her new album, In My Hands, MacMaster can definitely vie for the title of Hardest Working Woman in the Canadian Entertainment Biz. "I think it's true. But I'm working hard to change it, though. I'd like to be the 'Not-as-busy-as-she-used-to-be entertainer in the business," she jokes. "It's been like this for the last three years. Next year, I'll try to be a bit more selective and try to limit myself. Instead of playing 250 shows, I'll maybe do 200." Deserves to rest MacMaster deserves to sit back and rest on her laurels for a while. Now 27, she spent most of the 1990s working to establish Celtic music as more than an East Coast regional curiosity. But while acts such as Newfoundland's Great Big Sea and Cape Breton's Ashley MacIsaac fully embraced rock sounds and audiences, MacMaster remained more traditionally Celtic - until now, with the crossover sounds found on In My Hands. The title track is the MacMaster song to show up on mainstream pop radio, thanks to the Robbie Robertson-esque feel of the fiddler's half-spoken, half-sung lyrics, which were co-written by pop tunesmith Amy Sky. "The inspiration for it came from just wanting to express myself verbally for a change," MacMaster says. "I thought it would be so fresh if I could actually speak to the crowd." Besides Sky, other musicians who contributed to In My Hands include flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook ("that guy can play more notes per second than anyone I've ever met") and American fiddler Alison Krauss, who lends her vocals to Get Me Through December. Both fiddlers have seen their careers follow similar paths. MacMaster and Krauss are both traditionalists who've veered toward more contemporary sounds on their latest albums. "My manager and I were talking about this - the song she sang on my album could easily have been on her album," says MacMaster of Krauss. "But we've never had any discussions about trying to make the music more acceptable for people who don't necessarily know anything about the traditions." An American artist like Krauss could only dream of achieving the sort of widespread exposure that MacMaster enjoys in Canada, where roots music is more mainstream. At the same time, Canadian folkies have reason to be jealous of their American counterparts, MacMaster says. "They can stay in their own country and play there forever because they never have to travel outside of it. Their country is so big and full of people and opportunities to play, much more so than in Canada. "The Celtic festivals down there are enormous. They're unbelievable - they're like huge rock concerts or something." MacMaster also spends a lot of time in Europe. She spent the first part of September in Denmark and a good chunk of the early summer in Great Britain. In Ireland, she performed on her birthday in small pub, where Prime Minister Jean Chretien was holding a reception. He, in turn, gave her flowers and a peck on the cheek. "I got more star-struck with Jean Chretien than I did for anyone else, except for Celine Dion. He has such a presence," MacMaster beams. But the big question is: What did the Little Man From Shawinigan drink? "Geez, you know what? I don't think he had a drop of anything in his hand. He was only there for about 15 minutes. "I dunno. He probably had a Guinness." .........................................................................................................................................
September
14, 1999
After
sizzling, smoking and step-dancing her way around the Western Fair
grandstand last night, Cape Breton fiddle superstar Natalie MacMaster
isn't about to bow out of the London region just yet. ......................................................................................................................................... September 9, 1999Getting Her Master's Greg Burliuk - Whig-Standard Natalie MacMaster performs at the Celtic Festival at Fort Henry on Sunday The ninth annual Celtic Festival at Fort Henry this year features two headliners whose careers are undergoing creative growth spurts.
The
nine members of Leahy, a family act from Lakefield, have just spent the
summer opening for Shania Twain and are currently working on the
follow-up album And Natalie MacMaster (another Juno winner) has just released her fifth album, In My Hands, which showcases her as much more than a fiddler of traditional Cape Breton Island tunes. Leahy performs Saturday at 2 p.m at the Fort while MacMaster plays exactly 24 hours later. "This is a just a natural progression for me," says MacMaster of her new album. "It wasn't something that was calculated as trying to stretch the boundaries. These were just things that I was dying to do. This is a more mature album musically." "I was originally intending to do this album before my last one, My Roots Are Showing, which was very traditional; but I didn't quite have the goods for it then." There is still a heavy dose of traditional music on In My Hands, but MacMaster also experiments. She brought in flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook to do a song called Flamenco Fling; Space Ceilidh takes two traditional tunes and gives them a modern edge; while Olympic Reel is a blazing country song written by her friend and Nashville studio ace, Mark O'Connor. Angel-voiced Nashville star Alison Krauss sings on another track. The biggest new thing, however, is that MacMaster speaks for the first time on a recording. That song, the title track, has been made into a video that is both haunting and sexy.
"I
thought I'll write this lyric and it might be good or it might suck
really bad," says MacMaster. "Then I called Amy Sky just out
of the blue. I met her a couple of weeks before and she's a great writer
and a good person to collaborate with. I left her place feeling not bad
about it. Amy wrote one of the verses. Then I took it to my producer
Gordie Sampson and he came "Then it came time for me to record it and I thought I really don't want to do this. I did one take and it near killed me. I gave it to Steve Jordan (former Kingston DJ and currently an A&R talent scout for WEA Music) and he loved it. So I went ahead and recorded it again." How come MacMaster didn't sing the vocals? "I'm not a singer," she says. "I've got pitch, but as far as having a nice singing voice, I know I don't." In the end, MacMaster had two ultimate arbiters: her parents. "If it doesn't pass the parent test, I won't put it out," says the 27-year-old. "I value their opinions because they're open-minded. So far, they've liked everything I've done." MacMaster performs 250 times a year which, when you add in all the other business requirements she needs to look after, leaves her precious little free time. "I'm flat-out booked until mid-December but then I want to take some time for myself," she says. "It's been a long time since I've had proper rest." The fiddler has also added a fifth member to her band. "I now have two piano players," she says. "The new one plays Hammond organ and a bit of accordion and does more contemporary stuff, while the other one is a Cape Breton traditional- style piano player. "Also for the first time my drummer will have a full kit rather than the smaller cocktail kit he used before." One of the highlights of a Natalie MacMaster concert has always been the point where the band leaves the stage and she plays a solo blazing fiddle song. "That tune is called The Tullochgorum and I've played that tune every concert for six years," she says. "It's very unique. It has 16 parts and is a very flashy piece, but I'm sick of it. I'm going to try some other songs in its place but it's so unique, I don't know if I'll be able to replace it." ......................................................................................................................................... September, 1999Career In Hand, Celtic Fiddler Looks To Past, Present And Future Of Her Life Atlantic Gig Magazine She's been called one of the hardest working performers around. By her own admission Natalie MacMaster burns out members of her band who have to be replaced, not because they don't like her, but because they can't keep up. "I burn out band members like underwear" says Macmaster. That schedule is unlikely to change any time soon. MacMaster will be living out of a suitcase until sometime in February. It is something almost unheard of in the music industry these days. The years of long grueling tours are all but over. Over that is, except for Natalie MacMaster. Her touring schedule is so intense that she won't be conducting a formal swing through Atlantic Canada until February 2000. Asked why she is waiting just over half a year for a formal return to Atlantic Canada, MacMaster says she wants the best for her fans in this part of the world. "Everytime we started a tour we always began in Halifax, or at least in Atlantic Canada" says MacMaster. "That meant fans in Atlantic Canada were almost tests. The band was new. The material was new. This time Atlantic Canada will enjoy the benefits of a six-month tour. We will be tight. Really tight by the time we get back here. We are tight now with the material on this tour and that's the kind of material I want to bring to Atlantic Canada with the In My Hands tour." The In My Hands tour will be a bit different for MacMaster. Her new CD, scheduled to be on shelves on August 24th, will mean a bit of a shift for the Cape Breton fiddler. Her soundman will have to put more attention into the microphone in front of MacMaster. On the first track of her new recording MacMaster adds vocals. Her own vocals. But it wouldn't be entirely correct to say MacMaster sings on this recording. "I sort of sing." says MacMaster. "I don't have the pressure of singing as such and varying my vocals, it's different." MacMaster's vocal work is more a combination of spoken word - a la Lou Reed - and ethereal harmonies in the background. Throw a bit of telephone voice vocal sound and a whole lot of fiddle and you have an idea of what this song is all about musically. MacMaster says she wanted to try something different on this recording. "The root of it is this - I always wanted to do a vocal track, but I don't sing" says MacMaster. "As we got into it I said 'I'm so uncomfortable with it I'm scrapping it'. We got into the studio and I said 'I'm scared, I don't want to do this'. But when we recorded it I said 'Wow, this is cool'". Radio stations seem to think it's "cool" as well. The first single "In My Hands" is already in medium rotation at radio stations across the country. At least two more tracks on the CD are targeted for airplay. The next single, "Get Me Through December", features Yaz's Alison Krauss on vocals, and surprisingly little fiddle work. This leads to the question of whether this CD was recorded more to move MacMaster's career into the world of radio airplay. MacMaster says No. "This is my best album yet, but to get there I didn't go out to make a radio friendly CD" says MacMaster. "I always wanted to have radio acceptance, but I wasn't going to change to get it. I am playing the same way I did when I was 20." Now at 27, MacMaster may not think her music has changed, but it is clear that after five solo recordings and numerous compilation appearances, that the music is more solid. Glenn Meisner of CBC's studio H commented on that change in a recent interview. "I still think her first CD - Fit As A Fiddle - is her strongest," says Meisner. "Maybe that's because I recorded it and I know the work she put into it. But for me that CD was MacMaster and nothing more". Whether or not MacMaster or her producers intended to record a radio-friendly project, Warner Music (her record company) seems happy. Her slick looking promotional package is proof enough of that. "This is the most attention I've seen Warner put into packaging for a domestic release" says Warner's Atlantic manager John Poirier. "Warner is happy with this project". In My Hands is a long way from two cassettes (now available on CD called A Compilation) released before what many consider to be her first recording, Fit As A Fiddle. MacMaster has matured. She takes risks. As most musicians do, she has added the talents of other stellar musicians. In My Hands includes the sparkling guitar of Toronto's Jesse Cook, the vocals of Alison Krauss, Ireland's Sharon Shannon, and the producing and arranging of Gordie Sampson. Mature playing. Radio friendly songs. A first class line-up of performers. That means more touring for MacMaster. More time away from home. Just as the last tour is winding down in the United States (where MacMaster has always spent a great deal of time touring), MacMaster is preparing to spend three days in Halifax at the beginning of September preparing for her new tour. A tour that starts one day later in Kingston, Ontario. From there, MacMaster will be going after the central Canadian market, and then into the United States again for a few months. With the exception of October's Celtic Colours Festival it is unlikely MacMaster will see much of home. She says that's hard. "I don't have another life" says MacMaster. "I wake up every morning in a different hotel. I miss my family. I miss my apartment. But I don't want any other life. This is the life I want. I don't have anyone or anything to tie me down at home at the moment so I want to take advantage Of it while I can. I can't expect all these wonderful things to happen to me without some kind of sacrifice." It's not clear what keeps MacMaster going. She doesn't know herself. "My Mother is praying for me, that's for sure" says MacMaster. "That's the only explanation I have". MacMaster doesn't plan to give up the sacrifices just yet. In the future, she hopes to spend more time at home, but no less time recording. Thus far, years of grueling tour schedules have not stopped her or tired her out. She says in all the years of touring, there has only been one time touring affected her performance, and she doesn't think the audience noticed. That was two years ago. Since then everything has been a constant stream of high energy. Although she may not remember the colour of the walls in her Halifax apartment, she hopes to slow down in the spring. She has already told her manager, Andre Bourgeois, that after her next tour finishes in February she wants more time off. Click to view photo of Natalie on the cover of Atlantic Gig Magazine ......................................................................................................................................... September, 1999Natalie MacMaster: Following in the Footsteps of Some Powerful Traditions Catholine Butler - Celtic Connection On a gloriously sunny day in July, I sat on the patio at the Granville Island Hotel and talked to Natalie MacMaster. The 27-year old fiddle and step-dancing sensation from Cape Breton, who was most recently named "Female Artist Of The Year" at the 1999 East Coast Music Awards, was in Vancouver to promote her new CD titled Natalie MacMaster In My Hands. Natalie is like a breath of fresh Atlantic air, with an easy-going, friendly personality, and even with all her world travels, she still has her distinctive, unmistakable east coast accent. I spoke to her about the influences in her music and she said, "I'm of Scottish background and both my mother and father come from a long line of musicians. "My two older brothers are very musical. My uncle is the famed fiddle player Buddy MacMaster and my mother was a step-dancer when she was younger and she taught me to dance when I was five years old. Mom's got old recordings of me when I was four years old singing an Anne Murray song called Hey What About Me." "I started to play the fiddle when I was nine years old and went on to take fiddle lessons. I did my first concert when I was 10 years old and things just went from there with bookings and festivals. My first album was recorded when I was 16 and the second album at age 18. At 20, I recorded Fit As A Fiddle and by that time, the record companies were starting to show an interest in my work. Also, The Rankin Family had just signed a recording deal and were very popular, so there was a big interest in east coast music." "Before I got my driver's license at home, my parents drove me to engagements everywhere, sometimes through storms to Halifax, which is a three-hour drive both ways and back the same night if I had to be somewhere else the next day. They certainly sacrificed themselves but they enjoyed it too. They enjoy watching their daughter play and they're very proud of my achievements. Now that I'm playing all over the place there's no way they can come on the road with me, but we're in touch every day." In recent years, so many successful musicians have emerged from the Maritimes and I wondered to what Natalie attributed this vast pool of music talent. Was it maybe upbringing or Celtic roots or a combination of both? She replied, "I think the Maritimes is a nice place to bring up children. It's not too big and it's community-orientated and family-based and all that sort of thing. It's hard to generalize but certainly there's something going on, because there are tons of musicians and bands coming from there." "I think maybe it's that there is not a lot of distractions and we're pretty focused. For instance, I went to school with fiddler player Ashley MacIsaac, we're neighbours, living just a few houses apart." Since her success, Natalie has toured extensively overseas in addition to North America. She said, "I've done the U.K. a million times. I've toured Scotland, England, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, New Zealand and Japan. I loved playing in Ireland. All the musicians do. I played in Dublin, Sligo and Belfast. "I've played in Scotland several times and I feel the strongest connection there than any other place I could go to....I mean, that's where I came from. So, in a sense, you're taking it back home." "Canada Day was also a big one for me, I've wanted to do that since I was a kid. It was just wonderful this year. Ottawa was amazing. There were a 100,000 people there, in spite of the rain. The Juno Awards were another highlight for me. I've always wanted to play at the Junos. The fact that I won an award was another huge deal. Playing with Pavorotti was also a big thrill." "But, home is still the best place of all the places anywhere. If I have time to spend, my answer is always...spend it at home. Home is awesome." Another milestone for Natalie was working with The Chieftains and recording in Nashville. She said, "I recorded with the Chieftains on their latest album Tears of Stone, and they are the guys! They are so together. They've been together for 35 years, and they've got their act down. They're solid, inspirational, and they don't try to be something they're not. They're not full of it. They're just The Chieftains. And, that's why they've had such lasting power." "I also recorded in Nashville and I just think Nashville is so cool. I really, really like it down there. The people are great, they're so friendly and it feels like a small town with a lot of music. Obviously, I love Nashville because I'm a big music person and Nashville is full of music...it's just so perfect. I just want to keep recording. I'm already thinking about my next CD. I love the recording studio and there are so many ideas." "I just finished working at the Mark O'Connor fiddle school. It's 45-minutes outside Nashville in Montgomery Bell State Park and teachers and students spend a week in this very secluded, private park. It's a wonderful place for the kids, and anybody can go there. The ages attending were from six to 65." With a gruelling schedule ahead of her, MacMaster has to stay focused and healthy. She said, "I was just thinking today thank God I'm not sick because I have no time to be sick, let alone see a doctor ...it's just ridiculous. I think its my mother's prayers for me while I'm on the road." Natalie remains single at the moment since she wouldn't have time for a relationship but she said, "That's OK, because as everyone tells me I've got plenty of time. One day I'd like to have some youngsters to teach, since I have a teacher's certificate." In the meantime, audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy the tremendously talented musician as she continues to record and perform at venues across the country. .........................................................................................................................................
August
28, 1999 TORONTO - A loading musical figure in her native Canada, 27 year-old fiddler Natalie MacMaster is seeking a U.S breakthrough with her sixth set "In My Hands". The album is due Thursday (24th) in Canada from WEA and Sept.28 in the U.S from Rounder Records. It was issued August 1 in most European territories by Greentrax Recordings. Produced by Gordie Sampson, "In My Hands" is a significant departure from MacMaster's sparse 1998 set "My Roots Are Showing", which earned her a Canadian Juno award earlier this year for top instrumental album. "In My Hands" combines both traditional Cape Breton, Nova Scotia fiddling songs and contemporary originals, featuring MacMaster's first-ever vocal performance. Also appearing are U.S fiddler Mark O'Connor, Canadian guitarist Jesse Cook, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon, and a vocal by a fellow Rounder artist, bluegrass sensation Alison Krauss. "It's a beautiful record" says Paul Foley, VP of sales and marketing at Rounder. "Between Natalie's vocal track and her duet with Alison Krauss, this album is our opportunity for a breakthrough in the U.S"
MacMaster
acknowledges that it was her idea to do the vocal on this title cut. Shipped to Canadian radio July 12, the title track entered the broadcast data systems-derived pop adult radio chart at No. 71. "Warner had never serviced us with Natalie MacMaster product before" says Jay Lawrence, music director of Top 40 CKRL Ottawa. "we added it right away". In Canada, being at the forefront of a surge of interest in Cape Breton fiddle music the past five years, as well as touring increasingly and being featured in a national TV commercial for Tim Horton doughnuts, has led MacMaster going from a regional attraction to a national star. MacMaster, who began stepdancing when she was 5, started playing fiddle at 9. As a teenager, she independently released two cassette-only albums "Four On The Floor" (1989) and "Road To The Isle" (1991), which each sold 12,000 united in the Maritime region, says Candy Higgins, domestic marketing manager at Warner Music Canada. MacMaster's first WEA release "Fit As A Fiddle" (1992) has sold 65,000 unites to date in Canada, according to Higgins. It was followed by "No Boundaries" (1997) which has sold 70,000 unites and "My Roots Are Showing" (1998) with 40,000 unites. 'A Compilation" , a 1996 set of repertoires from MacMaster's indie cassettes, has sold 15,000 unites since being issued. "Natalie sells very consistently" says Higgins. "Ontario and the Maritimes are the strongest markets, but she sells well across the country". To date, Rounder has issued "A Compilation", "No Boundaries" and "Fit As A Fiddle". MacMaster's U.S profile has increased over the past two years from festival appearances, as well as from recording and touring with the Chieftains (she appeared on their "Tears Of Stone" album) and she's also opened shows for Carlos Santana in the U.S. "We think we have a real shot at Triple-A with the track" says Foley, noting that the album's title cut will go to U.S radio in late September. "Natalie has had NPR airplay, and we will go there again".
The
Krauss duet "Get Me Through December" should also provide
MacMaster with further U.S exposure. "It's a natural match"
says Rounder president John Virant. Relatively isolated from outside influences, Cape Breton, which had steady immigration from Scotland between 1798 and the 1840's, remains the heartland of Scottish culture in Canada. Cape Breton's raw fiddling style, which MacMaster was exposed to while growing up, draws on a Highland Scotland fiddling repertoire of airs, strathspeys, marches, jigs, reels and hornpipes from the 18th and 19th centuries but differs significantly from what is generally found in present-day Scotland.
MacMaster
was also heavily influenced by the the playing of such old-timers as her
uncle Hugh "Buddy" MacMaster, Angus Chisolm, Dan J. Campbell,
Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald and Dan Rory MacDonald. Despite the layered arrangements of some of the tunes, MacMaster says that because of the rigid nature of Cape Breton music, her album is not that much of a departure from her previous recordings. "I'm not an experimenter" she says "Cape Breton fiddle music is such that you can add cuts and grace notes, but you stick close to the way the tune was written. I can, of course, play other accents too. On 'Olympic Reel', with Mark O'Connor, for example, I altered my style to the way he plays. If I had played naturally, it wouldn't have fitted." While MacMaster has a home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she's only spent about 100 hours there since the beginning of the year. She doesn't expect to be home much until July 2000 while she is supporting the album. "My schedule is just crazy" says MacMaster. "The offers are getting better and better". ......................................................................................................................................... August 24, 1999"Natalie New Album Is In Good Hands" By Deena Waisberg - Music Editor, Chapters Online Natalie MacMaster loves to experiment. “It’s exciting to create something new with my music,” she says. And that’s exactly what she’s done with her new album, In My Hands. With traditional fiddle songs as a starting point, she has incorporated touches of jazz, street grooves and Latin rhythms into her new release. After selecting the songs she wanted to use, MacMaster asked musicians working in different genres to play on the album. “I selected the guest artists according to the tunes. For “Flora MacDonald,” I wanted someone who could give it a jazzy feel. So I asked Aaron Davis of the Holly Cole Trio if he would play piano,” says MacMaster. When MacMaster and her guest artists get together with their instruments, the fun begins. “The original concept can change once you start playing. When you are recording, you don’t know what’s going to happen in an hour,” she says. Once in a while, she’ll change her plans entirely if she hears something absolutely fantastic. “When we were in Scotland recording with Sharon Shannon, we heard a song at six o’clock one morning and I knew we had to use it,” she says. It was incorporated into the medley song “The Farewell.” MacMaster decided she wanted Gordie Sampson to produce In My Hands. “He understands my traditional side but doesn’t want to limit me to it,” she says. Sampson is also from Cape Breton and their shared background was an asset. Although, MacMaster is firmly grounded in her roots, she now travels extensively. When she is at home, MacMaster likes to put on a new CD (such as Alison Krauss's Forget About It) and go for a drive in her car. But she won’t have time for that this fall. She’ll be on the road, touring throughout Canada and the U.S. MacMaster isn’t complaining though because she’s more than eager to share her new album. “This album is my most mature, most musical, most everything". ......................................................................................................................................... August 22, 1999"Fiddler's Voice" - MacMaster Pushes Boundaries Again By Sandy MacDonald -- The Daily News
I
see your shape and I'm attracted What's up with Nat? Too long on the road in lonely hotels? The brilliant young fiddler is writing love songs, and steamy ones, at that - about temptation, touching and passion. "It was inspired entirely by my fiddle," insists Natalie MacMaster, over a borrowed cellphone from her hotel room in Wisconsin. She's explaining about the title track and first single from her new album, In My Hands. The dreamy pop tune marks her singing - well, spoken-word - debut on record, and her first stab at writing lyrics. The song starts out teasing with its veiled message of adulation, perhaps the melancholy pining of an absent lover. But MacMaster says the song was inspired only by the exquisite lines and curves of her precious violin. "When I first got the fiddle, I thought, `My God, what a cool looking instrument.' It's so shapely. I was attracted to the fiddle from the first time I saw it." Since then she's mastered the instrument and has travelled the world taking the traditional Cape Breton fiddle music to new audiences. While maintaining a link to her revered Scots Gaelic roots, she has gradually been pushing her music into a more contemporary realm. The new album - which will be officially released on Tuesday - takes her further into uncharted musical territory. "I've always wanted to do something vocally," says MacMaster. "But I didn't sing, because I'm not comfortable with that - I never really took myself seriously until we were in the studio." MacMaster had been scratching away at the lyrics for In My Hands, and finally took them to Toronto songwriter Amy Sky, who also collaborated with Bruce Guthro on his last album. "We spent a couple of hours together. She really gave me some confidence, said the lyrics were good. Then I reassessed the song again, and I felt better about it." Apparently Canadian radio is liking what it's hearing. The single and video are grabbing airplay across the country, no doubt partly because of a heavyweight promotional push from her record company. "Stations that have never played my music before are playing this song. Certainly there is a little groundbreaking for me." Of course, some of that ground was broken a few years back when Ashley MacIsaac released his explosive Hi How Are You Today. He painted ancient Cape Breton fiddle music on the same bold canvass with hip-hop, pop, dance and rock influences. Entrancing potentialWhile the album sparked some criticism at home, it kicked down walls and introduced thousands of young fans to the entrancing potential of this music. With In My Hands, MacMaster is finding new ways to express her music, laying it comfortably against Latin, funk and pop rhythms. Many of the tunes are straight-ahead traditional sets - stirring airs, lively jigs and the distinctive Scottish strathspeys -often distilled to just her acoustic fiddle and a simple accompaniment. "I started thinking about this project a couple of years ago, even before recording (last year's Juno-winning album) My Roots Are Showing. I was going to make this album first, but I wasn't in the right head space." But coming off the late-winter success of an East Coast Music Award as female artist of the year followed by the Juno win, she was definitely in the head space to deliver this breakthrough album. Loaded with innovative meldings of music styles, challenging arrangements and brilliant performances, In My Hands is bubbling with the energy that hotwires MacMaster's live shows. The album captures the maturing young artist, with an expanding view of the boundaries of her music and the blossoming technical skills to meet any challenge. Playing with fiddle ace Mark O'Connor has put her in a rarified space. "My best playing is on this record," says MacMaster. "It's definitely more musical." With her world-class guests including O'Connor, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon, Canadian flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook and American fiddler and vocalist Alison Krauss, MacMaster has moved to a new level on the global stage. With the album out of the box, MacMaster gets back on the tour bus, playing a string of concerts and festivals across Canada, Europe and the U.S. And with the first single scooting up the charts, she's bound to be even busier. "I'm hoping we can make things slow down a bit next year." She's spending a lot of time getting the new show together and touring. Over the past year, there have been changes in her stage band. Longtime guitarist Dave MacIsaac gave his notice to spend more time with his family in Halifax. Cape Breton pianist Mac Morin recently replaced Joel Chiasson (whose last show with MacMaster was at the Hollywood Bowl). Drummer Tom Roach from New Waterford remains the veteran in the band. Broader paletteNeeding a broader palette of sounds to stage the new material, MacMaster hired Steve O'Connor (no relation to Mark) to play keyboards and accordion. Metro audiences will have to wait till February to see her live. "I requested it like that," says MacMaster. "Every time I've done a Canadian tour in the past, I've started in the Maritimes. And when you just learn the show, it takes a while to get into it. I've always felt my stronger performances are toward the end of a tour. So I've decided I'm playing the Maritimes last - give you the better end of the deal." ......................................................................................................................................... August 22, 1999"Fiddler Gets Famous Help" By Sancy MacDonald - The Daily News Natalie MacMaster is about to release one of the most polished Celtic-flavoured albums yet recorded in this country. It all started by listening to old fiddle tapes and writing down names of possible tunes, some by favourite composers including Dan R MacDonald, Winston `Scotty' Fitzgerald and her uncle Buddy MacMaster. There's no grand scheme in the process, she says. "Finding tunes is nothing more than 'Do I like it?' " With a bunch of songs in her pocket, the pre-production collaboration began with producer Gordie Sampson at his Lakewind Studio in Point Aconi, crafting the arrangements. "Some tunes lend themselves to certain ideas," she says. MacMaster uncovered a tape of original tunes that J.P. Cormier had given her a couple of years ago, which included his Reel For Brenda. When MacMaster went into the studio, Cormier's reel surfaced, evolving finally into a Latin flareup with flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook. "Gordie put a couple of turns in the song to make it more flamenco-y. It was actually Gordie who suggested using Jesse. I went out and bought (Cook's) CD and loved it. Gordie gave him a call and he said yes." A week after that recording session in Toronto, Cook and MacMaster shared a live duet on the national broadcast of the Juno Awards, stealing the show with their fiery performance. "My mom taped it, but I haven't seen it yet - I haven't been home." MacMaster managed to coax the brilliant American fiddler Mark O'Connor into a virtuoso duet on her album. The Olympic Reel, a piece O'Connor wrote for the '96 Atlanta Games, becomes a showpiece for these modern-day Paganinis. MacMaster first met the Grammy-winning O'Connor six years ago, when she attended his fiddle camp as a student. "I was bound and determined to meet him - I was stunned by his playing," recalls MacMaster. "At the end of the week, he'd heard me play and asked me to come back - to teach." She returns every summer to the camp. "I finally found the guts to ask him to record with me." It was during the period when MacMaster was hosting CBC Radio's Atlantic Airwaves radio show out of Halifax and O'Connor was a guest. "I knew he had lots of other offers, and he was trying to get out of recording and playing with other people. I was taken aback when he said he would - then it took four years for it to happen." ......................................................................................................................................... August 19, 1999"The Whole World In Her Hands" Cape Breton Fiddle Star MacMaster Set To Unveil Well-Crafted CD By Stephen Cooke - Halifax Herald Natalie MacMaster is used to waking up in the middle of nowhere. Just try and find a spot on the map she hasn't been.
"We
just played a little town called Fish Creek, Wisconsin," says the
Troy, Cape Breton fiddler from her hotel room at the unmusicianly hour
of 9 a.m. Equally at home on stage at Carnegie Hall or in an open field in the heart of America's Dairyland, MacMaster's rigourous touring schedule is legendary, but she hopes to reach new listeners beyond her regular concert crowds when her latest album, In My Hands, hits store shelves next Tuesday. No, Natalie isn't doing gangsta rap or some sort of Celtic/grunge hybrid, but the record has a few stylistic surprises, a slew of musical guests - fiddler Mark O'Connor, flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook and folk fiddler/songbird Alison Krauss - and MacMaster's much-anticipated debut at the mic as a vocalist on the title track. Her dazzling shows are one thing, but the bets are on for this record to take things to a whole new level. "You're right, my reputation is based on live performance, and we've been going gangbusters down here the last few years," she says of her life on the road. "But with the new album there's a new buzz about me, and the record companies - Warner Bros. in Canada, Rounder in the States - are doing things they've never done before, and they're really behind it and really excited about it. "It's the dollars that they end up spending; buying advertisements left, right and centre and promoting the record, which comes out in the U.S. in September. They've got a lot of faith in it, and a lot of hope for it too." MacMaster is a proven performer on records; both Fit as a Fiddle and No Boundaries have been certified gold, and her Juno Award-winning traditional album My Roots are Showing is close to joining its predecessors. But imagine the pressure in an industry that thrives on change and growth when your music is based on a tradition that's centuries old. After talking with big-name record producers in Toronto and the U.S., MacMaster realized the answer to her prayers lay back in her own backyard - Cape Breton musician Gordie Sampson. They'd known each other for years, and made guest appearances on each other's albums, but never really collaborated in terms of the creative process. Originally brought on board to shape ideas in the preproduction process at Point Aconi, Cape Breton's Lakewind Sound studio, Sampson found the time in a schedule that includes touring with the Rankins as well as his own solo career, to guide MacMaster through the recording. "I was so excited, because I just think the world of his abilities, the combination of his pop influences and his knowledge of traditional music and how it's supposed to sound," she explains. "He can play it like nobody's business, but then he's got this amazing pop sense. "We were on the same wavelength for everything, he just had a good sense for what I wanted. As time went on, it just made more and more sense to me, and to him, that he should produce the album." A skilled guitarist, Sampson could also sit down at the Hammond organ for some fills on Blue Bonnets Over the Border or create drum loops and synthesizer programming for the high-tech toe-tapper Space Ceilidh. "I guess it's true what they say," muses MacMaster, "Everything's advancing more quickly. The tools are there and you might as well use them. They're addictive. Space Ceilidh was the most fun to do because it didn't have to be anything, it didn't have to go anywhere. The scope was wide open." By far the biggest challenge on In My Hands was the vocal on the title track, a sultry songspeak ode to MacMaster's closest companion, her fiddle. Imagine Madonna's Justify My Love with a Cape Breton accent and a few blasts of The Drunken Landlady. "I really wanted to do something vocally, but I didn't want to sing because I'm not comfortable with that, it's not what I do," she explains. "I have no experience singing. But there's so much different stuff out there today, surely I can do a vocal track without singing. I just wrote how I feel about the fiddle, and I'll just say it, tell everyone." MacMaster started by jotting down ideas about her instrument, but wound up asking another well-known Canadian songsmith for some feedback and ideas. "I've never written lyrics before, so I'm wondering if this is totally rotten or any good at all, or sappy and stupid. . .I had no idea. So I went to Amy Sky for an opinion and some help from someone who's experienced, and after two or three hours together I felt that what I had and the track I was on was good. I picked at the song a little more and took it to Gordie, and he came up with the chords and the groove." Writing the song was one thing; stepping up to the microphone to record it was another thing for the young musician who, until now, has rarely shown any fear in what she's done. "It was rotten, I thought I was gonna die," says MacMaster with a slight edge in her voice, recalling the experience. "I felt really incapable and had absolutely no confidence whatsoever, which is the opposite of what I feel when I play music. "I was thinking 'Let's just forget about it, it's a stupid idea.' But I went in and did it 'cause I thought, 'Look Natalie, if you don't try it you're a wimp, and you never know.' "So I did it. . .and it sounded really bad," she laughs. "But it sounded like something could happen with it, so we left it, and then in the studio in Toronto I had a chance to think about it, and I put more feeling and confidence into it. I just did it once or twice, and that was it." So far, MacMaster's musical leap into the unknown is paying off, with commercial radio stations nationwide picking up on the track - even in Quebec, which hasn't happened before - and the dreamlike video making strong debuts on Much More Music and CMT. There's also the possibility of a second single in her duet with Alison Krauss on Get Me Through December, with her delicate voice gracing lyrics by Gordie Sampson set to a tune based Neil Gow's haunting Lament For the Death of His Second Wife. But the question begs to be asked, will MacMaster get through to December, with a long road ahead that includes shows in Europe and all across North America? She sings a few bars of the song with a charming lilt before pausing. "I'll make it, I always do. I'll have Christmas time off, and then next year we go at it all over again." .........................................................................................................................................
August
11, 1999 TORONTO: Natalie MacMaster is hitting the western Canada promotional trail this week, stopping in at radio and television outlets to discuss her new Warner Music Canada album, In My Hands. But the Cape Breton fiddler was in Utah -- somehow surviving without a Tim Horton's outlet nearby -- when she talked to The Record about enjoying widespread commercial airplay for the first time with the album's title track. In My Hands also marks the first album appearance of MacMaster's voice, as she speak-sings a love song to her fiddle over a modern percussive groove. "I like the idea of being able to sing a song, but I don't want to go out and become a singer," says MacMaster. "I would consider doing something like this again, or maybe even pushing the envelope a little further and doing some more singing, but I don't want to focus on it at all. It's just good for my albums and my live show to have that vocal element in there." It's also opening new doors at radio, as In My Hands debuted this week at #71 at Canadian adult contemporary radio, and Warner has ambitions to cross it over in a major way to CHR. Several mixes and edits of the song are available to appease as many programmers as possible. MuchMusic has received a video for a remix of In My Hands, while MuchMoreMusic, MusiMax and CMT have received an album edit version -- again in a bid to open MacMaster up to a wider audience from her existing gold base from Fit As A Fiddle and No Boundaries. Bluegrass star Alison Krauss adds her voice to Get Me Through December, while other guests include fiddler Mark O'Connor, guitarist Jesse Cook (who appeared with MacMaster in a memorable performance from this year's Juno Awards), pianist Aaron Davis and Irish accordian player Sharon Shannon. The album was produced and arranged by Gordie Sampson, a major figure on the east coast music scene who released an album through PolyGram last year. "The fiddling itself is pretty close to what I do all the time," says MacMaster. "I think it's more the arrangements and the other instrumentation on the album that give it a more contemporary sound. You can hear the growth from my previous albums on this one." The new album hits stores on Aug. 24, and the early support shown from retailers may enable Warner to exceed its initial shipping forecast. In My Hands should benefit from the exposure MacMaster has received from her Tim Horton's TV spots, her cover appearances on Chatelaine and Homemakers, and her co-hosting role on CBC's Canada Day TV broadcast. "Her profile is a lot bigger than people think it is," says Warner A&R manager Steve Jordan. "Inside the industry, I think a lot of eyes will be opened when they see how this does in the first couple of weeks." Though no dates have yet been announced, MacMaster expects to launch a month-long Canadian tour in mid-September. Rounder Records will release In My Hands in the U.S. in September, and MacMaster will probably spend parts of October and November Stateside in support of the album. Greentrax has released all of MacMaster's previous albums in Europe, and will do the same with In My Hands. She'll perform at selected European festivals this year and next. .........................................................................................................................................
August
3, 1999 The four installments of the Hollywood Bowl's World Music Festival '99 on Sunday were subtitled "North America" because the acts - The Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre, Nova Scotia fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez and Blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks - all spring from this hemisphere. But the range of sounds and rhythms was no less global than the previous festival offerings. And it was interesting that the Sioux musicians and dancers initially seemed as exotic as an appearance by, say, a group of Tuvan throst singers. To their credit, however, the gorgeously costumed performers made a determined and largely successful effort to reveal some of the rich spirituality of their culture via the atmospheric drumming, passionate chanting and descriptive movements of their art. MacMaster, one of Celtic music's most dynamic performers, was positioned second on the bill, but she virtually stole the show. Filled with unstoppable energy, step dancing while she played, her set was pure musical wizardry, the work of an attractive young artist filled with potential world music star quality. And the moderate sized audience, completely tapped into her captivating set of lively Celtic tunes, rewarded her with a standing ovation. Jimenez is known, with considerable justification as one of the great innovators in Tex-Mex conjunto, and his presentation displayed the music's unusual melting pot of blues, folk music, country, mariachi and polka. But Jimenez went further, adding rock and a few touches of funk, blending it all together with his stirring, virtuostic accordion playing.Brooks, winding up the eclectic program, was less appealing. Despite his impressive blues chops, his New Orleans roots and his years in the Chicago blues arena. His playing too often lacked personality, too often resonated with the sounds of B.B King revisited. .........................................................................................................................................
July
14, 1999
"Cape Breton's Natalie MacMaster, Annbjorg Lien of Norway and Catriona MacDonald of Shetland take a break at the Fiddles of the World." The halls are alive with the sound of fiddles. Halifax's World Trade Centre is bouncing with the joyous vibe of reels, strathspeys, slipjigs and polkas, all thanks to the Fiddles of the World Festival. But keep your guard up. On Monday night, heading into the marvelous Celtic Masters concert, I was accidentally whacked in the leg with the flying fiddle case of Irish player Liz Doherty, who was racing backstage. And coming out of the show, I was nearly skewered by the six bows of Scotland's Blazing Fiddles. Not exactly the bulls of Pamplona, but that's the risk you run in WTC halls. The sold-out Celtic show brought together some of the finest Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton fiddlers for a memorable evening of gorgeous playing. Any of the eight acts could easily have headlined a full-length concert on their own, but each was allotted only a 15-minute slot and made the most of their time in the spotlight. With 1,500 attentive fans sitting bolt upright in straight-back chairs, Cape Breton's Carl MacKenzie ambled onstage with guitarist Dave MacIsaac and New Waterford pianist Doug MacPhee. In the understated fashion of that generation of players - always in starched white shirts and tartan ties - MacKenzie fired up the crowd with his delicious tone and utter command of the intricate Cape Breton ornamentation. Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and guitarist Tony McManus moved the playing to a higher plain, with the stirring air Roslin Castle from their recent Return to Kintail album. Fraser is a charming performer, offering funny banter between breakneck reels. The sound was near-perfect even at the back of the room, with every bow stroke and ringing guitar harmonic clearly audible in the big Port Royal ballroom. Next up was Kevin Burke, playing solo - his complex, meaty tone breathing fire into a set of lively Irish tunes. His style is very distinctive, with lots of double-string harmony and lilting cascades of notes. As someone once explained, the job of the Irish fiddler is to lift dancers' feet off the floor, while the Scots' playing drives them down on the cornmeal. Winnie Chafe, the revered Cape Breton fiddle teacher and performer, brought her studied mastery of the slow air to the concert. The elegance of her playing is timeless, with deep roots in the near-lost generation of Gaelic fiddlers. Natalie MacMaster, just home from an exhaustive tour of Europe, was dazzling in front of the knowledgeable audience. Backed up by pianist Mac Morin and reunited with MacIsaac, her long-time guitarist, MacMaster put on a performance that confirmed her membership as a young Celtic master. After a haunting Neil Gow lament to warm up, she launched into the daunting Tulloch Gorum, the Mount Everest of fiddle pieces. And when she finished triumphantly, the crowd gave her the only standing ovation in an evening of magnificent playing. The concert shifted back to the Irish side for a trio of Doherty, Jerry O'Connor and guitarist McManus. They yielded the stage for the hot young Scottish octet, Blazing Fiddles. With six fiddles out front, and guitar/piano accompaniment behind, music just poured off the stage. Hosted by the effervescent John Allan Cameron, the concert was a sparkling showcase of some of the best Celtic fiddlers on the globe.
Tonight,
Fiddles of the World wraps up with the Gala Concert at the Metro Centre,
featuring Mark O'Connor, Fraser, Byron Berline, Bruce Molsky, MacMaster and a
raft of others. .........................................................................................................................................
July
14, 1999 The Port Royal Room of the World Trade and Convention Centre became Fiddler's Green on Tuesday night, as the third concert for the Fiddles of the World festival, titled The International Fiddle, transformed the room into a traditional music fan's idea of heaven on earth. Starting the show with a brief virtuoso turn was a man some consider to be the most gifted violin player in folk music today, Mark O'Connor. His fanfare was a perfect way to launch an evening that would cover most areas of fiddling on this continent plus the British Isles and a dash of Scandinavia, hosted by a man who's a smorgasbord of styles himself, Nova Scotia musician Gordon Stobbe. The first full set belonged to one of Canada's most cherished styles, the James Bay Cree fiddling of James Cheechoo, accompanied by family members John and Daisy. Playing "songs as old as anyone can remember," the Cheechoo Family's sound is rustic and sweet as maple sugar, with the insistent rhythm of a tribal drum. Norwegian fiddler Annbjorg Lien brought the expressionist tone of her exquisitely detailed Hardanger fiddle to the stage next, starting her captivating set with a "listening tune" called The Rose, mixing Northern strength with Middle Eastern mysticism as the melodic patterns slithered off her bow. Later she was joined by Scottish guitarist Tony McManus for a sexy men's dance that helps explain why the Hardanger fiddle was once considered "the Devil's instrument." In a sudden temperature shift that could give your eardrums a heat rash, Louisiana's La Famille Viator gave the evening a splash of Cajun hot sauce with a quartet of bayou numbers like Patate La Cuit, with its slinky glissando and Adieu Camaille, featuring Alida Viator's plaintive singing. Appalachian fiddler Bruce Molsky displayed a knack for strongarm bowing on limber melodies like Jeff Sturgeon, his tribute to the Maritimes since "it sounded a little fishy." His vocal flair provided a highlight on the mournful I Truly Understand, which had a woodsy sound with echoes of Civil War tunes. Molsky switched to guitar to accompany Washington fiddler Paul Anastasio, who unleashed a vivacious trio of Mexican melodies like Feliz A–o and Viva Tlapehuala with playful vibrancy, followed by the return of Blazin' Fiddles, whose set was a tad more traditional than their Monday night stint, but still an impressive display of group dynamics. They also knew how to play to the crowd, with a strong but supple reading of Jerry Holland's waltz, My Cape Breton Home. Other welcome returns included Sligo's Kevin Burke and the dynamic duo of Scotland's Alasdair Fraser and McManus, while Alberta's Calvin Vollrath and Oklahoma bluegrass giant Byron Berline showed why old ways are often best.
O'Connor
and Natalie MacMaster closed the evening with a tag team set featuring a duet
that will be the talk of fiddle circles for years to come. .........................................................................................................................................
Ever
since Nero played while Rome burned, the fiddle has been associated with heat.
And with all the hot fiddlers coming to Halifax for the Fiddles of the World
Festival, Sunday to next Thursday, this town will be a virtual inferno.
and
backporch Paganinis are featured prominently, but never before has the
instrument itself been the primary focus and such a concentrated effort been
made to connect the dots of the fiddle's development and spread across the
continents. "The doors are opening across the planet and people are listening to other styles and finding so much more commonality. Especially in the folk tradition, where rural people have been playing the same sort of thing, whether it's in Taiwan on a two-string fiddle or on the plains of Africa. There is a common human music that speaks to me, and it excites me to find that common ground. "The time is now for a forum so that these people can get together. Individual musicians, like myself, that have been travelling for years have found that. You can go to a country where you don't speak the language, but if you get in with the musicians you'll have a great night. All those musical conversations; hopefully there'll be a lot of that in Halifax." Hopes for cross-pollination during Fiddles of the World run high, as a mix of familiar Maritime names like Natalie MacMaster, Gordon Stobbe and Ned Landry swap licks with Norway's Annbjorg Lien, Creole fiddlers La Famille Viator, western swing/jazz virtuoso Paul Anastasio and Irish fiddler and scholar Liz Doherty. Another of the festival's top names is New York native and Grammy award-winner Mark O'Connor, whose credits range from soundtracks and Nashville session work to outstanding collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the group Strength in Numbers, which also includes topflight folk instrumentalists like mandolinist Sam Bush, guitarist Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck on banjo and bassist Edgar Meyer. Recently, O'Connor recorded a duet with Natalie MacMaster, a former student and current teacher at his fiddle camp held every year in Montgomeryville State Park, Tennessee. "There's not many of these kind of events in America. I think it's very unusual," says a soft-spoken O'Connor from his San Diego home. "What they're trying to do is very unique; a fiddle camp is probably the closest thing to it, but the emphasis there is not on performance. Ivan Hicks has come to our fiddle camp a couple of times, and I think that inspired him to do this. "It's all about spreading the word, having people so blown away by the results that they want to take it further. I'm really proud to have been a small part of inspiring this." Riverview, N.B. musician Hicks has been a fixture on the East Coast scene since he first started playing as a child in bands with his father in the '50s. He cut his first records for RCA Victor with the Golden Valley Boys and formed the bluegrass combo Maritime Express in the late '70s. A busy performer and teacher, Hicks is also president of Fiddles of the World, a role that began when he was trying to think of a special way to mark the 50th anniversary of the Maritime Fiddling Contest. The idea blossomed into a worldwide celebration of the instrument in 1997, with Halifax the obvious choice for location in terms of venues, accommodation, facilities and its central location. For five days, the World Trade and Convention Centre will be fiddle headquarters, rippling with the sound of horsehair on catgut in workshops, all-star concerts, and late night dances and jams. It's a major undertaking, for which Hicks and his organizers enlisted the help of Halifax promoter Michael Ardenne, but one that is bound to hold future ramifications. "It can certainly lead to more of this type of event," says a good-natured Hicks hopefully. "It's going to definitely expose various styles and players to other areas of the world. I think they're going to get the opportunity to do some travelling; some of the local people going overseas, more musicians coming here from overseas. "I think there'll be some great friendships made, it's going to show our fiddlers and fiddling fans that there are numerous styles. I especially want to see our young people get this exposure. I've really tried to encourage them - we've got a crop of great young people - to come play alongside the Mark O'Connors, the Natalie MacMasters, Alasdair Frasers and so on. That in itself can be a really great thing." Champion Pembroke, Ontario fiddler April Verch concurs. While Fiddles of the World will be a great event for experienced players and longtime fans, she also sees it as a chance for junior players to realize the size of the community they belong to and experience the endless variety of styles open to them. "It's going to be great for younger people, to expose them to everything all at once," says the vibrant 21-year-old by phone between teaching sessions at a fiddle camp in Saskatchewan. "I had no idea you could improvise on a fiddle tune when I was younger, and now these kids are just going to be able to hear all this different stuff. "And because fiddle music has become more popular, musicians keep bumping into one another more often, and we're crossing the line musically more often." Although he's played all over the world with musicians of every stripe, Fraser says he still looks for events like Fiddles of the World to keep his ears open for old or new sounds that could provide future inspiration. "For me it's all part of the journey, I see the whole thing as a continuum," Fraser explains. "In a traditional art form like fiddling, you do your research to find out how the old guys played it, get that under your belt, and then find out what kind of spin you can put on it. "I have a lot of fun doing that; it's not much more of a statement than that. Just being creative, playing with it and seeing it fly." As for the instrument itself, Hicks says the fiddle will always have universal appeal because its roots lay in something everyone can understand; the love of a good time. "What do you do when you want to have a kitchen party? You look for the community fiddler," he says. "What's drawn people closer together in Cape Breton than the fiddle has? It's the same on the mainland, it's the same anywhere. It's just THE instrument that has a commonality, a down-to-earth kind of thing, that provides a good time, whether it's here or in Scandanavia." .........................................................................................................................................
July
9, 1999
You
know those Tim Horton's commercials starring Natalie MacMaster? .........................................................................................................................................
May
1999 It's hard to picture someone saying, "Natalie MacMaster? I can't remember ever seeing her perform." Assuming that you haven't suffered a severe trauma to the head, a Natalie MacMaster show is something you won't forget. A native of Cape Breton, MacMaster plays her regional style with a rhythmic energy that is heavily rooted in tradition. "It's not a delicate style," said MacMaster in an RI Irish Connection interview, "but it is spirited, strong, and very powerful. If there's any one thing that stands out about Cape Breton fiddling, it's the rhythm." The Cape Breton style originated from the Scottish who emigrated to Cape Breton. Over the years, Cape Breton fiddlers shed some of the Scot's bold heaviness in exchange for a bouncier feel. While many fiddlers avoid hornpipes, because the relaxed speed doesn't sell as many records, MacMaster uplifting style turns a hornpipe into a true toe-tapping pleasure. She also instills the same verve into her reels, jigs, and strathspeys. While her fiddling is superb, it's her step dancing that draws the loudest cheers during a live performance. It would be enough if she danced with precision, speed, and fun-loving grace. MacMaster takes it a step further by kicking up her heels while fiddling a lively tune. This particular skill seems to be indigenous to Cape Breton fiddlers, as you will also see the much-celebrated Ashley McIsaac do the same during his live shows. While the practice seems to put off some of the more staid Irish and Scottish fiddlers, it is in perfect keeping with Cape Breton's uplifting and devilish sense of fun. MacMaster first cradled a fiddle given to her by her grand uncle, Charlie MacMaster, at the age of nine. Soon she was performing at local dance halls, and it didn't take long for her to move to larger venues. Once she started recording albums, her career shifted into high gear. Before long, she was performing with the Chieftains and was on the road almost constantly. Although her rise to fame was not quite meteoric, it was swift and steady. Perhaps this is the reason why MacMaster never had an epiphany about music being a potential career. "The light never went on that way," she says. "For my very first gig, I made twenty bucks. I always knew I could make money from it, and it has always been my only source of income. I've never had a job. I never had to go through some other career to get to this point. Because I've never not made money from fiddling, I don't know what it's like to have that revelation." MacMaster doesn't even flinch at having her mother run her fan club. "Actually," she says, "it's not been at all strange. She's been involved from the beginning, so it's one of those things. What I have now wasn't created. It wasn't designed with careful thought. It just sort of happened and slowly built itself. There was no strategy involved." This past year proved that, for MacMaster, no strategy is the best strategy of all. She won the Juno Award (Canada's version of the Grammys) for her album My Roots Are Showing. "It was best instrumental album of the year," she says happily. "It was cool. It was something I had always hoped for but never planned. But I always thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I could be acknowledged with something like that.' I hate to say 'win' because it sounds so competitive." While MacMaster's Cape Breton fiddling style has stayed the same through her album releases, her arrangements have gone through very distinct changes. Where her 1993 release, Fit As A Fiddle, features very traditional tune arrangements, her 1997 album was appropriately titled No Boundaries, and remolded the same musical forms using new instruments and musical arrangements. Those terrified of Eddie Van Halen-esque guitar riffs put to Irish music should not fear MacMaster's experimentations. Even on No Boundaries, many of the tunes are very traditional, but rounded out with a bass, traditional guitar work, and light accents with the keyboards. "I'm not really experimenting with my own fiddling," explains MacMaster. "I like the fact that I play Cape Breton fiddle music. I like other styles of music, but I'm interested in being good and one style and focusing on that. For example, on No Boundaries I play The Beaumont Rag, which is a fiddle tune in the Texas swing tradition. But I'm not a Texas swing fiddler, I'm a Cape Breton fiddler playing a Texas swing tune." Lumping MacMaster into the category of experimental female fiddler with Eileen Ivers doesn't seem like a far stretch, but in fact their styles are very different. Where Ivers expanded the universe of traditional fiddling to include African beats and wah-wah pedals, MacMaster focuses changing the musical canvas onto which she paints traditional tunes. "Well first, Eileen is very Irish and I'm very Cape Breton," MacMaster points out. "Although, there are similarities, but her approach is much different from mine. I think her style is farther afield. It's a matter of perspective. She might think my approach is farther afield. I went through years when I was in love with her music. So, I'm a big fan of hers." MacMaster's new album on the Rounder Records label, In My Hands, will be in the same vein as No Boundaries but perhaps even more experimental. "I'm into music period," asserts MacMaster. "As long as it's done well and brings out certain emotions and makes you feel good." Her reputation as an innovative Cape Breton fiddler has attracted an impressive roster of musicians to In My Hands. The album will feature Nashville fiddler Mark O'Connor, Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon, Latin guitarist Jessie Cook, members of the jazz singer Holly Cole's band. Country star Alison Krauss will also make a guest appearance. Because MacMaster is recording the album while BIR readers are finishing this article, there is no solid release date for In My Hands. Aside from releasing the new album, MacMaster doesn't have too many solid life plans. "Every day takes on a new curve," she says. "You never know where you're going to land. So, I'm not going to concentrate too much where I'm going. I'm concentrating on doing at good job at the things that are happening now." .........................................................................................................................................
May
10, 1999
We
all like Celtic music. All right, we love it. But still, we all know the
truth: That there is a quality to it, a soothingness and uniformity,
that can cause the concertgoer to occasionally feel a little, well,
sleepy about mid-show. First on the list of eye-openers is young MacMaster herself - tall, smart and lovely, brimming with energy, talent and charm. She's one of those never-take-your-eyes-off-her performers, and the traces of embarrassment she displays at the awareness of this are all the more fetching. Next up is her music, a strong brew that mixes Scottish and Irish folk influences with the earthy fiddle-piano-guitar folk sounds of her native Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. MacMaster describes the place as a community of multi-generational musical families and almost nightly square dancing, where the old is still very much part of the new - and whose music she has reworked with a generous helping of Euro-American pop gloss (a dollop of rockabilly, a dash of New Age spaciness) to make it sound contemporary and sharp. Most attention-getting of all, perhaps, is MacMaster's extraordinary stage presence and style. She is known for playing her fiddle while performing an almost non-stop, quick-quick step dance in which she jumps, kicks, jigs, bounces, taps, twirls and seems about ready to lose her grip on her instrument - something which, happily, never occurs. Indeed, MacMaster, 26, is assuredly and delightfully in control for one so young. First exposed to Dayton audiences at last summer's National Folk Festival, she was a huge crowdpleaser even while withering in the June heat. Saturday's sold-out Victoria Theatre crowd got a Natalie that maybe danced a little less, but who seemed far more at-ease with the audience, joking and talking, telling tales, taking questions and disarming one and all with her sunniness. Finally, though, it was the music the did the most talking. Ably backed by guitarist Chris Corrigan, bassist John Dymond, percussionist Tom Roach and keyboardist/fellow step dancer Joel Chiasson, MacMaster hit high points with the light air of Blue- bonnets Over the Border (her favorite tune of the moment, she allowed), and with Tim Horton's Tune - written for a fast-food commercial but which surprised with down-home prettiness.
Unafraid
to shy from the serious, MacMaster offered an almost symphonic-sounding
rendition of The Cuckoo that called large themes of nature to mind -
wind and sky, rain in the forest - as she lulled and wooed with her
expert stringwork. .........................................................................................................................................
May
6, 1999 Natalie MacMaster's music has an intangible appeal. On her newest domestic release, No Boundaries, the fiddler from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is first heard gracefully negotiating the intricate steps of a hornpipe tune called Lad O'Beirne's, part of the five-tune Honeysuckle Set. Her tone, rhythmic feel and expressive sense captivate from the first note. Celtic fiddlers may have an advantage over band mates laboring with instruments such as the oft-maligned accordion or the taken-for-granted guitar. The violin's vibrating strings strike an emotional chord felt across cultural barriers. "A fiddle is something that, at some point, a lot of us can relate to,'' MacMaster said from a tour stop in California, "in the sense that, 'My grandfather played it'; or 'My mother always told me that when she was young, her grandfather played the fiddle'; or 'We had a fiddle in our attic.' '' A violin, she said, has "a very appealing sound... that can either make you burst inside'' or that is "very sad, in a beautiful way.'' Some in the industry believe MacMaster will become a star because of her dazzling concert performances. She always offers more than expected. Her assertive voice easily travels across a breadth of styles. On No Boundaries, the fiddler's sound inhabits traditional settings, an electrified gypsy tune, a few sentimental songs and an air backed by a classical string ensemble. Though classical and folk music might seem to be a gulf apart, the ever-playful MacMaster experienced no such separation in the sessions with the chamber group. She is both fearless and easygoing in her musical experimentations, which she said are broader still on her next album, In My Hands, which is to be released this year. Canadian listeners last year were treated to My Roots Are Showing, a Canada-only independent release highlighting her traditional heritage. MacMaster learned most of her material from party tapes of Cape Breton and from other fiddlers engaged in informal sessions. Her musical education is a variation on the tradition of individuals handing down tunes through the generations. But her recordings reflect an artist unbounded by old-time rules. "I do anything that I enjoy doing,'' she said. "It's music. I've never been calculating about what I wanted to play and for what reasons.'' MacMaster's attitudes clearly reflect her background as well as her age (mid- 20s). Her Scottish clan includes more than a few musicians, most notably uncle Buddy MacMaster, a world-renowned fiddler, also from Cape Breton. It is unsurprising, nonetheless, that youngsters such as Natalie have their own twist on the music. Her childhood neighbor was Ashley MacIsaac, who has created substantial waves of his own with a marriage of contemporary rock and high-energy fiddling. The youngsters' interpretations of their roots are part of the process by which the culture evolves. Musical historians have suggested that fiddle players practically grow on trees in Nova Scotia. MacMaster concurred. "There are more there per capita than anywhere in the world... The music and the culture naturally encourage the growth of it. It's continuing all the time.'' .........................................................................................................................................
May
7, 1999 It's too rarely true among performers, but with Natalie MacMaster there is no doubt: the show gets better and better every time I see her. A two-hour drive to Fort Washington, Pa., was a small price to pay to see MacMaster perform for the fourth time in as many years on May 1st. She has been, without exception, one of the most talented and energetic fiddlers I've ever had the pleasure to watch in action; combined with a darling stage personality and a crackerjack band behind her, Natalie is must-see music in action. Fresh from receiving a Juno Award for the best instrumental recording -- specifically, for her back-to-the-basics traditional album My Roots Are Showing -- Natalie put on a tremendous show, filling the too-few hours with fiddle tunes primarily from Scotland, Ireland and her native Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. A high school auditorium isn't the first place I'd choose to see Natalie perform -- for one thing, it restricts the audience to uncomfortable seating when the natural tendency is to move to her music -- but she easily packed the Bucks County venue to full capacity. With her four-man band already on stage and playing, Natalie began the show offstage, starting a slow air just beyond view and wandering into the spotlight with her audience already applauding madly. It didn't take her long to kick the slow air into overdrive, matching her fast-paced fiddling with a high-kicking dance. Movement is a big part of a MacMaster performance. As if her fiddling alone wasn't enough of a treat, she is unable to resist the temptation to dance to her own music. And what a dancer she is! During all but the slowest of tunes, Natalie is a body in motion: clogging, tapping, stepping, skipping, high-kicking, moonwalking and generally bouncing her way around the stage. Saturday was no exception, with a mass of long blond curls and long legs flying everywhere and the blue sequins of her sleeveless blouse glinting in the stage lights. Natalie has a real flair for performing and, after a quick change during intermission, she was even able to make a very ... interesting pair of red-and-yellow checked pants look good. Her flying fingers and feet left me breathless. As a fiddler myself, I haven't a clue how she keeps her bow on her strings while dancing, hopping and cavorting around the stage. At times, Natalie's hand and bow were moving too fast to see clearly, but she never stopped keeping a vigorous rhythm with her feet and hips. I have no idea what goes through her mind while performing, but Natalie has the benefit of looking supremely confident in the spotlight. She has been more assured and exhibited more stage presence each time I have seen her perform. At the same time, she still manages to look bashful during applause, and she sometimes displays looks of fierce concentration despite her effortless playing. Her easy manner of chatting with her audience is also admirable ... and somehow, she always seems to find a Cape Breton connection in the crowd. "It's amazing, the people Cape Breton has put into the world," she told her Upper Dublin audience. "It's not very big." But even excellent motor skills and stage personality pale when compared to Natalie's knack for making her fiddle sing. I think I'd trade half of my soul for a tenth of her talent. But I digress. I'd been accustomed to hearing Natalie perform accompanied only by keyboardist Tracey Dares and guitarist Dave MacIsaac. The change, not only replacing Dares and MacIsaac but adding a percussionist and bass player to the lineup as well, took some getting used to. OK -- no offense, Tracey and Dave, because I always admired your talents -- it took only a few minutes. The new MacMaster Live experience is electrifying. Natalie has stepped with ease into the next level of musical growth without losing one iota of her traditional roots. Backing her on this tour was a fine foursome of Canadian lads. Chris Corrigan led the pack with his wicked-good folk guitar stylings, nicely filling the gap left by MacIsaac. Tom Roach on percussion and John Dymond on the five-string bass guitar added new drive and a modern flair to the show without taking anything away from its kitchen party comfort. Joel Chiasson rounded out the band, both with his excellent keyboarding and some fleet-footed stepdancing as well. For one tune, he and Natalie both stepped away from their instruments to sashay, step and swing together with alarming grace. Despite a delightful turn as Fiddle Spice (Yes, it's true, she sang a snippet of a Spice Girls song, if only to try and convince the audience that she couldn't sing), Natalie still wouldn't croon "The Cuckoo" for her fans. We bear her no grudge, however, because she played it as an amazingly beautiful instrumental, with a gorgeous, ethereal air that left my heart in my throat. She also transformed "Blue Bonnets Over the Border," which she'd recorded on No Boundaries as a lively jig, into a serene and stately air. But don't even imagine this was a slow-paced show. Natalie slipped a few calmer numbers into the set to give her audience's -- and perhaps her own -- collective heart a chance to slow its furious beating, but the bulk of Saturday's performance was nothing short of frenzied. Tunes like the rockin' "Catharsis" and lively "Honeysuckle" set kept the crowd clapping, tapping and chair bopping along for an aerobic workout kind of evening. A standing ovation at the end brought Natalie and the boys back out for an encore as fresh as the show's start -- if anything, they were more energetic for the furious wrap-up set. Natalie even played the Pied, uh, Fiddler and led a few dozen wildly dancing young girls onto the stage for the big finish. Still, it was all over too soon. There are many fine fiddlers on the market these days, many taking both the instrument and traditional playing styles in new directions. But even as fellow Cape Bretoner Ashley MacIsaac pushes the Celtic fiddle into rockier realms and Eileen Ivers explores the fusion between the Irish fiddle and jazz, MacMaster continues to move in the direction I'd most like to see the music go. She is, I believe, the freshest thing playing, and I eagerly await the next development in her career. Saturday's concert was certainly an exciting benchmark along the way. Kudos also go to Bob Brown of Cricklewood Productions, not only for bringing Natalie to Upper Dublin but for his ongoing efforts to import quality Celtic music into south-central Pennsylvania. .........................................................................................................................................
April
8, 1999 Natalie MacMaster's luxury bus rolled out of Halifax early Wednesday morning for a grueling four-and-a-half weeks of touring that takes her from New England to Virginia, through the Midwest and into California. The Cape Breton fiddler wasn't on the bus mind you; she'll be flying to Vermont this afternoon from Toronto where she's been putting the finishing touches on her upcoming album. She'll be joining bandmates drummer Tom Roach, guitarist Chris Corrigan, bassist John Dymond, and pianist Joel Chiasson for the tour's first show at the Castleton State College's Fine Arts Centre. Also along for the ride are the man behind the wheel, bus driver Dave Wiesner and tour manager Carl Gosine.Even though it'll be sometime before we see MacMaster pass through these parts again, you can catch her on the April 16 episode of Gzowski in Conversation at 8 p.m. on CBC-TV. According to the show's publicity materials, MacMaster "shares her passion for fiddling, and even gives Peter a lesson in fiddling!" ... This we gotta see! ......................................................................................................................................... April 1999"MacMaster Fiddles For World Peace" After playing on the Junos and recording a vocal track for the first time ever on her upcoming CD,, Natalie MacMaster is lending her voice to the cause of third world harmony. The Troy fiddler is the 1999 spokesperson for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, designed to help people of all faiths in Africa, Asia and Latin America through community programs. Natalie is helping Development and Peace with its Share Lent campaign, appearing on the cover of its newsletter and in a radio public service announcement. For more information on Development and Peace, please visit their website .........................................................................................................................................
March
20, 1999 Edmonton - It's impossible to replay the great events in history of course, but there's probably a pretty good chance that if Natalie MacMaster had been the one to fiddle while Rome burned, no one would have noticed. They'd be having too good a time. The Cape Breton native brought her fiddle to the world of violins Friday night, for the first of three sold-out Winspear Centre shows with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The odd thing is, it was not a perfect show - but it was still a thoroughly fun and energetic evening. The ESO, conducted by their resident guest conductor David Hoyt, had stand-alone numbers to begin both halves of the concert. The collection of Newfoundland tunes called The Rock was a bit of a stuttery affair, both in its musical segues and in its performance, though the tender naivete of Denis Carey's Cape Breton Showcase followed it up well. As for the Songs of the Cape, which opened the second half, it may have been the orchestra's most interesting stuff and Scott MacMillan's best orchestral arrangement of the night - but it was surprisingly long, three movements and about 20 minutes. But MacMaster herself was the star of the show. She comes off as totally unaffected, absolutely sincere. Self-effacing whether mentioning doughnut commercials or winning a Juno, there is nothing about her that would make you think you were sharing the Winspear Centre with her, as opposed to a Nova Scotia community hall. Then, of course there's her playing - and that's where the pacing of her show is so well done. Her first half numbers ranged from the simple beginnings of The Carnival Medley to a series of reels and strathspeys that got bigger and louder. The second half was equally well paced. Her first bit featured her; richly accompanied by pianist Joel Chiasson, to the big show number with the dancers, to a set called Fiddlin' in the Flats - in which her fiddle smoked under the fire of her playing. Her finale started with a tender tune reminiscent of the Ashokan Farewell and finished with MacMaster doing her own step dancing - including a Michael Jackson moonwalk. MacMaster's playing is articulate and bracing The Cape Breton tradition, derived from Scottish folk music, features few double stops. Instead, there is a lot of rapid bow work, and moving from note to note quickly enough to double the sound. The Strathcona Dancers punctuated the program well, and again, they were well used and well paced. A solo dancer (Katie Gardner) first, nine in a line later. The big second half number began with four young dancers, followed by a dozen of the more experienced. The audience was hers from the moment her bow first scraped the strings, and the Juno Award-winner ("If you buy my CD, you're buying history," she joked) never let them down. This is the kind of cross-Canada cultural exchange we can use more of. .........................................................................................................................................
February
23, 1999 Natalie MacMaster’s star continues to rocket. Even with the busiest tour sked in the region, Natalie has found some time later today to go shopping at Toronto’s Eaton’s Centre – with a camera crew in tow. She’s filming a 60-second spot that will run on CBC as a lead-up to and during the Juno Awards broadcast on Sunday, March 7. Natalie has a pair of Juno nominations and is also booked to perform on the show. Last week, she was named East Coast Music Award female artist of the year. The clip is inspired by the shopping-spree scene from the film Pretty Woman, with MacMaster strolling through the Eaton’s Centre trying on clothes in preparation for the big show. She can keep the clothes after the shoot. MacMaster is in the midst of recording a new album, squeezing in sessions between her exhausting tour schedule. Gordie Sampson is on board to produce, and special guests include Irish accordion player Sharon Shannon, Nashville fiddler Mark O’Connor, and classical guitarist Jesse Cook, who was recently touring with Bruce Guthro and Amy Sky. The great Alison Krause contributes a vocal track, as does Natalie herself – making her singing debut on a tune tentatively called In My Hands, written by Natalie and Amy Sky. Watch for the as-yet-unnamed album’s release later in the summer. .........................................................................................................................................
February
18, 1999 Never one to sit still for long, Natalie MacMaster winged it back to Toronto from the ECMA's in St-John's this week to continue work on her upcoming, as yet untitled album with fellow Cape Bretoner and ECMA winner, Gordie Sampson at the helm as producer. Aside from MacMaster's own accomplished fiddling, the record's stellar guest list includes Irish accordion player, Sharon Shannon, Nashville fiddler, Mark O'Connor, Latin-style guitarist, Jesse Cook and members of Holly Cole's group. There will surely be a spectacular meeting of minds when Bluegrass superstar fiddler, Alison Krauss steps up to the mic to sing a Gordie Sampson composition, but the biggest news is the fact that MacMaster will be making her recorded debut as a lead vocalist on her own composition.
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The
girls are giggling. Sheet music has tumbled to the linoleum floor and a
string has slipped on a fiddle that has just been tuned. It's a
typical Tuesday afternoon at St. Andrews Consolidated School, where
teacher Stan Chapman is getting ready to coax ancient Scottish battle
tunes from a gaggle of pre-teens in bell bottoms and oversize
sweatshirts.
If
one were to look up 'musical energy' in the dictionary, one would find
Natalie MacMaster's picture. This young Cape Breton fiddler has been
fiddling in an age-old tradition since she was nine years old. Now in
her twenties, she has built her own unique genre around a musical core
steeped in tradition. Her performances are an invigorating mix of
diverse musical offerings, traditional step dancing and high-energy
entertainment. This energy is most contagious and Natalie leaves her
audiences, both young and old, begging for more.
Natalie:
I'm not really trying to convey anything. It's a more or
