Natalie MacMaster ~ Cape Breton Girl

Natalie MacMaster is having a difficult day.

“I just broke a nail,” sighs the thirty-something, multi-award winning fiddler over the phone from a truck-stop in the U.S.

“It’s really not that big a deal, except that I can’t seem to find my nail-file.”

Make no mistake – these aren’t the grumblings of celebrity. Though her sensational talent, strong work-ethic and stunning good looks have taken her to the very top of her profession, MacMaster remains true to her Cape Breton roots; warm, humble, hospitable – and humourous.

“Maybe I can borrow a file from one of the guys in the band,” she laughs. “I swear, some of them pay way more attention to their appearance than I do to mine.”

These days, it would seem that practicalities take precedence over primping.

“I don’t care what it looks like – it just keeps catching on everything.

She muses that as she has gotten older, she has learned to put life into proper perspective. “The things that used to matter to me are no longer nearly as important in the big scheme of things. I mean, really, what the heck – it’s just a nail.”

Read the whole story in the Spring 2012 edition of Celtic Life International Magazine!