Natalie MacMaster Quotes

I have always loved Scottish music - all sorts of Celtic, Gaelic music.

It really is, to see that this kind of music is still so popular.

Living in Cape Breton, it's really all about fiddle music, so it's not like there were other instruments out there that tempted me and it was like I had to decide which one. It was automatically fiddle, because it's the predominant instrument in Cape Breton Island.

I have been interested in Irish traditional music for the past few years.

As you may know my use of Celtic music is extremely simple and short. However there is something about it that will remain in your mind for a long, long time.

Mine is not a traditional music, but it comes from a tradition.

I play Irish popular music, yeah? Calling it folk is like putting it in a box. It's a living tradition, you know?

Enjoy music. Not the kind that rocks and rolls, but the music of the masters, the music that has lived through the centuries, the music that has lifted people. If you do not have a taste for it, listen to it thoughtfully. If you do not like it the first time, listen to it again and keep listening.

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams. All of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times. They're the songs that last through time.

Celtic music is part of the language in Scotland and Ireland, where every kid and grandparent knows those songs, music by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Hank Snow is getting entrenched here. They are part of our cultural language. It's part of a living treasure. It doesn't just belong to a museum.

Most boys' first hero is their father. That was definitely true of my dad. He was a proud Irish American and he taught me a lot about ethics and responsibility. He also introduced me to a lot of wonderful folk music.

The music we're playing now is based on my heritage, which is Russian, Romanian and Hungarian.

I've been hearing fiddle music since I was in the womb, I'm sure.

My father was a painter. There was a lot of singing. We hung around with a lot of folk musicians. My family knew a lot of great folk musicians of the time, like Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, Leadbelly. They were all people we knew.

One cannot imagine Scots music and song without the contribution of Burns.

The first music I was ever exposed to was Irish folk music, like the Clancy Brothers. My father plays that and Christmas songs.

I didn't know folk music growing up, no. It's something I've come to study, really, because I think there's so much to learn from traditional music in the sense of the way music began as a way of communication, the traveling storyteller, the bard, the minstrels.

I mean, the genuine roots of culture is folk music.

You know, traditional country music is something that's going to be around forever.

We have that storytelling history in country and bluegrass and old time and folk music, blues - all those things that combine to make up the genre. It was probably storytelling before it was songwriting, as far as country music is concerned. It's fun to be a part of that and tip the hat to that. You know, and keep that tradition alive.

Cornwall has lots of folk and Celtic music and has that kind of surfer vibe as well. That was my kind of upbringing.

Americana Music is about all sorts of different music. It's very free and open: a world where people just like authentic music.

I'm one of those firm believers that good music will prevail.

Certainly my only interest is not in Celtic music.

Can you imagine that Cuba and Europe's youth, who had forgotten about traditional music, who only thought of rock music, are now looking back towards their grandparents? That is a phenomenon.