ECMA Nominee 2009
Female Solo Recording of the Year
('the forest for the trees")

"This record simply oozes class...a mighty fine record." --Americana 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 an 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 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. The album was honoured with nominations for Female Solo Recording of the Year in 2009 by both Music Nova Scotia and ECMA. It has been a staple on the CBC Radio 2 playlist, and her track "we're ghosts" has been featured on the hit CBC crime drama "The Border".

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.