![]() Occasionally, she gets a little weary of having to do her trademark step dancing while playing the fiddle. Sometimes, she says things she doesn't really mean to people she cares about. The 27-year-old gets impatient when driving behind someone slow. When pressed by an interviewer for details, Canada's Celtic darling hems and haws, then comes right out with the awful truth. Sure, she goes to mass every week and calls her mom back in tiny Troy, N.S., every couple of days - no matter whether she's touring in Europe or cutting an album in Toronto. MacMaster, NatalieĬape Breton fiddling virtuoso Natalie MacMaster wants it known that she's no goody two-shoes. Then we broke up for 10 years.Natalie MacMaster's traditional Cape Breton fiddling style is based on a rich Highland Scotland repertoire from the 17th to 19th centuries (photo by Richard Beland, courtesy Natalie MacMaster). I didn’t know any of this was going on until one day I got a phone call from him introducing himself and I said ‘I know you, I have your cassette tape at home.’ We met that night and had dinner and dated for two years. “He didn’t know what I looked like, he found someone who knew me, got a contact and drove to my college. “He heard my music and was curious and came to Nova Scotia,” MacMaster said. MacMaster was still a teenager when they first met. He was one of 11 siblings, eight of whom performed and recorded under the family moniker, Leahy. It was very natural.”ĭonnell Leahy had a similar background in Lakefield. Any time you would go to someone’s house for a visit there was always a fiddler there. ![]() Any event you’d go to, there was always music. My mom had it on all the time and the community was full of it. “It was like eating supper, it’s just part of your day,” MacMaster says. Her uncle, Buddy McMaster, was known as the godfather of Cape Breton fiddling and Celtic bad boy Ashley MacIsaac is her cousin. Like her own children, MacMaster grew up surrounded by Celtic music in rural Nova Scotia. We haven’t even seen the show ourselves yet.” It’s many things and it connects so well to what we do. It’s lighthearted, it’s humorous and it’s heartwarming. He wants to complement and support the music in such a way it gives people some nice background and a bit of history. He has great sensibilities and great sensitivity to our show. ![]() “Through his storytelling and his delivery, he commands the stage. “He plays a couple of characters in the show,” MacMaster says. Leahy had watched the actor play more than 20 roles in the theatre production of Billy Bishop Goes to War and was impressed. As an added twist this year, the couple enlisted the talents of actor William Colgate. What are they going to do? Sit and just watch the show or just hang out all day? What a waste of their potential.”Īs the name suggests, A Celtic Family Christmas will mix the foot-stomping traditional fare both MacMaster and Leahy have become known for with holiday music. They are here practising stuff and then we go tour. “The next little guy comes along and he’s three and wants to play the fiddle and do something on stage because she’s out there,” MacMaster says. Photo submittedīut as Mary Frances grew, she began developing more of a set routine. Article content Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy and their children. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. I remember one time I thought it would be cute, I forget where we were, but I said ‘OK, she’s been begging to come out … Mary Frances Leahy.’ She’d come out and jump around a little bit and it was really cute.” We’d be going on stage and she’d be seeing me dance and be seeing some of the band dance and she wanted to be part of that. She was playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She got it and she started playing fiddle around that time, too. By the time she was three, she was trying little steps to imitate us so I thought I’d teach her a real step. “I remember playing shows as a new mother and all the new things that come with that, learning how to change diapers and feed a baby. ![]() “Mary Frances was our first-born I was 33 years old,” MacMaster says. It just sort of turned out that way because MacMaster and Leahy wanted to ensure their children were with them as they toured. Still, the couple certainly did not set out to produce an army of precocious Von Trapp-like kids playing Celtic music across the country. ![]() MacMaster was nine years old herself when she began playing the fiddle and only 16 when she recorded her first album. The children play fiddle, accordion and piano. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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