Rhythm: Five-member Celtic Woman perform with one voice

[Don]

What: Celtic Woman
Four vocalists and a fiddler with other musicians and dancers

The makeup of Celtic Woman and the circumstances that brought together the featured members, did not seem like a recipe for longevity for the group.

The four featured vocalists, along with the current fiddler player (Lynn Hilary) and former one (Mairead Nesbitt), all came to the group having already established themselves as solo artists or in other ensembles with notable success and viable careers. They also didn 't know each other beforehand.

In many cases, that would mean five solo artists with five career agendas and quite possibly the egos to go with it. Plus, there was no guarantee that their personalities would mesh.

Yet 3 years after the group 's first performance, Celtic Woman is going stronger than ever with a non-holiday show on Sunday at the Dane County Coliseum. The group has become a favorite of PBS programmers and viewers, and enjoys success on the world music charts.

So what went right?

To Orla Fallon, one of the four original singers, one reason might be that there was no advance plan for Celtic Woman to be an ongoing entity. Originally, Celtic Woman was created for a television special filmed in Ireland, and musical director David Downes and producer Sharon Bowne essentially recruited the four singers -- Fallon, Chloe Agnew, Lisa Kelly and Meav Ni Mhaolchatha, along with Nesbitt -- to perform that single concert.

The women didn 't go through a rigid audition process and weren 't tied down to specific vocal roles in a group. So essentially Celtic Woman had to invent itself once opportunities for recording and touring presented themselves.

"I think part of the charm is we were thrown in the deep end and we had to get to know each other, " Fallon said. "And we did jell. I remember when this started, my husband said, Oh my God, I feel sorry for the management. How are they going to handle five soloists? '

"I know it sounds like a cliche and people don 't believe us because they 're always saying you must kill each other, but we don 't, " she said. "We have a very healthy relationship. We all get on very well. We 're very close and I think part of the charm is because everybody is so different. We 're all from completely different backgrounds and we all live in completely different places and everybody has something exciting and has a great energy then to bring to the group. "

In fact, Fallon said the fact that the four singers came to Celtic Woman with careers and experience in performing may have promoted professionalism, helped keep egos out of the equation and allowed musical chemistry to develop.

"I do think the fact that we had been gigging and we had done tours and had done different things before that, it stuck to us, " she said. "I think maybe if we had been maybe a bunch of kids who had never done anything before, it might have been different. But the fact that we had a few years under our belts was good. "

The original Celtic Woman show recorded in Dublin went on to become a popular fund-raising program for PBS in spring and summer 2005 and helped paved the way for the concert DVD to sell more than one million copies, while the group 's self-titled first studio album became entrenched at No. 1 Billboard magazine 's world music chart for a record-setting 68 consecutive weeks.

Solo albums by the each of the Celtic women arrived last January, and in fall 2006 a holiday CD, "A Christmas Celebration, " was released and immediately topped the world music album chart.

This year has brought the newly released second studio CD, "A New Journey, " a concert DVD, "A New Journey, Live at Slane Castle, Ireland, " and a new holiday DVD, "A Christmas Celebration Live From Dublin. " All feature the group 's new addition, New Zealand singer Hayley Westenra. The new releases are being supported with a nationwide tour this fall that is structured around the "A New Journey " material (as opposed to the new Christmas DVD).

Fallon said she sees musical growth in both the "A New Journey " CD and DVD even if both releases stay true to the original blueprint of mixing traditional Irish songs and Irish-accented contemporary fare (including covers of "Over The Rainbow " and "Beyond The Sea ").

"I really do think A New Journey ' is very much a continuation of what we started with the Celtic Woman ' album, " Fallon said. "I think as performers, we have developed so much. I think even when I listen to the vocals on the first album and I listen to the vocals on this album, I think everybody 's vocals are so much stronger I just think there 's a new confidence. "

The new releases are being supported with an extensive tour that once again features Celtic Woman backed by a live and eight-member choir. But there will be many new elements to the show, Fallon said.

"The first thing is we have a completely new (stage) set, " she said. "There 's a completely different choreography and movement and completely new costumes, a whole new lighting rig and then there are lots of new songs as well. I think people will be surprised. "

ALAN SCULLEY
November 7, 2007
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Always Remember All Things Are Possible With God !!

[Corteo]

Thanks Don!
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[celtic_girlakp]

Wow that is a cool write up! So neat.
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