Living in Cape Breton, it's really all about fiddle music, so it's not like there were other instruments out there that tempted me and it was like I had to decide which one. It was automatically fiddle, because it's the predominant instrument in Cape Breton Island.

I’m very proud to say that Buddy MacMaster is my uncle. He gives credibility to what I do and I’m glad I can carry that MacMaster name because he has created such a good name.

Celtic music will always be around, even if with the mainstream crowds it dies out.

It's quite a job, so to speak, when you can really be with your child for 21 out of 24 hours.

When you return to the same area a few times, you get that frequent rapport with the public and the fans of the music along with having a certain warmth when you walk onstage.

When I appear onstage, that's my departure from Momhood - and I transform into Natalie MacMaster: the entertainer, the fiddler, the performer.

'In My Hands,' the title track, is my very first vocal attempt, and I'm not a singer as such. But I've always wanted to express myself vocally on my albums, and I don't really have much of a capability for singing. The strength is in, I think, the lyrics and just speaking. It just comes from inside.