Last night Natalie MacMaster and her band kicked it up at Hering Auditorium in Fairbanks. Hering Auditorium is big enough to make it worthwhile for a big-name act like MacMaster to play here, but small enough to make the experience intimate for the entire audience.
MacMaster comes from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and plays a traditional Scottish style of fiddling that is both exciting and heartfelt. Several times I wiped away tears as she played a slow air. Nova Scotia means "New Scotland" and the musical tradition there is very purely Scottish, in fact so much so that folks in Scotland look to Cape Breton to revive Scottish folk style.
I had heard that MacMaster fiddled and danced at the same time, and wondered if she would be like the other fiddlers I have seen who claim to fiddle and dance at that same time, that is, sure, they dance and fiddle, but the fiddling is more than elementary and the dancing is energetic, but plain. Playing the violin is very difficult, no matter who you are, and it takes concentration. To dance and fiddle is no easy feat, even on a very simple song. And simple songs are the only ones I've seen fiddled and danced to at the same time by the performer.
No simple tunes here! MacMaster is a monster player, chording and hitting tripletts all over the place. She sounds like two fiddles. There were two numbers where she actually, formally danced. The rest of the time she was clearly giving in to her naturally hyperactive nature, bouncing all over the stage, swaying back and forth, and giving out an occasional kick for pure exuberance. It isn't that she dances when she fiddles, it's that she just can't be still for one second. She's having such a good time that she brings the audience right along with her, too.
As a fiddle/violin teacher, I could easily imagine what it would have been like having her for a student. "Natalie," I could hear myself saying, "Stand STILL!"
Which just goes to show that wiggling around while playing a musical instrument might not be all that bad, after all.
This was by far the best concert I've been to in years. MacMaster played from 8:00 on the dot, to nearly 10:30, with a very short intermission between sets. You can bet that the next time I get a chance to see her I'll grab it!