Natalie MacMaster

Natalie MacMaster has been playing the fiddle for 30 years. She has toured with Carlos Santana, Allison Krauss, Faith Hill and Yo-Yo Ma, done two TED Talks about Cape Breton fiddling and sold over 200,000 albums. She really is the Queen Mother of fiddling. Cape Breton Girl, recorded in another national treasure, Glenn Gould Studios, is a study of Nova Scotian traditional music ― each piece is made up of a number of traditional pieces and covers that have been deconstructed and reformed to make a new whole. The album is beautifully composed by MacMaster and mostly pared down to simple piano and fiddle duets. From the happier moments of "F Medley" and "Butcher's Jig Set" to the lilting and morose "The Methlick Style," MacMaster's latest effort is a fantastic listen.