Born: February 24, 1975 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Although raised around traditional Celtic music and fiddling, it was his unique style of "grunge violin" that earned him an early notice in Time magazine around the time of the release of

At the end of 1996, Ashley MacIsaac was taken off Maclean's honour roll of Canadians for explicit descriptions of his sexual preferences, prompting some to denounce the national news magazine as homophobic. None of this hampered his popularity, however. By the end of March 1997, about 300,000 copies of Hi, How Are You Today had been sold and MacIsaac had successfully toured the U.S. both solo and made a highly publicized appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

For his next album, 'Fine, Thank You Very Much', he returned to his traditional roots. Predictably, the album sold considerably less than its predecessor.

In the fall of 1998, he went to Japan to appear in a feature film titled "First Love". In it, MacIsaac plays an Irishman who comes to Okinawa to find his true love, a Japanese opera singer. The movie was scheduled to be released in Japan in early 1999, with a possible North American release later in the year. MacIsaac also recorded half a dozen fiddle tunes for the soundtrack.

In August 1999, MacIsaac parted ways with Universal Music proper to sign with Loggerhead Records, a boutique label distributed by Universal.


Singles
1995 Square Dance Song [w/BKS](I Wanna Go Higher)
1996 Sleepy Maggie
1996 Brenda Stubbert

Albums
1992 Close to the Floor (independent)
1993 A Cape Breton Christmas (independent)
1995 Hi, How Are You Today?
1996 Fine, Thank You Very Much (A Traditional Album)
1999 Helter's Celtic (Loggerhead)

Video


Compilation Tracks