![]() The music seems to have a universality of appeal. MacMaster made a name for herself performing jigs, reels, airs, strathspeys, waltzes, ballads, marches and traditional folk while also incorporating floor-pounding step-dancing. This time they were engaged two months later and the couple got married in 2002. The distance of having subsequently broken up for 10 years was bridged when Leahy unexpectedly called again with another invitation to dinner. "He tells me now why he drove for 20 hours - he heard my tape and knew how old I was." Leahy, now 50, is four years older. She was at college when Leahy "phoned out of the blue" saying he was a fiddle player from Ontario who was "in town and could he take me out to dinner," MacMaster recalled. However, "the fiddle took over," she said. With an eye for security she studied for a teacher's degree at college in Nova Scotia. I wanted to be able to play and I knew I could." I got a three-quarters fiddle from my granduncle when I was 9 and just started playing," she said. For me I never looked at it in a particular way. With that, MacMaster played traditional music when she performed. People condemn '80s music, but I loved it." Also, her brothers were into Led Zeppelin, she said, and her mother was fond of ABBA. I was born in '72, but in the '80s I became a teenager. We had family gatherings of hours and hours of live fiddle music," MacMaster said. By 16, she had released her first album, "Four on the Floor." She is the niece of the late famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster and first picked up a fiddle (a three-quarters fiddle) in earnest at 9, giving public performances a short while later. MacMaster, 46, had her own influential music background on Cape Breton Island. There would be plenty of family to help out in Lakefield, where Donnell Leahy grew up and became a member of the famed Leahy Canadian folk music group of eight band members all from the Leahy family of siblings. Halfway through the tour, they'll swap children so that the other three can also enjoy the tour experience. "Our home away from home," MacMaster said. The couple, four of their seven children and the band were traveling by bus. MacMaster and Leahy are on a 21-stop tour with "Visions from Cape Breton and Beyond," and MacMaster was speaking on the phone recently from Eureka, California. Their first album playing together was titled "One." "Exultant" is a term that's been used to describe Leahy. "Jubilant," said one review of MacMaster. But Donnell, you have his music - it's definitely Ontario but it's his own style as well," MacMaster said.īoth have also worked in other genres, but there are words that have collectively summed up the effect of each of them when performing. "A large portion of the night is what you would expect - Cape Breton. Some of the MacMaster-Leahy children will take the stage for a short step-dancing feature spotlight. The guitarist in the four-member band they'll be performing with is Cuban, "adding an element," MacMaster said. On March 15, MacMaster and Leahy will play separately and together, including some original pieces they have written. "Doing a show with Donnell is definitely different," MacMaster said during a recent telephone interview. Leahy was home (the couple and their seven children now live in Lakefield) when MacMaster last brought her explosive fiddle playing and step dancing to Worcester to Mechanics Hall in 2013. Cape Breton music is considered Scottish-French Celtic, and in MacMaster's case you could say that the Scottish element holds sway. While they are both extraordinary fiddle players, there are some musical differences in their styles and influences although the "mileage" has been triumphantly overcome. ![]() They'll be together March 15 at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for their show "Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: Visions from Cape Breton and Beyond," presented by Music Worcester. The two are now considered to be "Canada's reigning couple of Celtic music." "We dated for two years, broke up for 10 years, and then we got married," MacMaster said. However, there was some "distance" for a while in terms of their personal connection. WORCESTER - It is about 1,174 miles from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to Lakefield, Ontario.Ĭanadian fiddle players Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy are not nearly that far apart musically in comparison with their respective hometowns.
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