Macdonald sisters present ‘a gift to our fans’

Cassie and Maggie sending warm Christmas wishes with new CD

“It got put into turbo mode when we started booking a Christmas tour and thought, ‘gosh, we better have a record to go along with the tour.’” Cassie Macdonald

Since 2015, acclaimed music act Cassie and Maggie, who grew up in Halifax and have deep family ties to the Antigonish area, have been recording one Christmas song a year for their fans.

Now with a collection of recorded songs and a Christmas tour that touches down in Nova Scotia, but is mostly spent in the Northeastern United States, the Macdonald sisters have released a Christmas album.

“Our intention was to do a single each year as kind of a gift to our fans and just as a fun thing to do in the studio. We were gradually building to making a full record,” Cassie said when talking about the new album, A Very Very Cassie and Maggie Christmas.

“It got put into turbo mode when we started booking a Christmas tour and thought, ‘gosh, we better have a record to go along with the tour.’

So, we spent two weeks in September in Dartmouth; we went full tilt and recorded the rest of the record.”

The collection of songs includes old favourites, an original tune and some traditional songs that might not be as well known as other Christmas carols or even considered, necessarily, a Christmas song.

“There are a few which are lesser known or older and one like Arthur Mcbride, for example, which isn’t, technically, a Christmas carol,” Cassie said. “It’s an old traditional Irish ballad, actually, but we sped it up. The (song’s) story takes place on Christmas Day, so we took a few liberties here and there with the theme of the record.”

As an award-winning duo who have played across the globe, Cassie and Maggie are well known for their traditional Celtic songs. The Christmas album captures

their style while celebrating the season in the music as well as with the art on the CD.

“Our aunt Janice Macgillivray used to make these beautiful wreaths with tartans. She would weave in a solid colour

to compliment the colours of the tartan and she became very well known for her wreaths,” Cassie said.

“She made them for us, to sell them at craft fairs, and she gave this particular one (captured on the CD) to our mom and dad when they got married. Our mom is a Mackenzie and dad a Macdonald, so she wove both of those tartans together as a wedding gift. We grew up with (the wreath) on our wall and I always loved it so much; it just reminded me of Christmas and family. Everyone in our family on that side had one in their house, so it is, kind of, a piece of art that binds us all together. It was special to be able to include it on the CD.”

THE TOUR

The Macdonald sisters’ tour started in the heart of Cape Breton, at the Frolic’n Folk Pub in Iona a few days ago.

“We’re playing in Halifax but both of those shows (Dec. 22 and 23) are with Heather Rankin and Symphony Nova Scotia so it will not necessarily be our material.”

From Dec. 2 to 17, the duo will be crisscrossing across the north-east U.S. with shows that start and end in Maine, with stops in Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maryland in between.

After being home for a couple of shows with Rankin in Halifax, they fly out Christmas Eve day to Dollywood, Tennessee. They perform there from Dec. 25 to 31.

“When we first received the offer to go down to Dollywood, we thought ‘oh, but it’s Christmas.’ But we also thought the last two years have been so tough (due to COVID), we have to make hay while the sun shines. So ‘no’ is not a word we’re saying very often when gigs are rolling in,” Cassie said.

To order a copy of A Very Very Cassie and Maggie Christmas, or to purchase tickets for one of their upcoming shows, visit cassieandmaggie.com.