Tree Roots: Inventive Young Canadian Duo Cassie and Maggie MacDonald Bend the Beloved Folk Symbol in New Directions on The Willow Collection

Back in the day, people would lay willow wands beneath their pillow when they struggled to cope with strong feelings. “They would dream through it in the night and be better in the morning,” explains Maggie MacDonald. “That’s why it’s associated with grief.”

The willow’s powerfully emotional, innately flexible role as folk symbol inspired Nova Scotia-born duo Cassie and Maggie MacDonald’s latest, most exploratory album yet, The Willow Collection (release: November 4, 2016). The young player’s piano, guitar, fiddle, and flying footwork reveal the many facets of tying together songs that feature the tree. The MacDonalds have branched out from their deep Celtic roots into new, related regions, ranging from Appalachian and Ozark ballads to country classics.

We really wanted to explore the different genres that came from the same origins,” Cassie notes. “The Scottish people in Appalachia, for example. We wanted to trace those roots and really get a feel for how they took on a life of their own here in North America.”

American audiences will get a chance to hear the duo on tour this autumn.

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The MacDonalds hail from a musical family, and their fiddler grandfather made the long trek from northeastern Nova Scotia to Montreal to record some 78s back in the 1930s. Their family has spent generations in Antigonish County, known in the Maritimes for its powerful link to Gaelic culture. The sisters grew up dancing, touring the Highland Games circuit. Then they fell for music, with Cassie taking up the fiddle and Maggie mastering the piano and later the guitar, her primary instrument on Willow Collection.

They came of age in a time and place when folk traditions, and the Gaelic language in particular, were in the midst of a renaissance. “The Gaelic language is experiencing a real resurgence, especially since they started offering it as a second language in high school. It was lost in our parents’ generation, but there’s a push now to make it mainstream and keep it alive.” The language bursts into life on “Seilach,” the album’s second track (featuring the voice of the sisters’ language mentor, the local officer for Gaelic affairs).

The young performers became crack players, with Cassie demonstrating flair on the fiddle and Maggie blending regional piano styles, the rhythmic Cape Breton approach and the more chordal Down East style, a merger that’s in full, vibrant force on “Nobleman’s Wedding.” Their work together won them folk music awards regionally and nationally in Canada, and took them on the road. As they toured, they listened, growing increasingly curious about how they could expand their own pieces to embrace the many musical styles they heard and loved.

The willow gave them their answer, serendipitously as a musician friend shared a version of “Down in the Willow Garden” with them one day while on tour in Austria. “We fell in love with the tune and started performing it,” Cassie recalls. “People would come up after the show and ask about a recording, but we didn’t have one. Then we realized that so many songs have that willow theme and decided it would be cool to explore the different aspects of the tree.”

These aspects extend far beyond the usual weeping, bury me under it motifs most familiar to folk ballad fans. The MacDonalds discovered an entire emotional world they could connect with the popular wands.

“The willow is a very emotional, evocative theme in folk music,” reflects Maggie. “If you’re looking for how songs evolved, we could really trace how the song transformed as it moved. You can find it in a dozen versions in Appalachia through to the Ozarks, and some in Nova Scotia. It was great to have a theme that would let us gain that perspective on each song. At first all the songs were quite grim, but the more research we did, the more we learned it can also be a symbol of hope.”

Bluegrass and the transmigration of British ballads marked on the first steps in the MacDonalds’ exploration. They tracked down willow references in country classics (“Willow Hits Set”) and even among the beautiful music performances on Lawrence Welk’s show (“Blue Willow,” which opens with a sample of Welk’s voice announcing the song).

The MacDonalds cultivate the contemporary, finding their own ways to make well-trodden songs their own. They turn mournful regrets into upbeat attitude, as in their spunky rendition of “Let No Man Steal Your Thyme.” They turn to old Scottish dances on instrumental sets like “Strip the Willow,” then leap off in their own direction (complete with complex, wonderfully rhythmic footwork), thanks to Halifax producer Alex Meade.

Behind it all is the bendable spirit of the willow itself, a fitting theme for music and culture that persists and morphs across the ages, while retaining its lively, therapeutic core.