Biography
ECMA Nominee 2009-- Female Solo Recording of the Year ('the forest for the trees")
"Norma MacDonald's second release is nothing short of delicious." --Exclaim!
"One of the purest new female voices you're likely to hear."--Maverick Magazine, UK
"The forest for the trees" is beautiful. To use any other description cheapens the thought."--Herohill.com
Norma MacDonald is a singer-songwriter and avid biology nerd. She was raised on AM country stations and Willie Nelson cassettes in her hometown of New Waterford, Cape Breton, but has made her home in Halifax, NS for the last number of years. On her sophomore recording, ‘the forest for the trees’, Norma manages to seamlessly meld her innate old-school country sensibilities with contemporary influences (Wilco, Patty Griffin, Bruce Springsteen) without losing so much as a drop of authenticity. By the time the band kicks in on the opening track “a little longer”, one gets a sense they are listening to an artist who has finally come into her own. Juxtaposing lyrical sophistication with playfulness (check out the anthemic, pedal steel driven “sand”) MacDonald balances a visceral sense of nostalgia and longing with hopefulness for what lies ahead. On “we’re ghosts” she sings the refrain “Let me come back as a flesh and blood reminder of the past” with an almost otherworldly conviction. Backed by some of Halifax’s finest musicians; Charles Austin (Superfriendz, Buck 65) on guitar and banjo, Adam Fine (Gypsophilia) on bass, Dale Murray (Cuff the Duke, Hayden, the Guthries) on pedal steel—not to mention a host of others—‘the forest for the trees’ is the ideal showcase for MacDonald’s pure yet soulful voice.
MacDonald’s debut album ‘nothing is here it was’ (2005) garnered glowing reviews from as far away as the UK and earned her a NSMW nomination for Female Recording of the Year in 2006. She has performed on the “Canadian Music- East Coast Style” stage at the North American Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, TN as well as the prestigious Stan Rogers Folk Festival (2007). Look for her touring throughout the Maritimes this fall and next spring as she makes her way to Ontario and westward.
Instrumentation
Norma MacDonald-- Acoustic guitar, banjo and vocals
The band has been known to include:
Dale Murray-- Electric guitar, pedal steel and background vocals
Adam Fine-- Bass
Keith Mullins-- Drums
...and a wide variety of other local players including Kev Corbett, Adam Baldwin and Phil Sedore.
Discography
"the forest for the trees" --released October 2008-(ECMA Nominee 2009-- Female Solo Recording of the Year).
Track "long shot" from 'the forest for the trees' is included on the iTunes compilation "CBC Radio 2 Discoveries".
"nothing is where it was"-- released September 2005-(Nova Scotia Music Week Nominee 2006--Female Solo Recording of the Year)
Recieving national airplay on CBC (including Radio 2 Drive), Canadian college radio, local stations across Nova Scotia.
"everyone leats you down", the first single from the forest for the trees, reached the #2 position on the nationally syndicated East Coast Countdown.
three songs from "nothing is where it was" (two dollar bill, time, annaline) charted on the East Coast Countdown program.
Links
| http://www.normamacdonald.com |
| live footage/interview |
| myspace |