Canadian Fiddle Music From East to West

Let's start our tour of Canadian Fiddle Music in the far East. Eastern Canada, that is!

Back in the 90's, Ashley MacIsaac singlehandedly put fiddle music "out there" to the people who would not normally listen to this type of music. Suddenly music schools were booking in fiddle students by the dozens and when Natalie MacMaster followed shortly after, the girls wanted to play fiddle too!

Fiddle music was suddenly cool.

The addicting melodies, the fancy "twiddles", that we now know as ornaments, made us want more and more. After listening to the haunting sounds of Sleepy Maggie on Ashley's "Hi How You Today" album over and over again, we all starting delving a little deeper into fiddling. We discovered Natalie, her uncle Buddy MacMaster, Jerry Holland, Brenda Stubbert, just to name a few. Turns out, this style of fiddling, that we came to know as "Celtic Fiddling," had been around for years, and has its roots anchored across the pond in Scotland. THAT'S why most of the tunes are interchangeable on the bagpipes!

Cape Breton became synonymous with Canadian fiddling and everyone thought that it was the newest thing! "Sleepy Maggie," not to be confused with "Drowsy Maggie," was a big hit on the Canadian hit parade. Suddenly fiddle music was being heard on the radio! And the song, paired with the driving bass and drum beats, and topped off with the ethereal Gaelic singing of Mary Jane Lamond, was almost an addiction. Canadians couldn't get enough, and this song singlehandedly put fiddle music into the mainstream. Imagine....a scruffy looking guy in a kilt, Doc Martens, and funky sunglasses, stomping around and looking like he was in a trance, playing fiddle tunes. The traditionalists were mortified. The rest of the country enthralled. Finally, finally, fiddle music wasn't just for old people and high school band students suddenly stopped asking their parents for rides on band practice days. After all, they were fiddlers, and yeah, Canadian Fiddle Music is cool.

Stay tuned for the next post on Canadian Fiddle Music when we delve a little deeper into the East Coast Celtic Fiddle phenomenon.