Critics raved at her singing ability on the first single, the lead-off title track, which topped off on the Canadian chart at #18. Produced by fellow Cape Bretoner Gordie Sampson and recorded over a six-month period in Nashville, Toronto, and Scotland, as well as at home, the album eventually peaked at #32 on the Canadian albums chart. Divided into long sets of five to seven jigs, reels, strahspeys, and marches, it once again featured her uncle Buddy, as well as several other Island legends performing traditional Cape Breton music, complimented by piano and acoustic guitar, and featured the lead-off “Hey Johnny Cope!,” “Captain Keeler,” and “Queen of the West.” A year-long world tour was highlighted by her appearance at the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland.įor IN MY HANDS, recorded in 1999, her fans saw an expanded Natalie MacMaster, performing an enhanced blend of the old and the new and highlighted by the jazz overtones of Holly Cole’s band. She earned her first Juno nomination the following year while the album went gold, and also hosted the ECMA, which she also won in the Female Artist of the Year, Roots/Traditional Artist of the Year, and Instrumental Artist of the Year categories, as well as Fiddler of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA).īy this point MacMaster had become an acclaimed musician following several tours throughout North America and Europe, and had to turn down an invitation to appear in the Irish music and dance production of “Lord of the Dance.” She produced her next effort herself, 1998’s MY ROOTS ARE SHOWING. Although still traditional based, the album was more progressive and accessible than before, the album featured guest vocalists Bruce Guthro (“Fiddle and Bow”) and Cookie Rankin of The Rankins on “Drunken Piper.” Along with “Catharsis,” those two tracks made it to singles and videos were shot for all three. She dedicated the album to the memory of her grandmother, who’d often sing Gaelic lyrics to the songs while she was learning to play the fiddle as a child. In 1997, she signed a deal with Warner Brothers Canada that not only brought her into the limelight at home, but also began to expand her audience by introducing her to American and international audiences with the release of NO BOUNDARIES. Her world tour included spending four weeks as the opening act for The Chieftains, and she also found herself doing jingle music for TV commercials for Tim Horton and General Motors. The following year, Rounder assembled enough material from her first two independent cassettes to comprise A COMPILATION, which featured classic Cape Breton traditional tunes she’d learned from masters like her uncle Buddy MacMaster and Winston Fitzgerald, as well as a number of local area composers, including Dan R MacDonald and Jerry Holland. Her star was already shining so bright that she was the headliner for the US leg of Carlos Santana’s ’95 world tour, performing in front of as many as 80,000 people. Mostly sets of strathspeys and reels or jig sets with the occasional waltz thrown in for good measure, she received an East Coast Music Award (ECMA) as Best Roots/Traditional Album. Recorded at Halifax’s CBC Studio prior to her signing with Rounder, it was produced by Glenn Meisner and Dave MacIsaac, and featured a number of Nova Scotia’s most prominent musicians, including Tracey Dares and Howie MacDonald on piano and bagpipes extraordinaire Jamie MacInnis. She caught the attention of executives at Rounder Records who released FIT AS A FIDDLE in 1993. She was a sensation on the east coast while releasing a pair of self-produced independent cassettes on Astro Custom Records – FOUR ON THE FLOUR in 1989 and ROAD TO THE ISLE barely two years later at the tender age of 18. By the age of nine she was taking formal lessons with her cousin and future fellow fiddle master Ashley MacIsaac, with whom she often performed with onstage early in life. Born in Troy, Nova Scotia, Natalie MacMaster grew up with music in her home, with both her parents playing in local bands and the niece of Cape Breton fiddle legend Billy MacMaster.
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