The Cape Breton Piano—Life at the Fiddler's Elbow

CHRIS MACDONALD’S TALKS WITH CAPE BRETON KEYBOARD HEROES and his passionate careful writing share the foundations of piano in Cape Breton’s music. He delivers the history of the instrument on the island and the steps toward the marriage of the piano and fiddle that produces today’s distinctive Cape Breton sound—the solid ground on which change and innovation continue to emerge, creating music that has won both local and worldwide devotion.

“We have always loved our piano players,”says Ronald Caplan, publisher of Breton Books“—Marie and Hilda, Jason and Dougie and Maybelle, and so many others. But until recently the piano was more in the background with our focus often on the fiddler. In The Cape Breton Piano, Chris McDonald helps us discover the variety of piano playing as vigorous and sympathetic, sometimes raw, sometimes melodic—never taking over, but absolutely essential to today's Cape Breton sound.”

With 216 pages, photographs and a discography, internet links to the music and transcriptions—this wonderfully accessible new book will change how we listen to Cape Breton music!