Getting Jiggy in October

Once upon a boring Saturday afternoon when I was doing some housecleaning, I had the TV on just to have some background noise. Suddenly, I was aware that there was something fantastic on that I was missing. There was a violinist playing the fiddle and dancing. Yes, simultaneously. I stopped in my tracks (I was cleaning the house - I didn't need a lot of motivation) and pressed record on the VCR. Yes, it really was that long ago - before TiVo and DVRs.

The violinist was called Natalie MacMaster. She's from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and has been playing the fiddle in traditional Scottish/Cape Breton style since she was a child. She released her first album at the age of 16 and has been nominated for multiple Grammy awards. She has played with notable artists such as Yoyo Ma, Bela Fleck, Alison Krauss, The Chieftains and many others.

It's a niche kind of music and I love it. I don't know if it's because I have some Scottish/Gaelic/Celtic blood running through my veins or what, but I can always appreciate amazing talent, and she has that in spades.

I never really held out much hope for being able to see her perform live unless I was willing to travel to Nova Scotia (bucket list!), until several years ago I saw on her website that she would be performing in Pasadena - just down the road from me. We went and had a delightful time.

A few weeks ago I decided to check again and see if she would be touring anytime soon, and she was! The downside was that the nearest place to me she'd be was in Poway, California. I know - I'd never heard of it, either. It's in San Diego county, about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We've gone to concerts down there before when the artist has been too sold out in Los Angeles to get decent seats. And Natalie is worth the drive.

Here's a sample of her playing the fiddle. One of  things I love most about live music is seeing/hearing/experiencing what excellent musicians can do together. It was so very cool to see how only five musicians can make such a rich sound.

Here she is jigging:

And here she is doing both at the same time. It's a short clip because I was so enchanted I forgot to record it sooner, but you get the idea:

She also came out after the show to do a little meet-n-greet. She signed a CD for me and I got a picture with her.