Natalie MacMaster (born 1972) is the fiddler who carried Cape Breton music to the world stage. She released her first album at 16, won two Juno Awards for Best Instrumental Album in 1999 and 2000, and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006. She has toured with the Chieftains, Faith Hill, Carlos Santana, and Alison Krauss, and recorded with Yo-Yo Ma. She now tours with her husband, fiddler Donnell Leahy.
Why MacMaster matters
Cape Breton fiddling was a local dance music played in parish halls. MacMaster made it a concert music without softening it. Her sets keep the drive of a square dance, and she step dances while she plays. She showed that a fiddler could sell out theaters with strathspeys and reels and no singer. For a bluegrass picker, her playing is the clearest window into the Scottish side of the fiddle tunes we all share.
Life and career
MacMaster was born on June 13, 1972, in Troy, Inverness County, Nova Scotia. Her uncle was Buddy MacMaster, the patriarch of Cape Breton fiddling, and her cousins include fiddlers Ashley MacIsaac and Andrea Beaton. She started fiddle at age nine and played her first square dance the same year in Glencoe Mills, Nova Scotia.
At 16 she released a self-produced cassette, Four on the Floor, in 1989. Road to the Isle followed in 1991, co-produced by John Morris Rankin of the Rankin Family. Rounder Records signed her and released Fit as a Fiddle in 1993 and No Boundaries in 1997. Both went gold in Canada. My Roots Are Showing, released in Canada in 1998, won the Juno for Best Instrumental Album in 1999. In My Hands came out in 1999 and won the same Juno in 2000. That record included a vocal duet with Alison Krauss, Get Me Through December.
Blueprint followed in 2003 and Yours Truly in 2006. In 2005 she recorded Traditional Music from Cape Breton Island with her uncle Buddy. She married fiddler Donnell Leahy of the family band Leahy and moved to Lakefield, Ontario. The two now record and tour as a duo. Their album One came out in 2015, followed by A Celtic Family Christmas in 2016 and Canvas in 2023. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006, a Member of the Order of Nova Scotia in 2020, and was inducted into the Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour at the 2023 Canadian Grand Masters in Truro, Nova Scotia.
Playing style
MacMaster plays in the Cape Breton style, which came from Scotland with Gaelic settlers and kept its dance roots. The bow drives a steady down-up pulse built for step dancers. Strathspeys get a sharp snap, and reels run at a pace that keeps feet moving. Tunes come in medleys, often a slow air or march into a strathspey and then a string of reels, with a piano pounding chords underneath.
Her own stamp is energy and clean articulation at speed. The tradition borrows its cuts and grace notes from bagpipe playing, and she keeps those ornaments crisp even on the fastest reels. She step dances during sets, which is part of the tradition and part of her show. On later records she has mixed Cape Breton tunes with Scottish, Irish, and bluegrass material, but the bowing stays Cape Breton.
Influences and legacy
Her first and deepest influence was her uncle Buddy MacMaster, and she later recorded a full album with him. She grew up in the same tradition that produced Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald and her cousin Ashley MacIsaac.
She has played with Béla Fleck and Alison Krauss, and her track with Yo-Yo Ma appeared on his 2008 album Songs of Joy and Peace. Her partnership with Donnell Leahy joined the two biggest names in Canadian Celtic fiddle. She has appeared at Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, Celtic Connections in Scotland, and MerleFest in North Carolina, which put Cape Breton fiddling in front of bluegrass audiences.
Signature tunes and songs
Catharsis In My Hands Hey, Johnny Cope! Get Me Through December Fiddle and Bow A Glencoe Dance Set.
Essential recordings
Fit as a Fiddle (Rounder, 1993) No Boundaries (Rounder, 1997) My Roots Are Showing (WEA Canada, 1998, and Rounder, 2000) In My Hands (Rounder, 1999) One, with Donnell Leahy (DLL/MacMaster Music, 2015)
Awards and honors
Juno Award, Best Instrumental Album, My Roots Are Showing (1999) Juno Award, Best Instrumental Album, In My Hands (2000) Honorary doctorate, Niagara University (2006) Member of the Order of Canada (2006) Juno nomination, Instrumental Album of the Year, Yours Truly (2007) Member of the Order of Nova Scotia (2020) Canadian Fiddle Hall of Honour, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association (2023) Nineteen East Coast Music Awards and five Canadian Country Music Association awards, per her official site
Watch and listen
MacMaster plays and explains Cape Breton fiddle at a TED event. Watch her bow arm on the strathspey snap.
A live medley in the key of G from a Cape Breton concert. Listen for how the set builds from tune to tune.
What to learn from MacMaster
Learn Hey, Johnny Cope! from My Roots Are Showing. It is a Scottish tune with a strong melody, and her version shows how a Cape Breton fiddler builds a set from one tune. The technique to steal is her medley pacing. Pick three tunes in one key, play them in order without a break, and lift the tempo a notch at each change. Bluegrass fiddlers play one tune and stop. Cape Breton players keep a dance floor moving for ten minutes, and that stamina and sense of build will change how you run a jam.
Sources
Natalie MacMaster, Wikipedia Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, official site Hall of Honour, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Juno Awards of 1999, Wikipedia Juno Awards of 2000, Wikipedia Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, Wikipedia Natalie MacMaster, My Roots Are Showing, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more players. MacMaster learned from her uncle Buddy MacMaster and shares a tradition with Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald and her cousin Ashley MacIsaac. She tours with her husband Donnell Leahy.