CD Odyssey Disc 812: Natalie MacMaster

The Christmas party season is starting to take its toll on me, as I feel like I have too many people to socialize with and not enough time. Today at brunch was the first time I’d had a chance to have a conversation with Sheila in three days.

All that socializing has also delayed this next review – but here we are!

Disc 812 is….In My Hands

Artist: Natalie MacMaster

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? Natalie sits on a chair, skirt riding gently up above her knees, looking sexy as hell.

How I Came To Know It: Recently my colleague Lindsey put me onto a Scottish folk song called “Blue Bonnets Over the Border” – when I realized Natalie MacMaster did a kick-ass version of it, I knew I had to have it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Natalie MacMaster albums; this one and 1998’s “My Roots are Showing” (reviewed back at Disc 683). Of the two, “My Roots Are Showing” wins 'by a hair'.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“In My Hands” is Natalie MacMaster’s most mainstream effort, but make no mistake: this is still traditional Cape Breton fiddle music. If that doesn’t float your fish boat, this album isn’t for you.

Fortunately, a well-played Cape Breton fiddle does float my boat, and I found “In My Hands” inspiring and joyful. The playing style I fell in love with on “My Roots are Showing” is on full display here. MacMaster’s style is sprightly and precise in equal measure. Even the airs on this album are brimming with a crackling energy. When the speedier jigs and reels came on while I was waiting for a light to change, it was all I could do to not start dancing as the December traffic whirled by.

MacMaster is so precise that she can sometimes stray close to losing the narrative of the tune, but she seems to have a sixth sense of knowing when to pull back and let the tune ‘play’ her back to its emotional core.

“In My Hands” seems to be making a conscious effort to reach a larger audience. Gordie Sampson, who guested as a guitarist on “My Roots are Showing” not only plays on “In My Hands,” he also produces the album. The result is a slightly more contemporary feel, as he brings some of his rock n’ roll sensibilities to the studio.

The results of all this effort is a mixed bag. The album’s title (and opening) track adds a lot of sighs and percussion and generally sounds like it is trying to do contemporary world music. The modern style that results is a bit out of step with MacMaster’s old soul. The song has lyrics (sung by MacMaster) which are generic expressions of art that don’t inspire the way they want to. Also, while MacMaster is one hell of a fiddle player as a vocalist she is just OK.

Conversely, “Get Me Through December,” a song written by Sampson and fellow Cape Breton singer-songwriter Fred Lavery is a beautiful piece. With vocals by the divine Alison Krauss, this is a song that would stand up to anything similar by Capercaillie (yes, this is high praise). MacMaster’s fiddle isn’t as prominent on this song (the tune is mostly carried by piano) but when she does kick in, the contemporary folk arrangement shows a different side of her playing which is more soulful and relaxed.

The same can be said for the album’s highlight, the cover of the traditional Scottish marching song “Blue Bonnets Over the Border.” This piece is exquisite in MacMaster’s hands as she slowly progresses one of the great fiddle melodies of all time, each time around more inspiring than the last. When you hear this song your heart is filled up and you can’t help but feel anything is possible. No wonder it has traditionally marched troops into battle – it would be one hell of a morale builder (at least until the cannons started firing).

I found the infusion of Spanish dance rhythms in “Flamenco Fling” annoying and out of place. Ditto for the ‘space age’ cosmic flourishes in “Space Ceilidh” which would be a standout on the album if it weren’t for the questionable bits of “spacey” synthesizer sounds.

Fortunately, most of the rest of “In My Hands” are traditional fiddle treatments you would expect from MacMaster, each one expertly handled. “Welcome to the Trossachs” is seven minutes of Natalie taking you to school on all the different ways she can play the fiddle to make your heart sing. “Moxham Castle” is fiddle perfection, as MacMaster plays with a depth of skill rarely heard. Father Buddy taught her well.

At 14 songs and 61 minutes, “In My Hands” feels slightly too long, and I would probably cut two or three songs and get it down into the 45-50 minute range.

“In My Hands” takes risks with a traditional audience, borrowing from pop, contemporary and world rhythms. It doesn’t always work, but it works a lot, and I admire MacMaster’s efforts to expand her own sound and see just what she can do to show new facets of her enormous talent.

Best tracks:  Welcome to the Trossachs, Blue Bonnets Over the Border, Get Me Through December, Moxham Castle, Flora MacDonald

CD Odyssey Disc 683: Natalie MacMaster

Welcome back to the thrilling conclusion to “did Logan clean his house as intended?” Sort of yes. I vacuumed the carpet immediately after uploading my last review, but couldn’t bring myself to doing the bathroom until the following evening – but more on that later. Really, I’ll talk more on that later.

Disc 683 is…. My Roots are Showing

Artist: Natalie MacMaster

Year of Release: 1998. The interweb and the CD’s embedded information both say it came out in April 2000, but I am holding the actual text on the CD case, which has a date of 1998. I’ll believe my own eyes over the interweb, thank you very much.

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s a picture of the beautiful Natalie MacMaster, looking all dreamy and full of repose. Behind her is her family tree. I’m not sure if those are actual members of her family or more her ‘fiddle’ family tree (i.e. people who influenced her playing). Either way, she’s showing her branches not her roots.

I think this cover was a touching idea, but it comes off a bit hokey for me. Fortunately a dreamy and reposeful Natalie MacMaster makes up for a lot.

How I Came To Know It: I honestly don’t remember. I must have heard MacMaster playing somewhere and was impressed, but I don’t remember the circumstances.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have this one CD by MacMaster. I am on the lookout for “In My Hands” because of the killer version of “Blue Bonnets over the Border” that’s on it, but I haven’t found it yet.

Rating: 4 stars

“My Roots Are Showing” is MacMaster delving into the traditional fiddle music of Cape Breton. To many, this might sound like the introduction to a long and dreary night at your grandparents’ house. I’d say if that’s the case, then we should all be giving our grandparents’ music collection a lot more attention.

A beautifully played fiddle always puts a smile on my face, and few can play as well as Natalie MacMaster. Her style is precise and technically as sound as anyone I listen to (and I listen to a lot of fiddles). Despite the precision, she always manages to infuse a sunny, joyful quality to her playing that lifts it up and makes it inspiring.

In fact, despite this album being almost a full hour long, and full of fiddle tunes that fade one into another over and over again, I never once got tired of listening. If anything, I’m sad to be moving on so soon.

With my limited knowledge of the musical constructions (my guitar teacher taught me they are mostly built around the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th chord progressions) and no lyrics as signposts, the songs blended together to the point that I couldn’t keep track of where I was on the album without constantly checking. Even when I did check, individual songs are themselves an amalgam of multiple fiddle tunes, seamlessly connected by MacMaster’s deft playing.

What I do know is this music made me happy. So happy, I’d forget my cares entirely while listening to it. On my walk to work, I’d arrive entirely unprepared for what my day would hold, because I simply wasn’t thinking about it until the headphones were off and I was sitting at the silence of my workstation trying to refocus.

One night on my walk home I had to pee really badly, but once the music was on, I actually forgot about my bladder. Trust me when I tell you that getting a man over 40 to forget he has to pee, is quite an accomplishment. We have to pee most of the time. Just like the walk to work experience, it wasn’t until I was home and the headphones were off that the urgency of the situation returned.

Emboldened by this cure-all effect of MacMaster’s playing, I decided to slightly break the CD Odyssey rules and listen to the last quarter of the record while cleaning my bathroom. As hoped, cleaning the toilet actually became a smashing good time with the fiddle dancing in my ears. I’m not sure I did a great job, mind you, since the controlled buoyancy of the fiddle tunes takes centre stage once you let them into your heart..

I don’t get to play this album very much. The truth is there aren’t that many people who want 60 minutes of fiddle music as the backdrop to their lives, so I’ve got to pick my spots.

However, if you want your life suffused with a natural high, you can’t do much better than putting “My Roots are Showing” on the headphones. Clean your house, do your laundry or just go for a walk in the autumn afternoon and kick some leaves. This is music that celebrates life, which means it fits into any occasion that finds you on the right side of the grass.

Best tracks: I like them all, but if I have to choose I particularly enjoyed Willie Fraser, Balmoral Highlanders, Captain Keeler, and Close to the Floor