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June 15,
2011
Ashley’s back
and a ‘little less dangerous’
By
Laura Jean Grant, The Cape Breton Post
SYDNEY —
“Crossover” is Ashley MacIsaac’s long-awaited answer to “Hi,
How Are You Today?” That’s not to say that the renowned Cape
Breton fiddler has been silent on the music front since his
hit 1995 album. In fact, he’s released seven CDs that
ventured into a wide range of genres from rock and dance, to
pop and adult contemporary.
But it’s
been more than a decade since MacIsaac revisited — in the
form of an album — the Celtic crossover record that made him
a household name across the country and earned him
international radio play for the single “Sleepy Maggie,” a
collaboration with fellow Cape Bretoner Mary Jane Lamond.
“I
realized that each record I made I tried to go another step
in another direction, sometimes I think it was too far right
and maybe sometimes too far left for the fan base that I had
built from “Hi, How Are You Today?,” he said. “I basically
sat back and said ‘OK, I guess it worked a long time ago,
let’s try and make a crossover, a middle-of-the-road type
record rather than trying to go farther out into the
creative thing.’ And in the end I think I came up with
something that’s actually as creative as the “Hi, How Are
you Today?” record but it’s a little less dangerous on
either side of things for people so it’s probably a little
more accessible.”
“Crossover” was officially released Tuesday and is available
in many retail and online music outlets, as well as
www.ashleymacisaac.com.
“Because I
angle it to be a little bit of something for everybody,
people can buy individual tracks now where they couldn’t 20
years ago when I put out a record, you had to buy the whole
thing,” he said. “I’m hoping people will find something that
they like and stick it in their playlist.”
While many
fans of the fiddler will consider “Crossover” a return to
his musical roots, MacIsaac has a different take.
“That’s
the odd thing for me. My roots are not this. My roots were
making (1992 debut album) “Close to the Floor,” and “A Cape
Breton Christmas,” and square dances, and to me it was a big
jump to make “Hi, How Are You Today?” but to the mainstream
audience it wasn’t, it was sort of a mainstream thing,” he
said. “To me my roots were playing in Cheticamp and at the
Cedars Hall in Sydney, so I will probably make another very
traditional record as a compendium to this.”
While
“Crossover” contains some traditional tracks, including the
late Jerry Holland’s tune “My Cape Breton Home,” there’s
also plenty of Celtic rock like the fast-paced “Poka Rokin.”
The album is also a reunion of sorts for MacIsaac and Lamond
on the traditional ballad “She’s A Rare One.”
MacIsaac,
who now calls Windsor, Ont., home, has several performance
dates in Ontario and Quebec this summer and will also play
at a benefit concert in Slave Lake, Alta., on Canada Day
weekend for the community devastated by fire earlier this
spring.
He’ll also
be playing a benefit at a concert in Cheticamp to raise
funds for the Gulf Aquarium and Marine Station Cooperative.
The concert is set for July 24 at 3 p.m. at the Cheticamp
Arena and will also feature Maybelle Chisholm McQueen Cyril
MacPhee, and The Colin Grant Band.
MacIsaac
will also be hme this October to perform in the Celtic
Colours International Festival. |
