Natalie Macmaster Donnell Leahy

Leahy is a Canadianfolk music group. The eight band members, all from the Leahy family of 11 siblings, are from Lakefield, Ontario and have been touring Canada and internationally since the early 1980s, when they were known as The Leahy Family. In 1985, they were the subject of a short film entitled Leahy: Music Most of All which received an Academy Award in the category of 'Best Foreign Student Film.'^[1]The members of Leahy take significant pride in their Irish roots and Canadian upbringing.^[2]

1. This is the first Christmas CD for the talented fiddler and step/tap dancer Natalie MacMaster, and the first Christmas CD for her husband Donnell Leahy since he recorded one with his family at age 14. The whole CD is a delight - eleven Christmas standards blended with.
2. Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. 4.7 out of 5 stars 39 ratings. See all 8 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. Listen Now with Amazon Music: One 'Please retry' Amazon Music Unlimited: Price New from Used from MP3 Music, April 28, 2015 'Please retry' $6.99. $6.99 — Audio CD, Import, April 28, 2015 'Please retry'.
3. Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy: Visions from Cape Breton and Beyond at the Ogle Center at IU Southeast in New Albany, Indiana on Sunday, March 10, 2019 at.

The line-up of the group varies depending upon the availability of its members, who are present or absent due to marriage, childrearing and other obligations. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the band recorded a number of privately released LPs and cassettes (most of which used the same title, The Leahy Family) which were sold at their concerts and they were frequent guests at the Big Valley Jamboree concerts in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Donnell Leahy is married to Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and Frank is married to champion step dancer Chanda Gibson. In 2008, Donnell Leahy and Natalie MacMaster were awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Trent University. Donnell Leahy — Fiddle Erin Leahy — Piano, Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals, Bass.

In 1997, the band resumed recording with their 'relaunch' album, Leahy which also introduced the group's new branding. Leahy was an instrumental album, but the band also includes vocal performances in their live performances and subsequent albums have included both vocals and instrumentals.

Despite their established history, they were awarded two Juno awards in 1998, for Best New Group^[3] and Best Instrumental Artist.^[4] The following year, Leahy took a third Juno Award, for Best Country Group or Duo. Also in 1998, Leahy were added as the opening act for Canadian country singer Shania Twain's 1998 Come on Over Tour and were featured in two television specials from the tour, Live and The Specials, performing with Twain on the song 'Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)'.^[5]

The group's members are both instrumentalists and dancers, with several members skilled in fiddle-playing (most notably the band's most famous member, Donnell). The female members of the band often perform step-dancing-style routines and do most of the singing.

Members[edit]

All members of the band are siblings. Each member has a main role to play in the band; although most play more than one instrument and all step dance. Donnell Leahy is married to Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and Frank is married to champion step dancer Chanda Gibson.

In 2008, Donnell Leahy and Natalie MacMaster were awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Trent University.^[6]

• Donnell Leahy — Fiddle
• Erin Leahy — Piano, Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Vocals, Bass
• Angus Leahy — Fiddle
• Maria Leahy — Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
• Siobheann Donohue (née Leahy) — Bass, Vocals, Fiddle
• Doug Leahy — Fiddle
• Denise Flack (née Leahy) — Vocals
• Frank Leahy — Drums

These three sisters are not currently active in the band's touring schedule.

• Agnes Enright (née Leahy) — Keyboards, Step dancer, Vocals
• Chrissie Quigley (née Leahy) — Keyboards
• Julie Leahy — Vocals

Discography[edit]

Albums[edit]

In addition, the group released several vinyl LPs and cassettes in the 1980s as The Leahy Family. These self-titled releases were privately pressed and usually sold at their concerts, although Christmas with the Leahy Family was carried by retailers such as A&B Sound.

Singles[edit]

Music videos[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Student Film Award Winners -- By Year'(PDF). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 29, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2010.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
2. ^http://irishamerica.com/2006/10/leahy-staying-true-to-the-tune/
3. ^Larry LeBlanc (21 February 1998). 'McLaughlin at top of Juno nominations'. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 14–. ISSN0006-2510.
4. ^'(Juno Awards Database Lookup)'. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
5. ^The Specials (Winter Break / Come On Over) (DVD). Shania Twain. Nashville: Mercury. 2001. Back Cover. B00005RIIO.CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
6. ^'Honorary Degree Recipients'. Trent University. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved August 22, 2010.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)

External links[edit]

Natalie MacMaster has been travelling across Canada for a couple of decades now and she knows how strongly connected the country is to the fiddle.

That's why, she says, she is excited to play in a Canada Scene concert with other proponents of fiddle music on Saturday July 8. But when ARTSFILE reached her recently, she wasn't only thinking about music. She was also concerned with family matters.

'All the kids were nicely working on chores. One is cleaning the tub and the other is folding laundry and all of sudden my husband said supper is ready and I'm thinking there is no way those sausages are cooked and I had to go down and make sure and sure enough they weren't cooked.

'It was just a little misunderstanding. Someone had turned the stove off.' It's the kind of thing that can happen when you have six kids aged three to 11. But MacMaster and husband Donnell Leahy seem to manage a musical career and raising a family pretty darn well.

The Ottawa show features performers from across Canada including: Karrnnel Sawitsky and his band The Fretless, the Ottawa Valley's April Verch, Métis fiddler John Arcand, the Northwest Territories' Wesley Hardisty and Cynthia MacLeod from P.E.I.

The roots of fiddle music in Canada begins with the arrival of Europeans in this country. MacMaster's own family landed in Cape Breton in the 1700s.

'All fiddlers will have a story to tell about why they are holding the instrument in their hands and where it came from. My roots are Scottish. The music came over from Scotland in the mid-1700s. My ancestors came from the Isle of Eigg.'

She was nine and a half when she picked one up. In her family home there were fiddles but they were all full-sized instruments 'so I wasn't big enough to play one until then.'

That happened when an uncle in Boston, Mass., shipped up a three-quarter-sized instrument up for the MacMaster children to use.

'When I saw it I really took a liking to it. I just remember looking at it and it hit my heart. I thought it was really cool. I don't remember having a profound thought. I started and when I look back now I can say that it was easy for me to pick it up.'

She, of course, was surrounded by musicians and music, especially her famous uncle Buddy MacMaster. But her own aptitude led to lessons and a career that blossomed in the 1990s.

Music lessons included learning to read music, something that she says she was impatient with.

References[edit]

1. ^'Student Film Award Winners -- By Year'(PDF). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 29, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2010.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
2. ^http://irishamerica.com/2006/10/leahy-staying-true-to-the-tune/
3. ^Larry LeBlanc (21 February 1998). 'McLaughlin at top of Juno nominations'. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 14–. ISSN0006-2510.
4. ^'(Juno Awards Database Lookup)'. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
5. ^The Specials (Winter Break / Come On Over) (DVD). Shania Twain. Nashville: Mercury. 2001. Back Cover. B00005RIIO.CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
6. ^'Honorary Degree Recipients'. Trent University. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved August 22, 2010.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)

External links[edit]

Natalie MacMaster has been travelling across Canada for a couple of decades now and she knows how strongly connected the country is to the fiddle.

That's why, she says, she is excited to play in a Canada Scene concert with other proponents of fiddle music on Saturday July 8. But when ARTSFILE reached her recently, she wasn't only thinking about music. She was also concerned with family matters.

'All the kids were nicely working on chores. One is cleaning the tub and the other is folding laundry and all of sudden my husband said supper is ready and I'm thinking there is no way those sausages are cooked and I had to go down and make sure and sure enough they weren't cooked.

'It was just a little misunderstanding. Someone had turned the stove off.' It's the kind of thing that can happen when you have six kids aged three to 11. But MacMaster and husband Donnell Leahy seem to manage a musical career and raising a family pretty darn well.

The Ottawa show features performers from across Canada including: Karrnnel Sawitsky and his band The Fretless, the Ottawa Valley's April Verch, Métis fiddler John Arcand, the Northwest Territories' Wesley Hardisty and Cynthia MacLeod from P.E.I.

The roots of fiddle music in Canada begins with the arrival of Europeans in this country. MacMaster's own family landed in Cape Breton in the 1700s.

'All fiddlers will have a story to tell about why they are holding the instrument in their hands and where it came from. My roots are Scottish. The music came over from Scotland in the mid-1700s. My ancestors came from the Isle of Eigg.'

She was nine and a half when she picked one up. In her family home there were fiddles but they were all full-sized instruments 'so I wasn't big enough to play one until then.'

That happened when an uncle in Boston, Mass., shipped up a three-quarter-sized instrument up for the MacMaster children to use.

'When I saw it I really took a liking to it. I just remember looking at it and it hit my heart. I thought it was really cool. I don't remember having a profound thought. I started and when I look back now I can say that it was easy for me to pick it up.'

She, of course, was surrounded by musicians and music, especially her famous uncle Buddy MacMaster. But her own aptitude led to lessons and a career that blossomed in the 1990s.

Music lessons included learning to read music, something that she says she was impatient with.

Natalie Macmaster & Donnell Leahy: A Celtic Family Christmas

'In my teens, my parents would bring me to another uncle of mine Kinnon Beaton. The purpose of that was to read music. I could not stand it. I didn't have the patience for it. I was looking at those black dots on a page and I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. But I learned and I'm grateful.

'I use it to write down music and to remember music. If I have to remember 2o tunes in a row. I'll write the first few bars of each one down on a piece of paper. I have books and books where I have written down a few bars of tunes. I wrote them down in my early teens and I'll never forget them.'

The instrument has been such a part of her life one wondered if there was ever a time when she has grown tired of it.

'In my 20s I was touring and doing too many shows. I was really travelling making three trips across the Atlantic in a week. I can remember being really worn out. That's 20 years ago now and I haven't felt that way since.

'Now I realize how precious it is. I realize I am on a time limit here. I want to cram in as much living and playing as I can.'

She is still doing about 100 shows a year either by herself or with Donnell, but she's sticking to North America. 'I am not interested in going to Europe any more.'

The couple have settled near Peterborough, Ontario. They have even found the time to start a Celtic music festival called the Greenbridge Celtic Folk Festival. The first edition will be Aug. 25 and 26 and they hope to make it an annual event.

Celtic music has slipped a bit in prominence, certainly from the days of Riverdance when the sounds of Irish and Scottish music was ringing worldwide.

But MacMaster isn't worried about its demise.

'It'll never go out of style, I can't imagine it. It's stood 1,000 years of testing.'

And if the Leahy-MacMaster children have anything to do with it, there's another generation of players on the way.

MacMaster is teaching her children from three year old Sadie who plays a 16th-size fiddle.

Sadie, who has Down Syndrome, has broken three of them, because they are fragile and she's three. However, 'she has taken a liking to the fiddle. She cries when we try to take it away from her. One of the proudest discoveries in my life was to see how she loves the fiddle.'

Natalie Macmaster In My Hands

Her four year old son Alec (named after her father Alexander) has started lessons. The six year old Julia is a firecracker, he mother says.

The eight year old, Claire, seems to have the ability to learn a tune and remember it. She also has a nice voice, MacMaster says. Ten year old Michael is playing the fiddle too as is Mary Francis the oldest at 11. They kids also play other instruments such as the piano and accordion. And they regularly appear in concerts with their parents.

'It's a reflection of where we come from.'

The big family is … 'Just hang on a second … the sausages may be burning…'

After checking, she picked up where we left off. 'It's just the way it worked out. I've got six kids.

'I didn't want to close life off because of my career. When you are having a family no time is a good time so any time works.'

She had a few years when she and Donnell weren't sure they would have children.

Natalie Macmaster Donnell Leahy

'Then all of sudden, the plan kicked in and then some.'

Natalie MacMaster: A Canadian Fiddle Celebration
Canada Scene
When: Saturday July 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Southam Hall
Tickets:nac-cna.ca