Bankable Siren Call of the Misty Isles The New York Times

[Don]

May 13, 2007
Television
The Bankable Siren Call of the Misty Isles
By CLAIRE DEDERER


Celtic Woman, from left: Orla Fallon, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha, Mairead Nesbitt (on fiddle), Chloe Agnew and Lisa Kelly.
ABOUT a year ago I started to notice something odd on those evenings when I was channel surfing. When I passed through PBS, I often caught sight of a bunch of impeccably groomed women in shiny gowns singing gorgeous harmonies with great sincerity. Every once in a while a tiny, buxom fiddler would cavort across the stage, tossing her white-blond mane. They induced in me a spacey, Groban-esquestupor. They were Celtic Woman.

I asked friends if they?d seen Celtic Woman. They always answered no. This was odd, since it seemed as if every time I turned on my TV, there they were. Then I realized I was asking the wrong question. ?Have you seen these female light-classical singers on PBS?? I asked. ?They?re Irish? They seem kind of tarty?? And then the answer was often yes.

Celtic Woman is a strange phenomenon. Despite its PBS ubiquity, no one seems to know the name or understand whether it?s a band, a show or what. Here is a little Irish shorthand: Celtic Woman is ?Riverdance? with singing. And it?s a powerhouse for PBS member stations at pledge time.

The first PBS Celtic Woman special, which appeared in March 2005, has been shown more than 3,400 times on 316 PBS stations. The latest special, ?A New Journey,? is headed for similar figures. At KCTS in Seattle, for instance, the average audience share for the new special is up 10 percent from the popular original show. Donna Sanford, director of programming and production for Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver, where it is being shown again next Saturday, said, ?People just really like the program.?

Fans seem to appreciate the group?s element of surprise. They couch their appreciation in terms of discovery. ?My wife and I were sitting there watching TV,? Joseph Hunkins, 47, an Internet entrepreneur from Talent, Ore., said, ?and these women came on, and they were just singing so beautifully. I don?t normally like that kind of music, I?m more of a bluegrass kind of person. But it was just hugely entertaining.?

PBS programmers really like Celtic Woman too, especially what it does for their bottom line. ?The program has made money for us,? Ms. Sanford said. ?It also appealed to a slightly younger demographic, by which I mean 40s or 50s.?

Supported by this strong PBS presence, Celtic Woman?s record sales have been prodigious. The self-titled debut album, released in 2005, was No. 1 on the Billboard world-music charts for 82 consecutive weeks. It was bumped from that spot by the group?s Christmas album. Both albums were in turn bumped by ?A New Journey,? which was released in January. This latest album made a crossover as well, starting at number four on the Billboard Top 200.

PBS was involved in Celtic Woman from its inception. The story begins in 2004 at Midem (March? International de l??dition Musicale), the international trade fair held each year in Cannes. Gustavo Sagastume, then PBS?s vice president for programming, was sitting in the lobby of his hotel smoking a cigar when he overheard a woman talking about a singer with a voice like Charlotte Church?s. ?That perked up my ears,? recalled Mr. Sagastume, who is now an independent producer.

The woman was Sharon Browne, a founder of Celtic Collections records, who was promoting some female performers. ?I told her, no offense,? Mr. Sagastume continued, ?but girls with pretty voices from Ireland were not really a major market need for us.? Ms. Browne pressed her case, and he yielded. ?I said, if you can give me Charlotte Church meets Enya meets Sarah Brightman, then we can talk. She said she?d do it, but people say things late at night, especially at bars in France.?

Six months later Ms. Browne called him and told him to go to Dublin. She; her fellow producer, Dave Kavanagh (who is now the chairman and chief executive of Celtic Woman); the musical director and composer David Downes; and the performers had created just what Mr. Sagastume wanted, right down to the number of cameras. ?We look for programs that use 8 to 14 cameras and a crane,? he said. ?They had all that, along with great lighting, beautiful costumes.?

What Mr. Sagastume saw in Dublin was a glossily produced group of five Irish lasses: Orla Fallon, a redhead with harp chops; Meav Ni Mhaolchatha, who adds delicious wriggles to her soprano renditions of traditional tunes; Chloe Agnew, who was 15 when the show began; Lisa Kelly, who has a background in musicals; and Mairead Nesbitt, the sexy fiddling sprite. For the latest show they were joined by Hayley Westenra, a classical phenom from New Zealand.

Charlotte Church meets Enya meets Sarah Brightman. I spent a weekend watching the DVDs of the two PBS specials to see how such a Frankenstein monster would sound once it got up from the laboratory table and started singing. Very pretty, is the answer. The show is a masterpiece of heartfelt slickness. Backed by an orchestra and a chorus, the singers perform a combination of genres: light classical, traditional Irish and hideous pop.

The singing is at times stunning. Ms. Ni Mhaolchatha has a pure soprano that shows up beautifully in traditional tunes like ?She Moved Thru? the Fair.? It?s hard to resist Celtic Woman when it?s singing Irish airs. Unfortunately power ballads like ?You Raise Me Up,? a song popularized by Josh Groban, are much in evidence. The exhaustingly feelingful pop repertory is countered with light classical tunes like Ennio Morricone?s ?Nella Fantasia,? which turns into lovely mush when sung by Ms. Agnew. And of course Enya?s ?Orinoco Flow? makes an appearance.

The first special was shot at the Helix, a performance hall in Dublin, with lots of sweeping, brightly colored lights. For the second, the producers took it to the next level and shot the show at Slane Castle, an ivy-covered edifice in County Meath, which the liner notes proudly boasts is the ancestral home of Lord Henry Mount Charles.

The singers themselves are gorgeous to look at and polished as gemstones. They have perfect eyebrows. Their hairdos ? shag, bob, curtain ? seem inspired by the various stages of Jennifer Aniston?s career. Each of the singers could become a morning talk-show host if the music thing doesn?t work out. Except Ms. Nesbitt, the fiddler: All she needs for her new career is a pole. In her corset-laced gown, her long hair whipping wildly, she positively gyrates around the stage. Celtic Woman?s gentle sexiness tips over the edge whenever she appears.

She?s a demon of a fiddler, though, and it is this tension between Celtic Woman?s musical ability and the performers? tastefully on-display tartiness that makes for such a weird spectacle. The audience is shown often, full of white-hairs and their breathless granddaughters, and I must say it made me heartily uncomfortable watching the pensioners watch Ms. Nesbitt.

It?s easy to make fun of Celtic Woman, but it?s more interesting to ask what makes it so phenomenally popular. What call does it answer in us? I put this question to Ian Ralfini, the general manager at the group?s label, Manhattan Records. Mr. Ralfini paused and then said, weighing each word, ?There?s a feeling of calm and peace.?

This feeling may have something to do with the fact that they are Irish. Ireland is a country that does a lot of psychological heavy lifting for Americans. We?ve imbued the place with mysticism, greenness, quietude and rootedness. Milky-skinned maidens, singing beautiful music in front of a wall of ivy. It?s the very vision of what we want Ireland to be. Or at least what PBS viewers want Ireland to be.♦
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