After two sorry years of shutdown—thanks, COVID—Tucson is once
again bursting with craic, the Irish word for
good fun. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade &
Festival is back, and so are concerts of Celtic
music, dishes of Irish stew and a wee dram
of spirits. You’ll even find some Irish art.
On the night before St. Patrick’s Day, a
couple of musical lassies from Nova Scotia
will be singing, playing instruments and
yes, dancing, to the tunes of Celtic music at
Berger.
The two eclectic musicians, Cassie and
Maggie MacDonald, are sisters, grand-daughters of a pair of Nova Scotians who
helped bring traditional Scottish and Cape
Breton music to a wider Canadian audience.
Maggie plays fiddle and sings and dances,
and Cassie commands the keyboards, mandolin and guitar.
But what about Irish music? Fear not,
fans. The MacDonalds have won awards
from Irish groups more than once, and they
plan a Hibernian treat on the eve of St. Pat.
Here’s a Q&A with Cassie and yours truly.
How did COVID affect your work the
past two years?
We were just one gig into a spring tour
that was meant to last seven months when
COVID put a wrench in all international
travel. Our last gig was in Tulsa, on March
16, 2020, so it’s quite full circle for us to be
in the U.S. exactly two years later. We are
performing our first show back with you all
in Tucson!
Will you play some Irish tunes?
We’ve got a couple surprises in store to
make sure we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in
style, definitely some familiar Irish songs
where folks can sing along. We’ll also do
some lesser-known traditional ones with
wonderful stories and history.
What is the difference between Scottish and Cape Breton music and Irish
music?
A lot of it comes down to repertoire, and
very specific stylistic differences in the
approach to swing, tempo and ornamentation. Maggie and I are very lucky to have
been brought up in an extremely musical
family in Northern Nova Scotia. Nova
Scotia means “New Scotland” in Latin so we
tend to have a heavier influence from the
Scottish style of playing. But over the years
our home province has been recognized on
the world stage for unique styles of fiddle
playing and singing that sort of stands on
its own.
Do you like doing the old tunes?
That music is extremely close to our
hearts, which certainly includes the music
we learned from our grandparents. Our
grandfather, Hugh Angus MacDonald, was
an incredible fiddler and one of the very
first musicians to record traditional Nova
Scotian fiddle music, back in 1935. These
older tunes are very special to us, but we
equally love to bring a modern and contemporary approach to the traditions we’ve
inherited.
Does Maggie really dance while she is
playing music?
Yes! Dancing is a very important part of
the Celtic traditions in Nova Scotia and we
always love to put a bit in the show. It’s a
very specific style of percussive stepdance
that has developed alongside the unique
style of fiddling from Nova Scotia. Maggie
has been known to throw her guitar over
her shoulder and “give a step,” as we would
say!
What do you like about performing in
Tucson?
We’ve been lucky to play in Tucson
twice before. Our very first show was at the
beautiful St. Francis in the Foothills Church
in 2015. Then we were back in 2017 at the
wonderful Berger center. We were absolutely stunned by the warm welcome we
received on both occasions, not to mention
the incredible natural beauty that met us
everywhere we looked. We are thrilled to
be kicking off a brand-new year of touring
back in your beautiful city.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2022.
