Fired up again
Fiddler’s album nominated for Nova Scotia Music Award
It’s been almost a year since his self-titled album was released at Celtic Colours but Kyle MacDonald still finds himself All Fired Up about the reception his debut solo recording has been receiving.
MacDonald, 28, along with his twin brother Keith and older brother Colin, formed All Fired Up when he was only 10 years old.
The trio was well-known throughout Nova Scotia for their abilities to play at a level well beyond their years.
Indeed, the siblings still call themselves All Fired Up when they perform together now.
But last year, the Foot Cape, Inverness County fiddler decided to move beyond the childhood brother band and put out his own solo recording, thanks in part to funding received from the Big Sampie Award through the Volunteer Festival Drivers Association and Lakewind Sound Studios.
With that award, MacDonald joined an impressive list of young performers who also received the honour, including Colin Grant, Rachel Davis and Dawn and Margie Beaton.
“I’m the 10th recipient of the award,” MacDonald points out almost immediately after being contacted for his reaction to receiving a nomination for a Music Nova Scotia Award for best traditional/roots recording of the year last week.
“It’s helped me take my music to other places.”
MacDonald received his first
fiddle when he was only three years old and began lessons when he was six.
“I’ve always known I’d be a fiddle player,” he said. “I always knew I’d be playing for square dances.”
MacDonald considers himself an old-style player but when asked who his influences are, he prefers to remain tightlipped.
He says he tends to be most influenced by those who taught him or has had face-to-face contact with, although he admits to being a huge fan of Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac. He even performed at an Ontario music festival this summer, the Greenbridge Celtic Folk Fest in Keene, which was organized by MacMaster and her husband Donnell Leahy.
Along the way he’s also performed at the Broad Cove concert, Kitchen Fest and he’ll return to the Celtic Colours stage this October with his grandmother Penny Kennedy on piano.
He studied music in university and is also a school teacher and works at Colaisde na Gàidhlig — the Gaelic College in St. Anns.
“Things are going pretty well for me right now.”
The Music Nova Scotia Awards will be handed out in Truro on Nov. 5.