Sketches

Natalie MacMaster is Canadian fiddle royalty, with a bulging cabinet of awards and an address book of artists (from Béla Fleck to Buddy MacMaster, her uncle) and bands (The Chieflains) with whom she has worked. Sketches is the Cape Breton musician's first solo album since 2011. It follows the duo album, One, with her husband and fellow fiddler Donnell Leahy, which was produced by Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed) and carried a big stadium feel.

This new record is quite different – intimate (often with just guitarist Tim Edey and bassist Marc Rogers accompanying) and unpretentious. Celtic tunes dominate, as is to be expected, but there are flavours from elsewhere, such as Stéphane Grappelli- style fiddling on hornpipe ‘The Golden Eagle’ and French chanson in accordion-drenched ‘Morning Galliano’. MacMaster weaves her own tunes into sets that skilfully mix dances together. There are jigs, strathspeys and reels galore, and distinctive Breton dances, such as ‘Fill'er Up for a Set’ (three melodies celebrating square dances of Nova Scotia). Throughout, MacMaster's bright and fiery playing is a constant coaxing, hurrying voice. She is a musician at the peak of her powers.