Natalie MacMaster was raised with a mix of Scottish, Celtic and Nova Scotian influences. When she picked up a fiddle at age nine, the jigs, reels and traditional tunes just kept coming. Since then, she's won a Juno Award (Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) and shared the stage with everyone from Carlos Santana to Luciano Pavarotti. She will stop in Madison for a show on Monday. The Daily Cardinal recently talked with her about Cape Breton Island, working with Alison Krauss and the kind of Celtic artist she is.
The Daily Cardinal: What about Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia made you make the music you have?
Natalie MacMaster: It's very rooted in the fiddling traditions and I grew up with that tradition not only in my home, but in my community and also in my bloodline. I tell people I started playing the fiddle when I was nine, but I had nine years of experience before that, just because I heard it so much.
DC: You performed on ABC's New Year's Eve broadcast at the request of Peter Jennings. How did you feel when you heard the request from Mr. Jennings?
NM: He left me a message on my voice mail, so it was him who called me himself. I was pretty shocked to come home one day, check my messages and Peter Jennings is talking to me. It's always flattering to think that someone of that rank in the world is interested in what I'm up to.
DC: You worked with Alison Krauss on your album In My Hands. What was it like working with someone of her musical caliber?
NM: She is just a beautiful, beautiful singer. I've been a big fan of hers since I met her. We were both 16 years old and that was in 1987 at the Vancouver Folk Festival. She's had a special place in my collection for a long time and is a wonderful person to work with as well as an incredible artist. What I like about her is that she has never sacrificed anything for her career. She stayed true to her music and to her roots and that's very inspiring for someone like me.
DC: Your two-disc recording, Live, has both the full band and a piano/guitar/fiddle ensemble. Which do you prefer?
NM: It depends on my mood at the time. I'm most fond of the traditional stuff so I'd probably gravitate more toward the second disc. But the other one is a bit more interesting, certainly for those people who aren't hardcore traditionalists.
DC: You recently won two East Coast Music Awards out of four nominations. What were you expecting?
NM: I never expect anything. Fortunately I'm very busy so that keeps my mind off it. I've just learned to develop a focus, or rather, unfocus on awards.
DC: How did you go about assembling the all-star roster, which includes Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and Edgar Meyer, for Blueprint?
NM: The motivation for the assembly was purely to get musicians at the top of their game. We started with the best and got who we wanted. We wanted the record to be acoustically very strong and production very simple so that the music and the musicianship was what stood out most. We really wanted great players on great-sounding instruments. We wanted it to be sort of a musician's record.
DC: Do you think of yourself as more of a Celtic musician or as a Canadian musician?
NM: I don't know. The answer isn't obvious to me. I am a Celtic musician, but sometimes the word 'Celtic' can take on a meaning that I am not. For example if you go into an airport gift shop and there's some nice listening music and some Celtic music, it's usually very relaxing, peaceful sounds of ancient times with a harp and trickling water. The word Celtic can bring up thoughts of what I am not. I'm not your stereotypical Celtic artist.
-Interview conducted by Ben Schultz
