North American Tour 2007

[Stephany]

Hey Caite,
Of course - we cannot wait for the rest of your report!! I'm leaving tomorrow for three days in a place WITHOUT internet so it would be great if I could read it before (no pressure at all !!) ......

Stephany

[roger]

Caite,

You can post you NY tales in your own thread if you wish, or you can start a separate thread in Off Topic. It's up to you.

Roger

[Stephany]

New article from "The Star Tribune" :

Star-Tribune
By Jon Bream; Staff Writer
12 April 2007
Copyright 2007. The Star Tribune Company. All rights reserved.

Celtic Woman

7:30 p.m. Tue.-Wed. - Orpheum - $43-$63

Like Yanni, Celtic Woman is a hard-to-explain cultural phenomenon fueled by PBS-TV performances. This female quintet is to traditional Irish music what Yanni is to jazz. Maybe it would be more accurate to call Celtic Woman "new-age Irish." For their latest CD, "A New Journey," the women have added 19-year-old Hayley Westenra, a buzzed-about New Zealand soprano who helps broaden the repertoire to such pop fare as "Beyond the Sea" and "Over the Rainbow." J.B.

[Stephany]

Here is an older article, published before the launch of the US CW tour :

Celtic Woman meshes
ALAN SCULLEY CORRESPONDENT
9 February 2007
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Copyright (c) 2007 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

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

The four vocalists, along with fiddle player Mairead Nesbitt, all came to the group having already established themselves as solo artists 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 three-and-a-half years after the group's first performance, Celtic Woman is going stronger than ever. The group is a favorite of PBS programmers and viewers, and dominates the world music charts - - apparently enjoying every moment along the way.

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. The group was created for a one-off television special filmed in Ireland.So essentially, Celtic Woman had to invent itself once opportunities for recording and touring arrived.

"I remember when this started, my husband said, 'Oh my God, I feel sorry for the management. How are they going to handle five women, five soloists?," Fallon said."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."

This year has brought the newly released second studio CD, "A New Journey," and a concert DVD, "A New Journey, Live at Slane Castle, Ireland," both of which feature new addition Hayley Westenra. Westenra won't be with the group at the Tampa performance.

"I really do think 'A New Journey' is very much a continuation of what we started with the 'Celtic Woman' album," Fallon said. "As performers, we have developed so much."

The new releases are being supported with an extensive tour that once again features Celtic Woman backed by a live band 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."

Celtic Woman

7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday. Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. $38.50-$68. [phone]; tbpac.org.

[Stephany]

New article from "The Mercury" :

Songbirds and classic soul
By Nerissa.Card
18 April 2007
The Mercury
© Copyright 2007 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited. All rights reserved.

They have conducted four hugely successful American concert tours, including multiple sold-out shows at New York’s massive Radio City Music Hall.

They are of further note for their platinum-certified, eponymous debut album and their second collection, A Christmas Celebration, having held the No 1 position on the Billboard world music chart for more than 90 consecutive weeks.

We’re talking about the songbirds that make up Irish sensation CELTIC WOMAN, a group which briefly visited South Africa last year and which has now, through EMI, released its latest CD, A New Journey, as well as a new concert DVD, A new Journey: Live At Slane Castle.

The new recordings capture the great voices of the attractive quartet – Lisa, Maev, Orla and Chloe – and new member Hayley Westenra, as well as the inspired fiddle-playing of Mairead.

They provide a stirring programme of traditional Irish songs, works by contemporary artists and new compositions by musical director David Downes, who also produced and arranged the collection.

The DVD was recorded last August at the Slane Castle at County Meath, Ireland, a gorgeous location that has also hosted concerts by U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

The 80-minute, 25-track concert draws on material from Celtic Woman’s debut album and A New Journey.

Also included on the DVD is a 20-minute “making of” featurette that takes viewers behind the scenes of the group’s elaborate production.

When it appeared on US television last Christmas, David Hinckley of the New York Daily News wrote: “The voices of Celtic Woman blend together so smoothly, you might think these women have been harmonising since they were in their cribs.

“They sing like angels, almost ethereal on their classical material, yet equally adept at creating good fun with folksier numbers.”

Tracks featured on the CD and DVD include The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun, The Prayer, Newgrange, Over the Rainbow, Granualle’s Dance, The Blessing, Dulaman, Beyond the Sea, The Last Rose of Summer and Caledonia.

[Eric]

Buckle up, fellow Americans!! Hayley is Stateside!!![/u]

Friday, May 4th marks the reunion with Celtic Woman for about a month (If my memory serves me correctly). Be on the lookout for concerts on the West Coast!!!

Please feel free to post reports, pictures, greetings, (i.e. ANYTHING!!) about Hayley in the States! Be on the lookout for news articles (though Stephany has this pretty much in control).

Best of luck, Hayley!!

Cheers, Eric

[Stephany]

Yes, Hayley is back and I'm sure all your US folks will be wowed, Eric.
Yesterday evening, the CW group performed in Phoenix for the last time with Meav before Hayley joins in again.
There is a great review of this particular show HERE and there is a short mention of Hayley so here it is.

Review of show in Phoenix (May 2nd)
Next they brought out Orla's harp, and she accompanied Maev for Scarborough Fair. I will be very honest here, I love Maev, but Hayley's version is amazing to me. Maev however does a very good job with the song, altho in my opinion she attempted to bring in some of the vocal rhythms of the Simon n Garfunkel version, which seemed to me a touch out of place. She ends the song the same way that Hayley does, with hands crossed over her chest. Very nice, but Hayley still has my vote (Sorry Maev). Orla's accompaniment was a wonderful touch!

[milewalker]

Fire away folks

3. IRISH EYES ARE CRYING. If you spend much time watching public television, you've probably seen Celtic Woman, a New Age music ensemble group that supposedly celebrates Celtic music and the feminine spirit. I'll admit that there's something seductive about Celtic Woman: the soft, glowing colors, the ethereal echo of the electronically altered sounds. But when you wake from the trance, you realize that this music is an abomination, an insult to honest Irish folk traditions. Imagine Enya joining forces with Lawrence Welk and you're starting to see the problem here. I'm sorry to report that the ultra-popular show is set to play Harbor Center in Portsmouth June 6.

From Daily Press

[milewalker]

Is there some obvious reason why the hyperlink above doesnt accept the entire url?

[Richard]

Hello Jon!

The forum software doesn't accept certain symbols in a visible url, including commas as in this case, so I fixed the link by hiding the url in your post. I also enlarged the text to make the transcript easier to read.

I think it's a disgrace that journalists get paid for writing rubbish like that. Hayley will not be with Celtic Woman in June 2007, but I doubt if that reviewer could care less!

Best Wishes,

Richard

[comet]

milewalker said:

Fire away folks

3. IRISH EYES ARE CRYING. If you spend much time watching public television, you've probably seen Celtic Woman, a New Age music ensemble group that supposedly celebrates Celtic music and the feminine spirit. I'll admit that there's something seductive about Celtic Woman: the soft, glowing colors, the ethereal echo of the electronically altered sounds. But when you wake from the trance, you realize that this music is an abomination, an insult to honest Irish folk traditions. Imagine Enya joining forces with Lawrence Welk and you're starting to see the problem here. I'm sorry to report that the ultra-popular show is set to play Harbor Center in Portsmouth June 6.

From Daily Press

Imagine a long string of unsuitable words..............................................................
................................................................................................................................

I'm Irish, I'm familiar with traditional music, I live in IRELAND
This music is presented for people to have fun to, this was one of the reasons for folk Irish music, To dance to, to have fun to , to drink to.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................................

comet

[grant]

I would have posted a comment about this review earlier..... but all I could come up with was a long string of unprintable words!!



Yet another reviewer being paid to prove he hasn't a clue what he is talking about.

As Dave so eloquently puts it.....

GRRRR!!!!



Grant

[Richard]

I forgot to say, thanks for posting the article, Jon!

I found it on Google News last week, but it seemed so pointless I couldn't be bothered to put it on the forum!

Best Wishes from London,

Richard

[Stephany]

grant said:

Grant

Hi Grant,
I couldn't have said it better.

[milewalker]

richnorri said:

I forgot to say, thanks for posting the article, Jon!

I found it on Google News last week, but it seemed so pointless I couldn't be bothered to put it on the forum!

Best Wishes from London,

Richard

Hi Richard,

I did see one point in it. I think it is important to remember that there is a very wide world out there in which Hayley's (or in this case CW's) career is occurring - and that a lot of people dont like her (them). Fans are very important of course. We post here and elsewhere, we tell our friends, and otherwise promote the artist. In fact I have seen studies which suggest that core fans are worth between 5 and 30 sales of each album. Even given this though, the success or failure of a release generally depends on how it performs everywhere else.

Hey - even I have standards. There was an even worse review out there that I decided not to post here

Jon