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www.celtic-connection.com
SEPTEMBER 1999
MUSIC REVIEWS
Atlantic Talent Still Making Waves
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
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
Young Maritime fiddler Natalie MacMaster makes her singing debut on her new CD entitled In My Hands. Actually, it's not so much
singing as talking to music about her fiddle. She does sing some backing vocals on the CD.
The album is an interesting mixture of traditional jigs, reels, step-dancing, a flamenco fling and classical. Some well-known artists join MacMaster on the album. The Olympic Reel was written by Nashville fiddle player Mark O'Connor and features MacMaster and O'Connor on fiddle.
Irish accordion player Sharon Shannon joins her for a track entitled The Farewell. And, Nashville vocalist Alison Krauss sings a haunting lament called Get Me Through December. MacMaster wrote Father John MacLeod's Jig and on another track called Mom's Jig. she plays fiddle and step-dances.
This is a must-have Natalie MacMaster CD to complete the set to date. Her other CD's axe.: A Compilation, Fit As A Fiddle, No Boundaries and My Roots Are Showing.
RITA
MCNEIL
A
NIGHT AT T H E O R PH EUM
I S i l: -\
Rita At Her Finest
Singer Rita MacNeil has just released her new album A Night At The Oprheum with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. This is truly Rita at her best, surrounded by the best musicians and performing in one of the country's best theatres.
Rita began began her career at the humblest point one can imagine: As a single parent in urban Ontario and rural Cape Breton.
And, now here she is with 14 albums, her own TV series, Juno Awards, honourary degrees, the Order of Canada and doing a 13-city symphony tour, featuring the music she created in a tiny house on the Bras d'Or Lakes.
MacNeil touches the listener's heart with her sincerity as she sings about our fears, our loneliness, our lives and the lives of those who have gone before us. My Island Too, is a powerful song that speaks to everyone who has ever moved away from their homes, their friends, their country and their family. MacNeil expresses the longing so poignantly in song and verse.
The CD encompasses many of the selections from her Winter 99 Symphony Tour and is loosely based on her book On a Personal Note.
NATALIE MACMASTER: Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VANCOUVER — 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 • InMy 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 but don't play any instruments themselves, but they both step-dance. My uncle is the famed fiddle player Buddy MacMaster ana 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 mu-
NATALIE MACMASTER
"They've been together for 35
years, and they've got their
act down......
They 're just The Chieftains. And, that's why they've had such lasting power."
sicians 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 Maclsaac, 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.
•
Natalie MacMaster's upcoming Western Canadian tour schedule is as follows: Winnipeg, the Playhouse Theatre, September 21. Brandon, Westman Auditorium, September 24. Edmonton, the Francis Winspear Centre, September 27. Vancouver, The Vogue Theatre, September 30. Victoria, the Royal Theatre, October 3. Nanaimo, the Port Theatre, October 4. Calgary, the Jack Singer Concert Hall, October 6.