By Jim Barber
In the event you’re in search of grime. In the event you’re in search of an insider’s view of the ups and downs, the great, the unhealthy or the seamier underbelly of the music trade, in case you’re in search of the proverbial, intercourse, medicine and rock and roll (and fiddles!!) and hell-bent-for-leather tales of relationship tumult and substance-fueled misbehavior, I Have a Love Story is most assuredly NOT the e book for you.
In the event you’ve spent even 5 minutes with its creator, the enduring Canadian fiddler/tunesmith/performer Natalie MacMaster you’d know that this isn’t the type of e book she would ever write, as a result of that’s not the life she’s led. She possesses the category, propriety and rectitude that’s exhibited by most individuals who grew up in small communities, surrounded by household and associates, lots of whom depend on the weather and the providential provisions of nature for his or her livings. So, no, she’s not going to create and launch the same old type of salacious, headline-grabbing, click-baiting autobiography that’s virtually anticipated within the TMZ-like world through which we stay.
Not that her life has been excellent. Once you’ve grown up within the usually tough and tumble east coast, the place all the pieces in life that’s value having is difficult earned, if you’re born with an unbridled artistic spirit, if you’re within the public highlight for your entire grownup life, when you’ve got seven youngsters and married right into a household [her hubby is Donnell Leahy, from the prodigious Leahy family of musicians] that just about wants its personal space code for its sheer numbers, when a kind of youngsters is born with distinctive, however stunning challenges, life is a jumbling, tumbling, usually chaotic, and by no means sedate.
MacMaster has needed to ‘grasp’ time administration in methods most individuals might by no means fathom. She’s needed to create a piece life steadiness that belies perception, however is in actual fact primarily based very a lot on perception and religion … and particularly love.
The e book does comprise anecdotes, and remembrances and tales from house, tales from the street, and tales of creativity, battle and overcoming. However they’re all introduced within the service of the core theme of the e book – love. It’s not a chronological recitation of info, recordings, exhibits, births, deaths, accolades, neither is it an train in superstar title dropping for title dropping’s sake (however sure, she met a Pope!).
MacMaster’s intention for this challenge, which was really impressed by the darker facet of humanity, is to convey some mild to the world. One of the best ways she felt she might do this was to speak concerning the mild in her life, the sunshine illuminated by her ardour for music, her devotion to her religion and the unabating, virtually reverent love she reveals for her husband Donnell, and their seven youngsters.
“I used to be requested early on within the course of to think about three phrases to explain what I needed the e book to be. I needed it to be a superb learn, properly crafted and playful. I needed it to resonate and I needed to encourage, I needed to energise individuals to motion. So, when the writer was speaking to me about it being a memoir, I stated that’s actually received nothing to do with it. The great learn half is the data, and some humorous issues and tales about touring and being a musician. However there’s a lot I simply didn’t put in as a result of I believed it’s going to discourage the main focus. I’m solely going to incorporate as a lot of that as makes it an pleasant learn. And it helps form the importance of moments for the reader, like once I had a child, what was it like pondering that I’m gonna have to offer all of it up. Properly, they should know what it’s I is perhaps giving up. And I wasn’t even pondering of an viewers. I used to be so indifferent from the advertising side. Even once I known as the publishing firm, I used to be nonetheless sort of fearful to place it on the market. So, I wasn’t within the zone of enthusiastic about the fingers that have been going to obtain it. I simply stored pondering, ‘I simply should put this out into the world. I’ve to get this off my chest, off my coronary heart. And I’ve to doc it and put it out into the world.’ And, actually, I wasn’t contemplating all these components which are a part of the enterprise side of it,” she stated.
“Primary, I hope it conjures up individuals to be extra proactive in who they’re and what they need to develop into because it pertains to like. I really feel that the world has created these slogans like ‘you’re value it,’ ‘you deserve it,’ and all this sort of stuff. Properly, there’s one other slogan that must be on the market which is, ‘work laborious for love.’ We are able to’t simply settle for ourselves the place we’re at and justify issues that we do this aren’t of loving intention. We’re human, so I get it. And once I converse like this, this is among the hesitations I’ve for placing this e book out as a result of I don’t need individuals pondering that I’m some sort of self-help guru. I’m simply sitting within the boat with everyone else, and I’m actually removed from something that’s excellent. So, I see it as me having skilled falling off, falling brief on a regular basis. The factor that freaks me out is how fragile human nature is. I can’t recover from the instances I’ve determined that I’m not going to do one thing anymore, or that I need to be extra like this sort of individual, and actually seconds later, I fall out of the boat and simply do one thing silly once more that I decided so strongly in my coronary heart that I used to be not going to do. And positively, when you’ve got children and also you’re within the parenting function, stuff like that’s taking place on a regular basis. However the objective is to select your self up, don’t settle for it, preserve attempting. Hold attempting as a result of there’s all the time hope. I imagine that the one manner we attain something that’s of nice worth in our lives is to work for it, and that you must work for love. That’s sort of the that means of it – it’s an motion. Typically, for some individuals, love could be very simple since you love the individuals you like, however typically it’s actually laborious, however that doesn’t imply you shouldn’t do it. And there was the inspiration that I noticed from my mother and father’ common. And that is what I used to be sort of specializing in was simply going again to the fundamentals, just like the Golden Rule [do unto others, as you would have them do unto you]. We’ve develop into so empowered by our personal speech, proper, that I everyone’s on the market shouting out opinions, however actually, typically we are able to simply be quiet and assist anyone.”
The seeds for the e book have been planted greater than seven years in the past, however she actually didn’t bear down and ramp up the writing till about three years in the past.
“It principally began with this expertise that I had seven years in the past that simply left such a burning, craving fireplace in me that didn’t cease till I received this out of me, till I received these ideas out of me. I actually assume it was divinely impressed in some methods. I wrote little bits all by that point, and as you’ll be able to think about, we stay very busy lives. And I wasn’t precisely certain in what format or how this was going to transpire. I simply knew I needed to get it out of me. And naturally, Donnell stored studying the little blurbs saying, ‘Natalie, you’ve received to jot down a e book. That is stunning.’ And for him to say that meant loads as a result of he’s fairly fussy and I do know him properly and he doesn’t sugarcoat. In order that’s why I began taking it critically three years in the past. A part of the worry of doing this publicly in an enormous manner was precisely as a result of we’re each old-fashioned, in that we don’t actually discuss personal issues in a public manner. I didn’t develop up like that and I’m not like that. And naturally, us residing within the public close to having a music profession, we’ve discovered to satisfy that a part of the trade, however it’s not a pure factor,” she defined, explaining that there was no particular significance or meticulous planning behind the timing of the discharge of the e book for this fall.
“I believe it was simply the best way the timing labored out. I labored to the very best of my potential. We set deadlines to say, okay by this time subsequent yr, and I’m pondering, ‘okay, I can have that performed subsequent yr.’ I didn’t need this factor lingering for 10 years, so okay, let’s attempt for subsequent yr. After which subsequent yr got here and deadlines have been approaching and I needed to apologize, I wasn’t on the stage of the method that I need to be. Okay, so let’s set a brand new deadline. I simply stored working with new units of deadlines primarily based on the availabilities in my life and the ebb and move of all that. I simply couldn’t carve out the time essential. But it surely wasn’t from an lack of ability to jot down. I wasn’t sitting there questioning what to jot down. That by no means occurred as soon as. It was all the time simply scrambling to squeeze out as a lot as I might with the shortest period of time that I had. And by the point all of it synched up, it’s labored out that right here we’re in October of 2025.”
Later within the dialog, she reiterated how highly effective the pull to jot down the e book, to discharge the ideas and emotions and tales from her psyche was, past merely wanting to inform the story of her life.
“I had this authentic intention and actually that’s all I had, to a burning diploma. I might by no means have invested this period of time in any other case. This e book took me, I’m certain, 100 instances extra work than I ever imagined. I didn’t even assume I’d be having to jot down a lot. I believed I’d get assist to jot down it. And I bear in mind Donnell and I have been on the convention name with the writer and Donnell stated to them in addition to to me, ‘I believe Natalie ought to do this on her personal first.’ And it by no means modified from there,” MacMaster stated.
“It’s positively my voice, which was what he needed, however it was simply a lot work. My level is simply that I imagine I used to be divinely impressed. To not say that God would really come down and work with little ol’ me, however I do know that there was such a rave in my physique that like rubbed my thoughts and coronary heart and soul. I couldn’t sleep; I needed to get it out.”
Whereas I Have A Love Story is being marketed as a memoir, it truly is, because the title of this text says, extra a meditation on love, as MacMaster has skilled and expressed it all through her life. And it’s centered on the intertwining of her love for music and her love for household and the way one has fed the opposite, one has bolstered the opposite, one has supported and impressed the opposite, from her earliest days in Cape Breton Island by to her full home (seven children and plenty of assorted pets and livestock … oh and hubby Donnell), full profession (nonetheless a great deal of exhibits all through North America and infrequently overseas, with children in tow) and a this an abundantly full, however extremely busy life.
“When the e book comes out, I do know individuals would possibly say that with all of the loopy issues happening on the earth proper now, it’s excellent timing. Properly, seven years in the past, I felt like that. That’s what sparked it. It was all these loopy headlines. And I used to be like, what’s happening? My mom was sharing some horrible tragic issues that have been happening again house [Nova Scotia] on the time and simply the opposite day she requested me what was it that she shared that made me really feel so down? And I received’t say it to you over the cellphone, and I’ve determined I’m not going to inform anyone, however it needed to do with dying and nature and struggling and all that. I reminded her of that and so at the moment I used to be realizing that we’re not protected anyplace. Evil, or no matter phrase you need to name it, lurks in every single place. And you’ll be in essentially the most stunning a part of the world, essentially the most populated or essentially the most unpopulated and you may be affected by it ultimately. That’s what made me really feel actually down, but additionally sparked me enthusiastic about all these items that I wanted to jot down down,” she stated.
“And I didn’t intend on sharing a lot of the story of my profession, so it’s was type of a memoir, however actually, the unique motivation was to jot down the story on love. Simply sharing my ideas on love. Let’s simply sort of return to the outdated widespread sense, easy, primary on a regular basis love that we grew up with. Let’s reconnect with that and simply preserve spreading that.”
What the e book lacks in size (160 pages, together with numerous pictures a couple of homespun recipies and a few sheet music], it makes up for in depth and a focus to its central focus. However though it’s not an epic Stephen King-like tome, there nonetheless was tens of hundreds of phrases to be written, rewritten, rewritten and rewritten once more. The concept that rewriting is as necessary, and in lots of instances extra necessary, got here to MacMaster from somebody who is aware of a little bit one thing about crafting timeless artwork – legendary producer extraordinaire Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, finest identified for his work producing albums by AC/DC, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams and his ex-wife Shania Twain.
“It jogs my memory of a quote that Donnell advised me that Mutt Lange talked about. He and Leahy recorded and toured with Shania Twain for thus a few years and Mutt would all the time say that the important thing to writing, and he was speaking about music, however it applies to any sort of writing, the hot button is rewriting. The rewriting is necessary. Even in case you solely preserve one line in the entire music, scrap the remaining. And positively, I felt like that scripting this e book,” she stated.
“The magic began to occur with the rewriting and rewriting of sections and taking a look at it for the hundredth time. So, I did tire loads and there have been deadlines looming and I’m like, this e book needs to be performed. However we saved all of the stuff that we minimize out, so perhaps, when there’s one other version of the e book, we are able to add a few of it again in. And at instances it was an actual frustration to attempt to untangle this net. As Donnell has stated, jokingly, but additionally barely critically, ‘that e book has been a detriment to our household.’ It was freaking laborious. And I’m not a author. I’m not environment friendly with phrases, I’m barely literate. I imply, as soon as I had to do that interview with CBC concerning the 10 favorite books I’ve learn and I stated to Donnell, ‘they need 10 books. I don’t know if I’ve ever even learn 10 books.’ Like, I by no means learn. I used to be by no means inspired to learn as a toddler. I did my historical past homework and I did my literature homework, no matter it was and I learn for that, however that was it. It wasn’t till I used to be in all probability in my 20s that I believe the primary e book I ever learn that wasn’t for college was A Prayer for Owen Meany [by American writer John Irving]. Any person steered it to me and it was then that I found the enjoyment of strolling right into a bookstore. So, I picked up this e book and I loved each morsel of it, and I got here to grasp that factor the place you’ll be able to’t put the e book down, and all you’ll be able to consider all day is, ‘I can’t wait to get again into my e book.’ However then, you recognize, busy, busy, busy lives, children, Donnell, music. So, yeah, I don’t actually learn and the issues that I’ve learn, nobody needs to essentially find out about. Devotional stuff is what I’m into [MacMaster was raised Catholic as was Leahy and they are both prayerful, observant churchgoers] as a result of I can learn a paragraph or two earlier than I’m going to mattress and assume, ‘okay, I’m going to attempt more durable tomorrow.’”
What flabbergasted the author of this piece is the truth that just about all of the writing was performed on MacMaster’s cellphone, not with pen and ink, or on a keyboard in entrance of a desktop pc on a desk, however throughout stolen moments when she had time, solitude and the psychological focus to whirl by a couple of paragraphs along with her thumbs going 1,000,000 miles an hour.
“I didn’t blink an eye fixed. And each time they’d say they needed it in several codecs or no matter, or stated, ‘why don’t you attempting scripting this in your pc or one thing like that?’ Properly, I don’t have a pc. Sure we now have computer systems in our home. One was Donnell’s one was sort of the household pc. And I’ve by no means been a pc individual. I by no means sit at a pc. I by no means have. I wouldn’t even know easy methods to reply an e-mail off a pc. So, I simply do all the pieces on my cellphone, I simply go to the notes web page and begin writing,” she stated.
“I used to be simply utilizing my thumbs and it wasn’t till I used to be in all probability 90 per cent performed the e book and [daughter] Clare stated, ‘mother, you recognize you’ll be able to converse into the cellphone and it takes your phrases down.’ I didn’t know that, so I attempted it however I discovered that I couldn’t assume the identical manner. It didn’t work. I can’t converse my phrases; I’ve to jot down them down. And when it comes to doing it in bits and items, I’ve to do it that manner. It’s known as survival, and it’s the best way I’ve operated my complete life. And when individuals ask how do I do all of it? Properly, I’m doing all of it, on a regular basis. Take a look at at present for instance. At this time I take Maria and Julia to piano classes, and I all the time stay up for that second. Like, I’ve it deliberate within the morning. I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, I’ve an hour and quarter-hour to an hour and a half the place I can sit within the automobile on my own and write.’ I can simply flip my thoughts on and I’ll immediately have creativity proper then and there, similar to turning on a faucet. And I’ve books and books and lists and lists and like notepad kind books and observe pages on my cellphone. Donnell tells me I’ve lists of my lists. I can’t even preserve monitor of time, I’ve no organizational strategies, I’m far and wide. I’m like a mad scientist. But when one thing doesn’t come to me in a cut up second, which I virtually all the time does, I simply flip to a kind of pages in my notepad and I’m proper again to the place I used to be and away I’m going.
As talked about a couple of instances above, MacMaster and Leahy have seven youngsters, ranging in age from 20 right down to 9 (Mary Frances, Michael, Clare, Julia, Alec, Sadie and Maria.) Eleven-year-old Sadie has Down Syndrome (MacMaster dedicates arguably essentially the most fantastically, joyfully, inspiring items of writing within the e book to the topic of Sadie and the blessings she’s delivered to everybody’s lives), and he or she and her siblings are closely concerned in music, some in athletics, all in serving to out round the home with the older ones serving to dad Donnell with farming the standard household farmland not removed from Peterborough, Ontario. As a household, they tour the world due to music, with each Leahy and MacMaster performing alongside the youngsters. Saying it’s a busy life is a decidedly important understatement. However, as MacMaster has stated above, it’s all she’s identified, all Donnell has identified, and all their children have identified.
And the artistic spark and want to carry out and preserve attempting new avenues to satiate that a part of her life has meant that the stolen moments early within the morning, late at evening, or within the parking zone ready for music classes to finish hasn’t stopped with the publication of I Have A Love Story. As a substitute, MacMaster is working with to create a symphony present primarily based on the e book.
“It’s going to be for 2026, and it’s going to characteristic sort of excerpts from the e book. So, the musical journey of my upbringing and Cape Breton Island, and starting to jot down my very own music will in all probability all be within the first half. The second half of the present will in all probability be extra private, my love life, you recognize – getting married after which having youngsters and the journey that’s advised by the e book. Just like the half when Donnell and I received married, we now have an orchestrated model of “Marriage ceremony Day Jig’ [which was their wedding present to one another] and that was included within the e book. I’ve this sort of theme and thought and I’ve an orchestrator engaged on the Alison Krause music [‘Neil Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second wife’] so I’ll take that point at present to flesh the one out extra,” she stated. When requested whether or not the present goes to be a household affair like most of her different stage work, MacMaster paused for a second earlier than answering.
“It’s attention-grabbing that you simply point out that as a result of initially, like a few years in the past after we have been speaking to administration, I used to be saying that I nonetheless need to play on my own. Each present I’ve performed over the previous 10 years, usually talking, it’s been with my husband after which my husband and my children. So, I’ve a ton of music that I’m doing myself and I don’t actually have an outlet as a result of once I’m onstage, I’m sharing with my husband and my children. I’m not attending to bask in all of the musical stuff I’ve. So, Donnell retains saying to me that I’ve received to do my very own tour someday. It was determined that perhaps I might do symphony exhibits, as a result of I’ve performed them my complete life. And I believed perhaps I’ll keep that as my very own factor. And so, this idea got here – it was really Donnell who steered it at one level that I ought to take the e book and switch it right into a symphony.”
At current, MacMaster is within the midst of a press tour for the e book, in amongst the plethora of different actions she has in her life. However whereas she does discuss how wearying it may be at instances, in her subsequent breath she additionally expresses how she loves each second of it, each household meal, each, each journey to the music instructor or the enjoying area, each second of playful banter with Donnell or moments of artistic vitality along with her trusty fiddle in hand.
It’s a life crammed with the very best issues she will picture – love, laughter, household, enjoyable and religion – all captured not just for her posterity in I Have A Love Story, however for these in search of to examine a life properly lived to encourage one in every of their very own.
I Have A Love Story is on the market in all bookstores. For extra data, go to
Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and creator primarily based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and advertising specialist and is an avid volunteer in his neighborhood. Contact him at bigjim1428@hotmail.com.
