1 In My Hands
2 Welcome To The Trossachs
3 Gramma
4 Blue Bonnets Over The Border
5 New York Jig
6 Flamenco Fling
7 Space Ceilidh
8 Olympic Reel
9 Father John MacLeod's Jig
10 Get Me Through December
11 The Farewell
12 Moxham Castle
13 Mom's Jig
14 Flora MacDonald

From Amazon.com

Niel Gow would have been proud.

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: This CD is well worth purchasing just to have "Blue Bonnets Over the Border" and "Get Me Through December". Both airs (slow fiddle tunes) are incredibly beautiful and haunting. I have heard the 18th Century air "Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife" played by many different Scottish fiddlers in its traditional form, including by Natalie MacMaster in concert, and it always takes my breath away. Natalie interprets that air on this CD as "Get Me Through December" with the assistance of Alison Krauss on vocals. The lyrics and Krauss' voice complement perfectly Natalie's fiddle to capture the mood of the air without slavishly following the tune. Niel Gow would have been proud.

There are some traditional jigs and reels, as well as the aforementioned airs, on this CD, but most of the tunes are "fusion" type recordings with non-Celtic genres of music. Some of the tunes will grow on you, and some won't, but Natalie's playing is impressive, as always, on everything.

great listening

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: MacMaster's violin can be rollicking, tender, and everything in between. A special treat is "Get Me Through December," sung by Alison Krauss.

Natalie spreads herself too thin

 Album Rating: (2 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I enjoy Natalie's playing and have all of her albums. I eagerly anticipated this album when it came out. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed with the overall package. This over-produced album tries to demonstrate to the listener that Natalie is capable of more than "just" Cape Breton-style fiddle music, and that she is in fact capable of authentically playing other styles. Just as one speaking another language, though, Natalie's Cape Breton accent is audible in all of the tunes she plays, making them sound odd and unbalanced. I think that the producers knew this at the time, because often the tracks are way over-produced, as if to make you not notice the fiddle! As for her whisper-singing, this half-hearted jaunt into a quasi-pop genre is an utter failiure, although to hear her sing along with the tune does salvage it to some degree. The best tracks, in my opinion, are the more simple tracks, most notably the tracks featuring Sharron Shannon (accordion goddess) and Alison Krauss (bluegrass goddess), where the more understated sounds compliment and support the fiddle in a much more relaxed manner.
It is worth puchasing the album for those tracks alone, but beware of "flamenco fling" and "olympic reel", which make Natalie look less than competent.

Good stuff.

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Very enjoyable, Natalie is very talented. Buy it.

Mindless Drivel

 Album Rating: (1 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I love Irish/Celtic music. Even in the most upbeat of songs, there always seems to be a contemplative soul to a song. Before I get into the bad, let me say that MacMaster is a great technical fiddler. I bought this album after seeing her on BBC television playing a long set, and she was good. However, these must have been songs taken from all across her albums because out of those tunes only one of the them appears on this album. An instrument can only be as good as the songs it is attempting to produce, and in this case there is barely anything here to get excited about.

I really tried to like this album, played it at least 20 times but found nothing on most of the songs other than the artist racing through the notes of each song like it was a 100 yard dash. I do not know if she is trying to prove to the audience that she is great with her instrument...I was convinced of that fairly early. So, what else does this album got for me, other than an exhibition put on by the artist, sadly not a whole lot. I realize that most Irish music is fast, though as mentioned before, you can hear better tunes going to your local Irish pub on a weekend and get, not better fiddle playing, but definitely better songs.

To be fair, there are a couple of songs that are not too bad, but it still a mindless romp, with really no emotional journey taken in this album. The greatest traditional Irish tunes have a heart while being light-hearted. If you like this kind of music, you are more than welcomed to it. If you want something that is maybe a little less style and a whole lot more substance...look up Secret Garden.