PREVIEW
What: A Celtic Family Christmas, featuring Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy
When: Sunday, 2:30 p.m. (sold out) and 7:30 p.m. (tickets available); Monday, 7:30 p.m. (sold out)
Where: Mary Winspear Centre, 2243 Beacon Ave., Sidney
Tickets: $73.50 at marywinspear.ca or by phone at 250-656-0275
Note: MacMaster and Leahy will also perform Nov. 30 in Campbell River and Dec. 1 in Duncan
With a brood of young children to raise, day-to-day life for Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy is rarely easy. The bustle on the family’s farm in Douro, Ont. — where MacMaster home schools five of her six kids — borders on downright nuts come Christmastime, so planning is a must to get through it all in one piece.
Making matters more complicated are the professional lives of MacMaster and Leahy, two of the country’s most in-demand Celtic music performers. For their efforts, MacMaster and Leahy, who have a combined 12 Juno Award nominations between them, have been called the first couple of contemporary Celtic music.
Both maintain active solo careers year-round, and MacMaster teaches her children fiddle during the afternoon most days. But it’s a four-week stretch in late November and early December that reminds her why she does what she does as a parent and professional. “I usually tour at Christmas, and I tour in a big way,” MacMaster said.
“But I’ve never toured with a [Christmas ] record out. And doing one with Donnell, and having our kids on it, is definitely a more complete picture.”
The newly released A Celtic Family Christmas, the couple’s first Christmas album, will be celebrated with a national tour that begins tonight in Calgary. The month-long trek, with all six children in tow, will work its way to Vancouver Island for five dates, beginning Sunday at Sidney’s Mary Winspear Centre, followed by stops next week in Campbell River and Duncan.
The first Christmas concert tour by the Leahy-MacMaster family took place two years ago. It was a big success, but the birth of their youngest daughter made it too difficult to get back on the road last year. MacMaster figures she has spent 15 of the past 20 Christmas holidays on the road, first as a solo artist, then with various members of her family along for the ride. The upcoming round of dates will be the first to feature Mary Frances, 10, Michael, nine, Clare, seven, Julia, five, Alec, four, and Sadie, two.
Not all of them perform, but everyone in the family will be involved in the production in some way, MacMaster said.
She hopes that a cross-country tour, especially one that winds down two days before Christmas, will become something her children look forward to each year.
“Maybe this will be something where our kids tell all their friends: ‘Every Christmas we go on tour,’ ” MacMaster said. “That would be lovely. I was pumping them up about it today. We get so many opportunities that many others aren’t getting, and we have to appreciate those special moments we get on the road. We don’t have to take out the garbage or do the dishes. We get to go to the pool every day, all these little perks.”
MacMaster and Leahy are well-equipped for such roles. Leahy, the oldest sibling in a celebrated family band of 11 brothers and sisters, has been performing since he was a toddler. MacMaster, who was named to the Order of Canada in 2007, hails from a family tree that includes Buddy MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac.
The upcoming tour gives MacMaster a chance to give back to the nationwide roots-music community that has supported her since her 1989 debut, Four On the Floor, which arrived when she was just 16. And while the concerts will mainly focus on the music of A Celtic Family Christmas, a good portion will reference her “undeniable” roots, according to MacMaster.
“I’m a Cape Breton girl and always will be. There’s nothing I love more than my Cape Breton roots. I value so much all different styles of music, and I grew up with so many worlds of music. But nothing moves me as much or is as valuable to my heart than the Cape Breton stuff.”
New traditions will be made during this tour, and while the focus is on Christmas, MacMaster — who holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax — prefers to focus on the overall feelings many have for the holidays.
“It’s a celebration of music. When I grew up, there wasn’t Christmas music you played on the fiddle, you just played fiddle tunes. But the best parties were at Christmastime because everybody was around, made themselves available and had the right frame of mind. Songs, dance, fiddling, piano accompaniment — all that is part of our show.”
