This is an editorial in todays Halifax CHRONICLE HERALD :

Fans of Cape Breton fiddle music were smiling last week to hear that Hugh Allan (Buddy) MacMaster of Judique will join legends like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and the late Woody Guthrie as a recipient of the Folk Alliance International Achievement Award, to be presented in February in Kansas City, Mo.

At 89, Mr. MacMaster is no longer playing, which is truly a loss to the Cape Breton fiddling tradition that he has done so much to popularize and preserve.

But when he was still drawing the bow across his fiddle's strings, his deep, rich tones in a slow air could move a listener to tears. Minutes later, the crisp, driving sounds of a reel could set the same listener's toes a-tapping.

Mr. MacMaster's musical style, with the formal grace notes of authentic Cape Breton fiddling, comes from a tradition that began in the Scottish Highlands and crossed the ocean to be preserved, some say more true to its roots than modern Scottish fiddling, in the rural communities of Cape Breton Island.

Oddly enough, Mr. MacMaster was born in Timmins, Ont., in 1924, but five years later, his Gaelic-speaking parents returned home to Judique. He credits his mother and grandmother, musical women who excelled at Scottish mouth music known as jigging or lilting, with instilling in him the love of music that led to fiddling and his unerring ear for the true Cape Breton sound.

He is acknowledged as a master of fiddling but no one has ever accused Buddy MacMaster of being a showboat.

A quiet, soft-spoken man, he let his instrument and his music take centre stage, performing concerts and master classes across North America and Great Britain during and after a 45-year career with Canadian National as a telegrapher and station agent. Back home, though, when he was still playing, it was said Mr. MacMaster would never turn down a request to play at someone's wedding.

The Order of Canada recipient has served as a mentor to a generation of Cape Breton and Nova Scotian musicians, notably his niece Natalie MacMaster and fiddler Ashley MacIsaac, who have both helped to expand the popularity of Cape Breton fiddling.

Mr. MacMaster, in a 2001 interview while attending the Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp near Colorado Springs, Colo., noted that Cape Breton fiddling had moved into the mainstream but sounded a note of caution about whether younger performers could maintain the integrity of the music's style.

"I would like to see the music remain close to the original," he said.

Mr. MacMaster's induction into the folk alliance's ranks of iconic musicians will go a long way toward helping him to preserve the fiddle music of Cape Breton's Gaelic speakers for the listening delight of fans around the world.