Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy, and family are bringing “A Celtic Family Christmas” to The Mary Webb Centre in Highgate on Saturday, Dec. 14, a sold-out show that promises to be nothing short of magical. The Mary Webb Centre, a beautiful heritage building, is a unique former church of which only two such round churches exist in North America. For performers steeped in the spirit of family and tradition, this venue provides the perfect backdrop to an evening of music and connection.
For over four decades, Natalie MacMaster has shared her music with audiences worldwide. Reflecting on her journey, she marvels at the continued enthusiasm of her listeners. “It’s been an amazing run of shows. Yeah, we’re thrilled.”
“I’m just so happy to reach people. I’ve had withdrawal experience over the past few years. It’s made me appreciate it more anytime you have an audience. I’ve been doing this for 42 years and I’m amazed that people still want to unite in this way.”
The tradition of Christmas shows began when Natalie was in her twenties, and over the years, it evolved into something much larger.
“I would say I was in my 20s when I did my first Christmas shows. Every couple of years I would do a tour at Christmas time, but then when Donnell and I got married, I’d say maybe seven or eight years into our marriage we started doing some Christmas shows and we eventually developed this Celtic Family Christmas theme which has been going on, I think for 12 or so years now.”
Natalie, recalling her early influences, “The musicians in my family are my aunts and uncles and cousins. My dad had a fiddle in the house. He played the fiddle from time to time. Not to be confused with Buddy McMaster, who was such a well-known fiddler. Dad would never call himself a fiddler, but he can play some tunes and he was my first teacher. I was nine when I received a three-quarter size fiddle from my granduncle. That’s what got me started officially. But I’d been step-dancing before that. My mom taught me to step-dance when I was five. She was a well-known step dancer in her day and I had been singing Gaelic songs and courting to tunes and things like that when I was very young.”
A Celtic Family Christmas blends festive classics with the couple’s own music, designed to evoke the spirit of the season.
Natalie explained, “It’s a blend of both with the ultimate goal of wanting to put people in Christmas spirit, good energy, positive, uplifting, but connecting to something that’s deep and broad rather than just happy fiddle tunes, let’s drink beer. It’s got some depth to it. I had one lady tell me the other night, “I cried 12 times during the show.”
“We just want to put people in the right frame of mind. Donnell and I analyzed that a lot. Is it sending the right things? Are they going out the door with the right energy and spirit? So we feel that we’ve considered everything and made the show so that it does what we wanted to do and I wouldn’t change a thing now. We have it right where we love it.”
Growing up in Cape Breton, Natalie’s Christmases were a mix of tradition and joy. “We went to church on the 24th and opened gifts on Christmas morning from Santa Claus, went to visit family over the next couple of days, and went to various functions. A lot of house parties, always with live music, fiddlers, people dancing, and good cheer. And even before Christmas, the prep for that was very typical. Getting a tree, the decorations. Mom would always start baking a couple of weeks before, sometimes putting it in the freezer for when people would drop in. And people did drop in.”
Now, with their own large family, Natalie and Donnell continue these traditions while creating new ones. “We do what you would imagine, the big turkey dinner and the same things that I grew up with, but, I think we have a little bit more of our own traditions, too. Like, Donnell will always go out and get a tree in the woods. This year, it was brought up that maybe we could just go buy a tree and everyone was like, you can’t do that! So, we have all this video footage over the years of the kids going out in lots of snow and Donnell with the chainsaw, and they go pick out a tree and cut it down,”
“We also think of it more purposefully as an Advent season and a Christmas season. We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, which I find even for me growing up, too, there wasn’t as much focus on the fact that Christmas Day was the start of Christmas and it goes till January 6. So, while some people are taking down their decorations on December 27th, we’re just getting going. That starts the beginning of party season. First, it’s Advent, then Christmas Eve, and goes for 12 days.”
Balancing music and family life extends beyond the holidays. Living on a farm is a big responsibility on top of the demands of touring.
“We have a large family up in these parts with Donnell’s siblings, and he farms with his brothers. It’s constantly a juggling act between the three boys here. When some are gone, we take over, and when we’re gone, they take over. And thank goodness. It always seems to work out.”
Natalie and Donnell’s oldest daughter, Mary Francis, is carving out her own musical path. “She is very eager, and I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated to something. She is really passionate about it and focused and very prepared to work her butt off because that’s what it takes.”
When asked about the children’s musical tastes, Natalie replied, “Our music is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to their musical taste. It’s in there, but it’s at the bottom. They’re really into a wide, diverse range of music. They all will from time to time, put on some Celtic music but it’s a small percentage. Mostly it’s popular or jazz. I don’t know how they find it, but the old hits of the 80s, which are my faves, They say 80s music, by the industry standard is not great. And I’m like, “Are you kidding me? It’s awesome!”
“ I was born in 72, so in the 80s, I was a teen. These are the years when kids just go along with whatever’s popular at the time. It can be good; it can be bad. It doesn’t matter if it’s popular. And that was me. And mind you, a lot of it was genuinely really good. But whether it was or wasn’t, it didn’t really matter. It was the music at the time. So, to hear my kids listening to that stuff, it’s kind of fun. It takes me back.”
As individual musicians, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy’s styles reflect their distinct roots—hers in Cape Breton and his in Ontario. It took some work to fit together musically when they performed together.
“I think a lot of people think that they can’t differentiate between fiddle music. It just all kind of sounds the same. I understand that. But once you get listening to it, like anything, there are dramatic differences. Donnell and I are really different players. We do both play Celtic music, but man, it’s as different as it can be. We found that especially when we first started playing together, we weren’t very good together. It’s taken a little while.”
“If we played a tune that we both knew, like a traditional, typical Celtic fiddle tune, it was really bad together because he had learned it a certain way, played a certain style and very decorative music that he plays.”
“And for me, I will have learned it a certain way, play it my style. And it’s very Cape Breton and it has a real culturally distinctive sound. You put those two together and one person covers up the other. That’s all it was. We just did not match. So it just took some time playing together. I think the biggest thing that changed it for us was just learning to listen. That’s a tough balance because as a musician, you’re concentrating very much on your own playing, like making sure it’s in tune. That’s a constant thing for me. I have to always listen for that.”
Their collaborative album, Canvas, exemplifies this harmony. Tracks like “So You Love,” featuring Yo-Yo Ma, showcase their evolving artistry.
“We loved creating that. It took several months to put the whole thing together. Although the second part came together first. I can remember going to Cape Breton saying, “Donnell, I’m going to write a first part to this thing.” Because we didn’t know what it was, it just was melodies that came out. We’re like, what is this? What’s this going to be like? We didn’t know. And there was a friend of ours from Ireland who played guitar, Tim Edy, and he came over and added a little bit more to it and it was broadening our mind. So I said, I’m going to Cape Breton. And I spent a whole day on that first part, alone at my parent’s place. Anyway, just interesting how it came together.”
“And then we took it to our producer and he added another part, where the bass and drums come in. It was a piece that just kept growing.”
Life on tour is a mix of work and family fun.
“Sometimes we’ll order pizza after the show, go back to the room and watch TV till midnight, because we don’t get back to the room till 11, sometimes 11:30. So that little thing is kind of exciting for them. Or the pools in the morning. Especially when our kids were younger, that was a big lure. Staying in a hotel and going to the pool.”
“There is work involved though. Just hauling all the equipment around and setting everything up and sound checking, ironing the clothes. They have to be done every day. The dance shoes always need some work. There’s always a screw missing or something when you’re tired. A lot of late nights and early mornings. While touring is hard work, we cherish these moments together.”
Looking ahead, Natalie is preparing to release a book inspired by her reflections on love and family titled “I Have a Love Story”.
“Maybe it was six years ago, could be seven years ago now. I got the first inspiration to write this book based on just a lot of devastating news that was in the media. I don’t ever read the news, but my husband does, and he’s the guy who will update me on things. Just a lot of tough things going on in Cape Breton. Like this girl we knew died of a drug overdose among other things and I had this sense after I got off the phone, I was driving in town by myself which was a rarity in those days when the kids were younger. And I started pondering how, gosh, we’re not safe anywhere. We’re not safe from evil that just lurks around in various ways.”
“Being a mom now, I was thinking of my kids, and I was really down about that and I just started trying to get myself out of that. And I started thinking of how much I love my family and how great it is to be a mom and live where we live. And I was filled with gratitude and I had this realization that I had my own love story. I know that sounds silly maybe, but I kind of had a flash of my life, and I’m like, oh, my gosh.”
“Growing up watching all these rom-coms and things like that, there’s a story in all of them. I was just kind of discovering my own story, and I thought, oh, my gosh. I had done an interview earlier that day, and every interview I’ve ever done, they always asked some form of the question, “How is it balancing family life and career?” And so, people are so curious about that and I had this moment of maybe it’s a good thing to spread this love that I grew up with and received from my parents and live with my husband and my kids. Maybe it’s good to share that.”
“Maybe people are curious and maybe it’s a positive thing to read about and can contribute in a positive way instead of all this weight. And then I thought, maybe people don’t know how to love or they don’t know what it looks like. There’s all sorts of different stories in the world, and mine isn’t anything special, but it exists and it’s very simple.”
“It’s just simple little stories about simple ways to love, the way I was loved by my family and how my life unfolded, and just little decisions that you make along the way based on being good to your neighbor and basic things.”
With music, family, and storytelling intertwined, Natalie and Donnell continue to create moments that resonate deeply with their audiences. As they prepare to bring their Celtic Family Christmas to Highgate, they remain grateful for the opportunity to share their lives and traditions with the world.
