A blank canvas is full of possibility—much like the partnership of Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, whose new album Canvas comes out March 17, 2023. They are two of the world’s top Celtic fiddlers: she a renowned, award-winning solo artist from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; he from the legendary Leahy family of Ontario, an intergenerational musical act that toured the world. They were married in 2002, by which point their cumulative album sales topped one million. A power couple was born.
Canvas is only their third album together. They approached it not bound by easy patterns or habits, but as a blank canvas. “Creativity comes when there is space for it,” says MacMaster. “One thing Donnell and I were given in 2020 was the space and time to be creative, to think and focus and find what was inside of us. Like an empty canvas, our minds were clear, open for the music that was about to flow. There were no restrictions, rules, agendas, considerations. As Donnell often said, ‘Let the music decide.’ So, we indulged in full musical freedom, throwing patterns of the past aside. With a few challenges along the way, it was a delight from beginning to end.”