![]() Her voice precedes a no-frills set of "Maudabawn Chapel/Frank's Reel," played traditionally by Natalie and Sampson on acoustic guitar, and sounding like it might have been recorded for Natalie's previous album, My Roots are Showing. "Gramma" begins with a speech sample from Natalie's grandmother, the late Margaret Ann Cameron Beaton, which was recorded when she was 91. Natalie of course leads the way throughout with her fancy fiddlework - her fingers get moving with amazing speed near the end - and this is definitely the sort of thing I was looking forward to on this album! It's lively and fresh, pumped up a bit with some rock sensibilities without ever losing touch with the traditional sound. But the set builds as it progresses through "Memories of Winston," "Highlanders Farewell to Ireland," "Gravel Walks Reel," "Colonel Thornton" and "The Hurricane" - kicking in midway with Hammond organ (Sampson again), bass (Scott Alexander), drums (Al Cross) and percussion (David Direnzo). "Welcome to the Trossachs" begins a tune set which, at the beginning, sounds like something from Natalie's old days with Dave MacIsaac on guitar and Tracey Dares on keyboard (now replaced by Gordie Sampson and Joel Chiasson). Fortunately, Natalie does pick up her fiddle for a nice touch with "The Drunken Landlady" during this one. She sounds embarrassed, and the '70s-ish synethesized backdrop is weak. but, unfortunately, Natalie's voice isn't well-suited for the words she speaks. Co-written by Natalie and Amy Sky, the poem strives for sensuality (if you listen closely, you'll realize it's about her fiddle, not a lover). ![]() While her nonverbal vocalizations hint at a good voice which could be well utilized in future endeavors, the poem she recites falls flat. The title track, "In My Hands," features Natalie's vocal debut. That said, most of the tracks on this album are superb, so let's take a look at them individually first. ![]() There is a lot of good stuff on In My Hands, but the album seems to lack focus - almost as if Natalie was eager to try so many new things that she spread herself too thin to really delve into any of them. What I didn't expect was to be mildly disappointed. Based on the tantalizing bits of modern MacMaster on her landmark album No Boundaries and a few recent live performances I've seen, I was expecting quite a lot from the woman who ranks very high among my favorite fiddlers. This is the one where she vowed to break free of the restrictions of purely traditional Cape Breton fiddling and do something new, innovative and uniquely hers with the music. I've been looking forward to the release of Natalie MacMaster's new album for a long time. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy : Natalie MacMaster, In My Hands Natalie MacMaster, You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. ![]() Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. ![]() If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. ![]()
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