Talented fiddler Ashley MacIsaac skyrocketed to fame and fortune as a teenager in the mid-’90s on the back of his genre-bending album Hi, How Are You Today? Now 39, married and living in Windsor, MacIsaac’s wild antics have long gone, but his incredible talent remains. It will be on full display this month at Hugh’s Room, March 23.

I’ve heard your latest album, Beautiful Lake Ainslie, described as the musical equivalent of hiking the Cabot Trail. Seem like a fair description?
That’d be a good description of it. It’s very traditional, in a sense, for me, meaning a continuation or follow up on where I’m at, at a certain age. It’s another statement record for me, in my mid-30s.

And what do you have planned for your next project?
We’re actually going into the studio tomorrow to put down the final tracks on fiddle.… It’s a cross between Skrillex, a little hip hop, some more fancy ambient fiddle stuff. It’s a dance music record, which is obviously what fiddle tunes always were.

So how will that album reflect who you are at this point in your career?
Well, I suppose it is a reflection of my desire to keep putting music in different fashions.… With the type of beats and sounds out there in pop music, it just happens to be edgy enough and cool enough that I think it can work with the traditional music if done right. 

So, what can we expect from your show at Hugh’s Room?
When people pay enough money, like in Toronto, to see a gig, you know they are looking for a show. They want to be there, so you have to give them something new, see how they take it.

Do you miss those crazy days of the early ’90s?
I don't think they are any less crazy—just different crazy, is all. The notion of crazy at 18, 19 or 20 with lots of money and having fun, top touring act, making tons of money, having all the fun … and all those things. I wasn’t the first, and I won’t be the last. There’s lots of them in Canada. But that’s 19. I’m 39. Crazy to me is “Is my knee still holding?”