Women of Country - Concert Reviews

Concert Reviews

Natalie MacMaster

Dorothy Menker Theater
November, 17th 2001

I know a lot of you are asking yourself “who is Natalie MacMaster?” Well, the best way I can describe her is an accomplished artist that is part talented musician and part Tasmanian Devil. She plays with such intensity that it amazes me that she's able not just to walk around the stage, but dance, spin, twirl and run around the stage all while playing a fiddle better than anyone I've ever heard!

For those of you who saw the CCMA's this year, you no doubt remember Natalie as the fiery blonde that opened the show fiddling from her seat in the audience before hitting the stage and joining Ricky Skaggs for what was one of the best performances of the evening. Some of you also might remember her name because we did a Featured Artist section on her back when her In My Hands album was released. Actually, that album also made both of the WOC editor's “5 Best CDs” list that year!

On to the show. I had the pleasure of seeing Natalie at a small theater here at a local college last night and I have to say the performance and the venue were absolutely perfect. Natalie, performing with a stellar 5 piece band, blended just the perfect amount of fast and slow material into the show. I think one of the reasons that Natalie has never failed to impress me on an album or live is that she stretches the boundaries and chooses material that comes from different genres and different time periods and incorporates them into her show. At one point in the evening she performed "Sorrento" the classic Italian love song before seamlessly segueing into James Taylor's “Benjamin.” She even performed an out of this world rendition of “Flamenco Fling,” a lively up-tempo Spanish flavored piece.

I have to admit that before I discovered Natalie's music a couple of years ago while flipping channels on my television set I don't know if I would have ever taken up an interest in any non-lyric driven style of music. But there is something about her music that grabs you and refuses to let you go. The subtle nuances that she can evoke with the fiddle closely resemble what a gifted vocalist can do with their voice, and the music to me hits just as an emotional chord.

Natalie seemed to be having a great time on stage as well, which always adds a few points to a performance in my book. It's obvious that she loves to play music, and also has a strong desire to expose her style of music to the masses. She also interacted with the crowd on more than a few occasions. She poked fun at the fact that she had to tune up her fiddle a couple times on stage. At one point she had the house lights on and told everyone to get up so she could teach us a basic dance step, and everyone obliged. And while introducing one song, Natalie provided the best one liner of the evening when she said “I'm going to do this next song in the Canadian key... A.”

My favorite piece of the evening was “Blue Bonnets Over The Border,” a song that Natalie introduced as one of her favorites, and one that she has recorded twice, most recently on her 1999 In My Hands release. The songs is a Celtic flavored air which evokes beauty in it's simplicity. Every time I hear it I transports me to another time and place, truly a captivating song that has got to be heard to be experienced.

The crowd, which filled the 575 seat theater, was a little older than I would have expected the audience to be, but still very enthusiastic clapping and stomping along with the music. I guess the younger generations haven't been exposed to this type of music before, and it's about time that they were. Natalie's high energy would make her a great bridge to bring the younger fans into a more “classic” style of music. The problem is you won't hear her music on country radio here in the United States, so Natalie relies on word of mouth more than anything else to get people to discover her music. So, as a music fan I feel it's my duty to tell everyone reading this that you should make an effort to see Natalie if she is appearing in your area, and the next time you're in a CD store to pick up a copy of any of her CDs.

For those who are fans of Natalie, we're happy to report that Natalie will have a new live CD and video release next year. It's slated for a February release in Canada, to follow a couple months later in the USA. She will also appear in her very first Canadian television special on CBC-TV on Sunday, December 2nd at 8PM.

Visit Natalie MacMaster's official website: http://www.nataliemacmaster.com.