ARTS EAST

I n 2006, Arts East spoke with musician and author Neil Peart.  Neil Peart has been busy. Since returning to full-form in 2002, the 54 year old drummer for Rush, the Canadian mega-rock trio, has been preoccupied with a series of personal and professional projects; two studio albums, subsequent concert tours, DVDs, a website, and the writing of three books, including his latest work  Roadshow; Landscape with Drums. Speaking from a recording studio in Toronto where he and his bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are at work on their 18th original studio album, Peart explains his motivations for chronicling his motorcycle journeys during Rush's 2004 thirtieth Anniversary tour. "This book works on different levels. On the one hand it became the logical culmination of so many desires to try and explain what it is really like to be a touring musician and the kinds of personal and artistic conflicts that exist in trying to survive and make a living doing something crea...

A merican author, artist and educator Paul Laseau once said that “sketching is a continuous form of learning rather than a string of performances.” That is certainly true for fiddler Natalie MacMaster. Recently, we caught up with the multi award-winning musician to chat about her latest effort, Sketches, and the perks and perils of her profession. Let’s start with your roots. I grew up in Troy, Cape Breton. My family is of Scottish ancestry - both my Mom and Dad are 4th or 5th generation Scottish, so we have been in Canada for a long time. The music that I play is originally from Scotland, but with what we call the ‘Cape Breton’ sound. It is similar to traditional, old-school Scottish fiddling - interestingly, a style of music that you don’t hear anymore in Scotland - but with a touch of both Irish and French influence. I grew up surrounded by that sound. I spent 18 years there, until I went to college. After college, I moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a while, before coming ...