Cassie and Maggie MacDonald. Photo credit: Haley Anne MacPhee
Previously on NTSIB’s own personal Canadian Music Week: some rock, some punk, some sweet dirty blues, from the rust belt and the praries. Today we’re jumping out to the Maritimes, to Nova Scotia, and to Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, who have an invigorating sound that draws from Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton traditions.
Here are a few tunes from their new record, Sterling Road:
Jimmie’s, written for an uncle and the family farm, is a charming delight, sweet as sea breeze on a warm summer day:
The Dusty Meadow Variations, a glorious piano and fiddle romp:
And finally, their interpretation of Buain A’ Choirce (Reaping the Oats), a Scots Gaelic milling song, which I like because it is both beautiful and gloomy: