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Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac. Musician, composer, b Antigonish, NS, 24 Feb 1975. A fiddling child prodigy, MacIsaac grew up on a steady diet of traditional, Celtic-influenced music and learned from the local masters in his native Cape Breton. While still a teenager, he independently released two albums - Close to the Floor, which sold a healthy 25,000 copies, and A Cape Breton Christmas. During this time his playing also came to the attention of such prominent international musicians as Phillip Glass and Paul Simon, and those connections helped spur interest from the Canadian music industry.
MacIsaac signed a deal with A&M Records and released Hi How Are You Today? in 1995 through his own Ancient Music label. The album knocked purists on their ears, as it combined virtuoso traditional fiddling with modern dance rhythms and punk rock excitement. It even spawned a surprise hit in "Sleepy Maggie," a collaboration with Cape Breton Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond. MacIsaac's energetic, kilt-swirling live performances attracted fans of all ages and musical tastes, and eye-catching videos helped push sales of Hi How Are You Today? to more than 300,000 in Canada. MacIsaac was named best new solo artist and Hi How Are You Today? took the honour as best solo roots and traditional album at the 1996 Juno Awards. Fine Thank You Very Much, a companion album released in June of that year, saw Maclsaac getting back to basics with traditional jigs, reels and strathspeys. It earned him an instrumental artist of the year Juno in 1997. In addition to his undisputed musical talents, MacIsaac has also gained notoriety for his often-erratic lifestyle. While he continued to play live and also had a few small acting roles during the late 1990s, he was more frequently in the news with reports of unusual behaviour and a declaration of bankruptcy. Much of this conduct could apparently be explained by substance abuse problems, which he spoke openly about upon the release of his Helter's Celtic album in the fall of 1999. MacIsaac continued his genre-manipulating ways on the record, and even took a few stabs at singing. But slow sales - combined with his outspokenness and a controversial, profanity-laced New Year's Eve performance - contributed to the fiddler losing his deal with Loggerhead Records shortly after the release of the album. He recorded and independently released Fiddle Music 101, an album of traditional fiddle instrumentals made with Halifax fiddler David MacIsaac, and collaborated with Howie MacDonald on another independent album called Cape Breton Fiddle Music Not Calm, in 2001. MacIsaac faced his demons head on when he addressed them in his 2003 autobiography, Fiddling with Disaster. American label Decca Records, which is largely known for its jazz repertoire, released Ashley MacIsaac (featuring the fiddler singing six songs) that same year. MacIsaac continued to tour and play in a variety of different settings, and Toronto's Linus Entertainment became the fiddler's next label in the summer of 2004. It released Live at the Savoy and reissued some of MacIsaac's earlier, hard-to-get albums. CBC-TV aired the documentary Me, Myself and the Devil: The Life and Times of Ashley MacIsaac in 2005. See The Canadian Encyclopedia
Author
Steve McLean
Discography
Close to the Floor. 1992. Independent (Reissued by Linus Entertainment) A Cape Breton Christmas. 1993. Independent (Reissued by Linus Entertainment) Hi How Are You Today?. 1995. Ancient Music/A&M Records Fine Thank You Very Much. 1996. Ancient Music/A&M Records (Reissued by Linus Entertainment) Helter's Celtic. 1999. Loggerhead Records Fiddle Music 101. 2001. Independent (Reissued by Linus Entertainment) Cape Breton Fiddle Music Not Calm. 2001. Independent Ashley MacIsaac. 2003. Decca Records Live at the Savoy. 2003. Linus Entertainment
Bibliography
`MacIsaac will sell assets to pay creditors,' Canadian Press, 3 May 2000
Links to Other Sites
Cape Breton Celtic Festivals
Dedicated to Celtic music, song, and dance. Click on the "Celtic Colours" link for the latest festival highlights and biographies of participating musicians. From the Virtual Museum of Canada.
Photographs by Lois Siegel
View a selection of Lois Siegel photographs of prominent personalities from Canada and the US.
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| THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA |
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