Fiddle Masters Tickets

What an incredibly talented couple! Actually, the whole family is amazing. We saw the Leahy family perform a couple of years ago and were completely blown away by their range of talent. They all play multiple instruments and their dancing is incredible. I can only imagine that Donnell Leahy and Natalie MacMaster's small children are already displaying musical talent. I wish they would come to the west coast more often, and highly recommend the Leahy DVD to everyone, which you can watch as well as listen to.

It was a night of splendid and magnificent music. To say that Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy are masters of the fiddle is an understatement. Natalie and Donnell are universal champions of the violin, each a brilliant and dedicated musician with diverse styles that blend together to overwhelm a listener's sense of beauty. I have heard many of the greatest musicians in concert in their prime, like jazz legend Louis Armstrong, rock and roll hall of famer guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn, fireballing piano players Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles, great banjo, mandolin, dobro and guitar pickers accompanying country legends Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. I have heard sublime symphony orchestras and thundering operas. Last Thursday at the Napa Opera House and Saturday at the Marin center Natalie and Donnell delivered the most beautiful wonderful and glorious music I ever heard from a culture richly steeped in traditional Celtic folk tunes. Accompanying the Fiddle Masters were fabulously talented piano players Erin Leahy and Mac Morin. I have been a long time fan of Mac who plays with the best players from Cape Breton Nova Scotia, home of the world's most beautiful. happy and optimistic music. First time hearing Erin was mesmerizing, what a great talent who gave glimpses of New Orleans and ragtime in her solos showcasing her diversity and amazing talent. This was the greatest assemblage of talent that ever appeared on one stage in my opinion. Hooray and double three cheers for Natalie, Donnell, Erin and Mac. From the first note of the first tune, "The King's Set" the music was delightful and perfect. Natalie mixed it up pretty good starting off with the "Happy Go Lucky Clogs" and switching effortlessly into "Hiawatha." She casually and brilliantly played some old Buddy MacMaster tunes from "Spin and Glow" to traditional reels. Donnell gorgeously rendered the old Joe Cormier classic tune "The Banks" then reeled off the old Jerry Lee Lewis favorite "Alabama Jubilee" blisteringly fast,every note just perfect. The band rolled along with the country classic "Orange Blossom Special.' What a ride for the eager listeners in the audience, every note right on schedule. Each solo was played perfectly with style and grace, the reel collaborations were stunningly fabulous. I say this concert was great and beautiful, yet there is no way to describe what it really was like and how it felt to be there for such a glorious music confluence of individual ability and talent. I have known for years that Natalie MacMaster is the world's greatest musician. You can sure tell it from the company she keeps on stage. If anyone out there has an opportunity to hear these music masters on tour take it, bring the whole family, everyone you love and all your friends. You will fill your ears and hearts with beauty, mirth, glory and awe that anything on Earth could be as beautiful as the live music of Natalie, Donnell, Mac and Erin. A tip of the Leprechaun's hat to this wonderful, nice friendly incredible beyond fabulous four. Theirs is a realm of magnificence.

I took my 10 year-old son (who is a violin player), and we just kept looking at each other in amazement and commenting how "awesome" the show was! The fiddling was like nothing we've ever seen or heard before, and the dancing and piano-playing was a fantastic added bonus! There was also the humor and great story of how Natalie and Donnell met...phenomenal show!!

A wonderful and entertaining evening by a very talented couple and their dancing pianists!

I have been a fan of Natalie MacMaster for years, but I was only vaguely familiar with Donnell Leahy, never having seen his band (also called Leahy). The guy is really awesome, with a level of technical skill that I just haven't seen in a lot of folk players. The two of them were obviously having way too much fun, and it was just a wonderful powerhouse show, ably rounded out by Mac Morin and Erin (?) Leahy on pianos. Mac Morin is one of the finest Cape Breton pianists, and I was slightly disappointed that he didn't get to solo more, because I know how good he is, but there wasn't time. Again, I wasn't familiar with Ms. Leahy (and I may have gotten her first name wrong), but she did some amazing solos. Everybody step-danced; Natalie was terrific by any standard, but all the more so given that she's about six months pregnant. My only minor gripe about the show is that Natalie tended to talk quite a bit. It's fun up to a point, but she went beyond it. She's a nice lady, and the folksy-Cape-Breton-charm thing is pleasant if perhaps a little bit forced, but a monologist she ain't. I'll listen to Spalding Gray talk for hours, but Natalie's forte is fiddling, and I could have used a bit more of that and a bit less about her farm and her cows and how blessed she is to have such a great family and so forth.

Wow, what a show. These two can do amazing things with their fiddles. I've seen her several times and I am always amazed. Now with her husband as part of the show it is even more amazing!!! Makes me want to go to Cape Breton and hang out with the "family".