Transcript

File: mackenziesheila06-oh-whymorewomanfiddling_M.mp3

Speakers:

SM –Sheila MacKenzie

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

SM: I guess it had a lot to do with – It was just a changing world. Women progressed in every area with equality. So they were doing more, and it was accepted more. And then when people like Natalie MacMaster who – You couldn't deny her talent even if you wanted to: ever since she was a kid, and people like that who were coming out and have kind of paved the road so to speak. I'm sure there are still a few of the older, the older folks who are still a little B They may not say too much but they might not think it's exactly appropriate, but I just think there would have been as many [female] fiddlers back then if the attitudes would have been different.

KP: But in a way that just explains why there might be an equal number. But why do you think there are now more women [fiddling] than men?

SM: I think women naturally tend to be little more musical or at least be good keepers of the music and pass it on. Like even Buddy MacMaster's mother, that’s how he learned to play tunes because his mother knew all the tunes and jigged them to him. I think women always had music. I think there's also too, a connection between – Most of the step-dancers you see are also female and would have been female, and there's a lot of connection there between – Again, women just naturally gravitate toward melody and timing. I think a lot of the female fiddlers are some of the best dance players because they have really good rhythm and really good timing, and just a sense of the music. They're maybe not as rough as some of the men would be.