Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy Create A Musical Canvas With New Studio Album

Fri Mar 17 2023
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy

The entertainment world is filled with extraordinary stories of musical power-couples, but few match the beguiling true-life tale of Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. Known as Canada’s reigning stars of Celtic music, the two musicians’ combined album sales exceed one million; they sell out performing arts centers across North America, and their enthusiastic traditional folk music loving fan base (which boasts Shania Twain and The Chieftains) stretches from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Sydney, Australia.

Check out “Woman Of The House” featuring Rhiannon Giddens on YouTube here:

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy Create A Musical Canvas With New Studio Album

Fri Feb 03, 2023
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy Canvas

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.”

Barrie’s Troubadour Festival is Back Featuring Dwayne Gretzky, Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, Dylan Sinclair, Lydia Persaud & MORE

Fri May 06 2022
Troubadour Festival

With Kempenfelt Bay serving as a beautiful backdrop like none other, residents of Barrie and beyond are set to gather outdoors to enjoy live music again this June 24th and 25th for the Troubadour Festival!

Rounding the event out with Canada’s reigning couple of Celtic fiddle, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, the two-day Festival will span genres to feature something for everyone — including Canada’s greatest party band Dwayne Gretzky, R&B swooner Dylan Sinclair, tribute extraordinaire The Sh**ty Beatles, soul songstress Lydia Persaud, power-popsters PONY, and breakthrough pop talent Josh Bogert.

Taking place at the Meridian Place Amphitheatre, the relaxed, family-friendly, and open-air concert marks its return to playing host for folks from all over Ontario to enjoy world-class live music and entertainment. With a previously featured artist roster that includes Cowboy Junkies, Basia Bulat, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Matt Andersen, Martha Wainwright, Born Ruffians, The Weather Station, Whitehorse, and more, the tenured festival has played host to thousands of music lovers from across the province since its inaugural year in 2018.

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy Welcome All Musicians of Any Style to Help Finish Their New Piece

Fri Jul 10, 2020
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy

As Canada’s ‘First Family of Fiddlers,’ Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy share hundreds of thousands of albums sold, a GRAMMY win, 14 JUNO nominations and four wins, a Canadian Folk Music Award, 21 East Coast Music Awards, five Canadian Country Music Association wins, a GEMINI win, four honorary doctorates, an induction into the Casino Nova Scotia Hall of Fame, an Academy Award-winning documentary, and a Member of the Order of Canada between them, both as solo artists, frequent collaborators, and Donnell in Leahy alongside his 10 siblings. They also have seven children who, for their part, shine onstage as the MacMaster Leahy Kids.

And now, for the first time ever, they’re opening up to the public a writing opportunity with an invitation to finish a melody they’ve started temporarily called the “COVID Co-Write.”

“Donnell and I have written the first part of a tune,” Natalie says. “We’re inviting anyone — and we mean anyone — with any musicality on any instrument in any style to take a crack at writing the next section for us.”

This includes voice and dance, she adds.

BTW--Bif Naked, Aloe Blacc, Orchid Ensemble, Yasi, Natalie MacMaster, Gail Bowen, Adam Ndaro Solomon, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Tanya Tagaq, Fergus Hambleton

Fri Feb 21 2020
Bif Naked

Multi-Gold and Platinum-selling Canadian rock star, author, songwriter, manager, producer, human and animal rights activist Bif Naked is packing the pain in her new single, “JIM” — available now!

“This is a song about loss, really,” she shares. “It’s the quintessential story of discovering a betrayal, and “JIM” is that villain. “It’s totally about pain, and facing it head-on. It’s about that disillusionment we all feel when someone turns into an imposter.”

Accompanying the release is “JIM”s official video which reveals Canada’s ‘Princess of Everything’ in her rightful throne, reigning rock supreme and as strong as ever. The track lands ahead of her forthcoming album, Champion— her eleventh studio release.

“I’m still fighting, still swinging as a legacy artist, an O.G. At this stage of the game- I am a Champion” Bif says. “I have never allowed myself to be limited, and the direction of this new album was from experimenting and being fearless. I’m excited by it, and fiercely proud of these tracks.”