Ashley MacIsaac

Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac (born February 24, 1975) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter from Cape Breton Island. He has received three Juno Awards, winning for Best New Solo Artist and Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo at the Juno Awards of 1996, and for Best Instrumental Artist at the Juno Awards of 1997. His 1995 album Hi™ How Are You Today? was a double-platinum selling Canadian record. MacIsaac published an autobiography, Fiddling with Disaster in 2003.

MacIsaac was born in Creignish, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island. His sister Lisa is also a fiddler, who has her own alternative country band, Madison Violet. She also appears on his album Helter's Celtic, which was recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario.

His cousins Alexis MacIsaac, Wendy MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster are also touring fiddlers. He is also a cousin of the White Stripes guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White; MacIsaac and White's fathers are first cousins. The two met and MacIsaac opened for the White Stripes concert in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in 2007.

MacIsaac spent time in New York City prior to his rise in the music industry. He says he was part of the club scene that also included Michael Alig and other Club Kids. MacIsaac says he briefly dated RuPaul and his experiences in New York City influenced some of his later music.

In 2007, MacIsaac married Andrew Stokes. According to MacIsaac, spoken during his February 25, 2017, concert at Koerner Hall in Toronto, they are now divorced. He lives in Windsor, Ontario.

MacIsaac's album Hi™ How Are You Today?, featuring the hit single "Sleepy Maggie", with vocals in Scottish Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond was released in 1995. The song peaked at number 13 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart and found minor success in the United States, reaching number two on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100. Hi™ How Are You Today? was a double-platinum selling Canadian record and earned MacIsaac a 1996 Juno in the category Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo. During his early career, MacIsaac subtly acknowledged his sexual identity, sometimes wearing a set of rainbow flag freedom rings on a neck chain in promotional photos, but avoided explicitly coming out to the press. He officially came out in 1996 after Frank, a Canadian gossip magazine, published a cover story about his sexuality. In 1996, in a Maclean's interview, he claimed that he had discussed his sexual life, including his young boyfriend and a claimed fondness for watersports, in an interview with the LGBT newsmagazine The Advocate. The Advocate did not print any of the material, but Maclean's dropped him from its year-end honours list.

In 1996, MacIsaac toured the United States as an opening act for the Chieftains. It was widely reported in the media that another opener, folk singer Nanci Griffith, dropped out of the tour because she objected to MacIsaac's musical style, but Griffith later confirmed in Rolling Stone that her primary conflict was not with MacIsaac's style, but with tour organizers over how much time was available for her after the addition of MacIsaac to the bill. On a 1997 Late Night with Conan O'Brien appearance, his leg kick lifted his kilt high enough that his genitals were visible to the studio audience, although they were blurred out in post-production before the actual broadcast. On that same year he also featured as a guest on Toronto indie rock band Glueleg's final studio album, Clodhopper, specifically on the album's second track, "See Saw Man".

In 1998 MacIsaac fought successfully to be independent of his record label. He subsequently signed with the independent label Loggerhead Records for his 1999 album Helter's Celtic. During the promotional tour for that album, he indicated to the press that he had battled an addiction to crack cocaine from 1997 to 1999. In 1999, a journalist for The New Yorker noted MacIsaac's rock-star bravado and eccentricities.