Buddy MacMaster (1924 to 2014) was the gentleman patriarch of Cape Breton fiddling. He played square dances in Inverness County for more than 70 years while holding down a day job with the Canadian National Railway. He did not record his first album until 1989, at age 65. Canada made him a member of the Order of Canada in 2000, and his niece Natalie MacMaster carried his music to the world.
Why MacMaster matters
Cape Breton fiddling is dance music with Scottish roots, and MacMaster was its reference point. He kept the old Gaelic-flavored tunes in circulation for decades before anyone thought to record him. When the folk world found Cape Breton in the 1990s, his records showed players what the tradition sounded like at its source. The two biggest Cape Breton names of the next generation, Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac, both point to him as the model.
Life and career
MacMaster was born on October 18, 1924, in Timmins, Ontario, a mining town where his father had gone for work. The family moved home to Judique, Cape Breton, when he was a toddler. He played his first public show at an amateur hour in Port Hood at age 12 and took his first paid gig at a square dance in Troy at age 14.
In 1943 he went to work for the Canadian National Railway as a station agent and telegrapher. That same year he made his first radio broadcast from Antigonish. For the next 45 years he worked the railway by day and played dances by night. In the 1970s he became a regular on CBC Television’s Ceilidh and The John Allan Cameron Show. He retired from the railway in 1988 and became a full-time musician.
His first album, Judique on the Floor, came out in 1989. Glencoe Hall followed in 1991, The Judique Flyer in 2000, and Cape Breton Tradition in 2003. He toured Europe and the United States and taught in Scotland and at fiddle camps at home. He died at his home in Judique on August 20, 2014, at age 89.
Playing style
MacMaster played Scottish repertoire first and Cape Breton and Nova Scotia tunes second. He played for dancers most of his life, so the bow drove the beat. Every note landed where a step-dancer’s foot would land.
Two things made his sound. First, a big, full tone. Ashley MacIsaac compared his attack to an axe hitting a tree. Second, a sweetness in the slow tunes and strathspeys that Natalie MacMaster said existed nowhere else. He held both at once: a dance hall drive and a tenderness in the airs. His ornaments came from Gaelic song and pipe music, with cuts, drones, and grace notes that fall under the fingers of the left hand rather than the bow.
Influences and legacy
MacMaster grew up inside the Judique and Inverness County tradition, playing dances from age 14. His sister Betty Lou Beaton was a pianist, and his daughter Mary Elizabeth MacInnis is a musician.
His niece Natalie MacMaster grew up on his playing and later recorded with him. Ashley MacIsaac grew up near him and shared stages with him, including a night opening for the White Stripes. Almost every Cape Breton fiddler who came after him learned some part of their repertoire from his records or from watching him at a dance.
Signature tunes and songs
Mrs. Ferguson of Reaths Lord Doune’s Strathspey Pigeon on the Gate Mrs. Johnson Pitworth.
Essential recordings
Judique on the Floor (1989) Glencoe Hall (1991) The Judique Flyer (2000) Cape Breton Tradition (2003)
Awards and honors
Honorary doctorate, St. Francis Xavier University (1995) Order of Canada (2000) Order of Nova Scotia (2003) Honorary doctorate, Cape Breton University (2006) Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award (2014) Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association (2023)
Watch and listen
MacMaster plays at home in Judique. Watch the bow arm stay relaxed while the tune drives ahead.
Folk Alliance International honors MacMaster with its 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. The clip includes performance footage and tributes.
What to learn from MacMaster
Learn a strathspey from Judique on the Floor. Strathspeys teach the Scotch snap, a short note followed by a long one, and MacMaster’s version of that rhythm is the cleanest on record. The technique to steal is his dance drive. Play a reel set for a full ten minutes at one steady tempo without rushing. His bow never sped up when the tune got exciting. That control is what made 70 years of dancers trust him.
Sources
Buddy MacMaster, Wikipedia Buddy MacMaster, renowned Cape Breton fiddler, dead at 89, CBC News Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Fiddlers 20 from Fiddler magazine, Bluegrass Today Natalie MacMaster, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more on Cape Breton and Canadian styles. MacMaster’s niece Natalie MacMaster and neighbor Ashley MacIsaac carry his sound forward. Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald recorded the Cape Breton style a generation before him. For the wider Canadian scene, start with Don Messer.