Natalie Macmaster - Yours Truly
List Price:
Our Price: $9.00
You Save: $8.98 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.04 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Natalie MacmasterBrand: MACMASTER,NATALIE
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Published: 2006-10-31
CD Release Date: 2006-10-10
Music Label: Rounder / UMGD
Soundtracks:
- Volcanic Jig
- NPG
- Flea As A Bird
- Farewell To Peter
- Matt And Nat's
- David's Jig
- Danny Boy
- Traditional Medley
- Cape Classico
- Julia's Waltz
- Mother Nature
- Interlude
Music reviews of Yours Truly
Music Review: A Marked improvement, with two mis-steps
Rating: 4 Stars
I have just picked up Natalie Mac Master's new CD, YOURS TRULY, and with the opening set, "Volcanic Jig", thought straight off that finally, someone is taking the fiddle tradition forward with a gravitas that is leagues away from the dancing kewpie doll stylings that MacMaster in many ways fomented as teenager. The cello was a brilliant touch, and throughout the disc, there are brilliant touches. The rhythm section of Miche Poulier and John Chiasson ground the proceedings during the airs and laments, and drive them propulsively forward in the rock numbers, all of which Macmaster handles exceptionally well. Matt MacIsaac blasts through with an array of natural and electric pipes that remind you this is SCOTS! Where the disc falls is on two numbers, and they exhibit very unfortunate artistic decisions. The first is "Danny Boy." Mind you, MacMaster delivers it free of the cloying sentimentality of Mike Douglas, but even with Michael McDonald as vocalist, the truth remains that no one needs to record this song ever again. No less an authority than Tomas Standeven once said to me that he found the original Gaelic air on which it is based to be dripping with celtic sentimentality and melodrama. Leave it for your auntie to sing at weddings and funerals. If Clapton and Richard Thompson came up short in breathing new life in to this party piece, what hope did the Doobie-Mabou coalition expect? It isn't a bad track, it's just enough, already. Honest. Go away. Surely McDonald's baritone could have been better employed in a Gaelic song, even if he had to learn it phonetically. The other shoe drops with the closing piece, "Interlude" which is a simple and lovely enough coda to an otherwise strong CD, but it gets torpedoed by Natalie's voice over earnestly thanking everyone. PUHLEASSSEEEE!
First off, it takes away from what is otherwise a simple and contemplative conclusion. Second, the musicians are supposed to do a good job, that's what you paid them for. It would have had a much more brilliant approach had she lambasted her colleagues for truly awful workmanship, but I don't think Natalie has that kind of irony up her sleeve. And it gets worse: she has her baby cooing as the piece concludes.
Let me give you a rule of thumb: if John, Paul, George or Ringo didn't do it, there's probably a very good reason, no matter what discipline of music you embrace. I'm happy for her that she has a lovely child. But it didn't work for Stevie Wonder (somebody please shut that kid up on Isn't She Lovely), it didn't work for YES (Jon Anderson's brat ticking off what he didn't get at Circus of Heaven). Cat Stevens managed it with "Days of the Old Schoolyard", but just. Second to this transgression in taste is having a non-musical spouse join in. Lennon and McCartney both flunked that course, and Springsteen, Young and Peter Gabriel have barely passed. Enjoy your family backstage and at home. Out front, hit the clock and go to work.
On the whole, though, this is a great step forward for MacMaster, whose stage career was becoming a parody of itself. Years back, when she first hit the scene, she was an exciting kid whose enthusiasm knew no bounds. Dave Mac Isaac was astounded at her inate musicality that she could string together tunes that he knew no one had taught her because they were the right progression. If you recall the early shows that TROCAIRE promoted, Natalie was taking a tradition forward with integrity and commitment. It's not her fault, but in her wake, she spawned a whole slew of dancing kewpie dolls that turned up everywhere with the same MO: Blond curls, big hooters, step dancing while fiddling (sometimes even in time with the music), and tunes that were sort of Wal-Mart country celt. Yikes. On her Live disc, MacMaster teetered way too close to that junk for my tastes. She has recovered her sensibilities.
She is not alone in going awry. I don't know what happened to Ashley MacIsaac, but somehow going gay and doing coke skewered his artistic compass. His latest CD, PRIDE, is possibly the worst CD ever recorded for two very big reasons; he opts not to play the fiddle and he sings. Yikes squared. Now I like Cole Porter as much as the next metro, but Ashley ain't Cole by a long shot, and I really didn't want that much detail about his amorous designs.
Johnny Cunningham and Kevin Burke had less than brilliant autumnal efforts. The Celtic Fiddle Festival was a collection of party pieces with no inspired playing save that of Christian Le Maitre, John McGahan, and Soig Siberil. Cunningham would begin to redeem his credentials with Susan McKeown, but time and a disolute lifestyle intervened. Kevin Burke is content to rest on laurels forged in the 70's and 80's, most often with Michael O Domhnaill as collaborator. That changed briefly in the presence of Andy Irvine, who brooks no slackers, and Patrick Street, but otherwise, Burke has been on automatic for years. Natalie had been a striking wake up call during the Second CFF in partnership with Brain McNeil and Martin Hayes and Tony MacManus. It is a pity that that ensemble never saw an encore tour. The tapes I have of that show are some of the very best music I have ever heard. The trend toward sappy patronizing continues though. Johnny Hardie of Old Blind Dogs released a CD of dripping sentimentality. I can no more listen to that than anything by anybody ever associated with Michael Ego-dancing Flatulence. That stuff makes me want to go out, buy a green sweater and set it on fire.
So, I am hoping that YOURS TRULY will be the kind of CD that Natalie and the tradition will look to for the way in which you can move a tradition forward, and if, as I hope and pray, that this is the last time anybody ever records "Diddy Boy" (for the record, the only version of this song I ever liked was that thrash metal one on that credit card commercial from years back), then I'll be reassured that the concept of being open so that Music may take you into its confidence is still alive in the Irsih and Scots tradition. Now, on to Porcupine Tree and Tool......
Description of Yours Truly
No Description Available.Genre: Folk Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 10-OCT-2006
Though the music of Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster remains rooted in her native Cape Breton, it continues to branch in some surprising directions. No purist, MacMaster employs an aggressive guitar and rhythm section, along with mini-Moog and electric pipes on "Matt & Nat's," while the jazzy intro to the "Flea as a Bird" medley seems to channel the style of Stephane Grappelli. Guest vocalist Michael McDonald gives the traditional "Danny Boy" a soulful, somber twist, and "Farewell to Peter" offers an instrumental elegy to Peter Jennings, MacMaster's late friend and countryman. Yet uptempo instrumentals dominate, as the opening "Volcanic Jig" builds to an eruption worthy of its title, "David's Jig" employs her step dancing as percussion, and her flamboyant virtuosity through much of the music finds her rarely settling for one note where she can squeeze in three or four. --Don McLeese
Folk CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Folk CDs
Margie Adam - Another PlaceRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $16.99
Ann Reed - Road of the HeartRelease date: 1994-06-29; Music CD
Best price: $29.99
Ann Reed - Back & ForthRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Kay Gardner - Rainbow PathRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $15.05
Price in other shops:
Joanne Rand - Grant Me EyesRelease date: 2001-08-02; Music CD
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
Betty - Hello Betty!Release date: 1994-03-21; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Kay Gardner - AmazonRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Stage 2: Human HeartRelease date: 1997-04-11; Music CD
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Cyntia Smith, Ruth Barrett - Heart Is the Only NationRelease date: 1996-07-17; Music CD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Giants! A Colossal Collection of Tales and TunesGreathall Productions, Inc.; Release date: 2000-04-05; Published: 1996; Music CD
Best price: $8.68
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Mel Bay presents Natalie Macmaster's Cape Breton Island FiddleMel Bay Publications, Inc.; Published: 2001-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.42
Price in other shops:
Leahy - In All ThingsRelease date: 2004-01-27; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Leahy - LeahyRelease date: 2007-01-08; Music CD
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - A CompilationRelease date: 1998-02-10; Music CD
Best price: $13.66
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - Fit As a FiddleRelease date: 1997-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $48.11
Natalie Macmaster - BlueprintMACMASTER,NATALIE; Release date: 2003-09-09; Music CD
Best price: $11.96
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - In My HandsMACMASTER,NATALIE; Release date: 1999-09-14; Music CD
Best price: $17.76
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - No BoundariesMACMASTER,NATALIE; Release date: 1997-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - LiveMACMASTER,NATALIE; Release date: 2002-06-04; Music CD
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Natalie Macmaster - My Roots Are ShowingMACMASTER,NATALIE; Release date: 2000-04-11; Music CD
Best price: $3.88
Price in other shops: