Buddy MacMaster Honoured

Subject: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 09 Jan 14 - 11:09 AM

The Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award has been given to Cape Breton's Buddy MacMaster. Congratulations Buddy!
(Copied from The Inverness Oran):
Cape Breton master fiddler Buddy MacMaster has joined a long and distinguished list of musicians to be honoured with a Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Folk Alliance International awards are slated to be given at its annual conference and winter music camp which takes place this year in February in Kansas City, Missouri.
Born in Timmons, Ontario to Cape Breton parents, MacMaster moved back to Cape Breton with his family at an early age, and he took an interest in playing the fiddle not long after, playing his first public performance before becoming a teenager and playing regularly at square dances from the age of 14 onward. He spent much of his working career as a CN stationmaster and has recorded several acclaimed albums and a video.
MacMaster has in the past been honoured with numerous awards for his lifetime contribution to Cape Breton fiddle music and culture including an honourary doctorate from St. F.X. University, an honourary doctorate from Cape Breton University, an Order of Nova Scotia (2003) and an Order of Canada (2002).
The Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented as part of the Wednesday evening conference and camp opening activities.
Past Recipients (1995-2014): 2014: Buddy MacMaster, Dock Boggs, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; 2013: The Weavers, Mike Seeger, Augusta Heritage Center; 2012: Robert Johnson, Harry Belafonte, The Highlander Center; 2011: Jimmy Rodgers, Joan Baez, Les Blank; 2010: Elizabeth Cotten, Bob Dylan, National Council for Traditional Arts; 2009: Phil Ochs, Guy and Candie Carawan, Old Town School of Folk Music; 2008: Mavis Staples, Tommy Jarrell, Rounder Records; 2007: Earl Scruggs, Dave Van Ronk, Manny Greenhill; 2006: Tom Paxton, Clifton Chenier, Kenneth Goldstein; 2005: Odetta, Stan Rogers, the Newport Folk Festival; 2004: New Lost City Ramblers, Mississippi John Hurt, Bess Lomax Hawes; 2003: Ralph Stanley, Reverend Gary Davis, SingOut!; 2002: Hazel Dickens, Bill Monroe, Harold Leventhal; 2001: Lydia Mendoza, Paul Robeson, Ralph Rinzler, Smithsonian Folklife Festival; 2000: Doc Watson, Dewey Balfa, Edith Fowke; 1999: Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, The Carter Family, Anne and Frank Warner; 1998: Jean Ritchie, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, American Folklife; 1997: Bruce "Utah" Phillips, Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie Records; 1996: Woody Guthrie, Moe Asch/Folkways Records; 1995: Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax.
The following is how Folk Alliance describes its mission and its work:
"Since 1989, Folk Alliance has served as the headquarters for Folk Music and Dance. With over 2800 members worldwide and an annual conference that is one of the five largest music conferences in North America, Folk Alliance continues to grow and mature while providing a unique range of member services to our community.
Over the years, our community has grown to include record companies, publishers, presenters, agents, managers, music support services, manufacturers and artists that work in the folk world. Folk Alliance has five regional affiliates that provide the grass roots efforts in their respective markets.
Folk Alliance International exists to foster and promote traditional, contemporary, and multicultural folk music and dance and related performing arts. The Folk Alliance seeks to strengthen and advance organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development."

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: maeve
Date: 10 Jan 14 - 08:26 AM

Thank you for the information, Sandy...an honour/honor well-earned, too!

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 10 Jan 14 - 03:41 PM

You're welcome maeve!
Buddy has received many well deserved honours but to be placed among fellows like Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Woody, and Stan Rogers is certainly something to note!
More here:
Halifax Herald

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 14 - 06:04 PM

Oh good- thanks for that link as well!

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: maeve
Date: 10 Jan 14 - 06:05 PM

Sorry- that Guest was me, sans cookie.

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 11:45 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 09:09 PM

I've heard both him and Natalie play -- the award is well deserved!!!

Congratulations, sir!!!!

Subject: RE: Buddy MacMaster Honoured
From: gnu
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 10:03 PM

Good on ya, Buddy Boy! A true treasure are ye.