Welcome

[cwazytom]

Oct 8, 2016 14:37:01 GMT Joe said:

Hello and welcome, Tom! 

I'm Joe from Pennsylvania! A sincere 'thank you' for joining us!  Hayley's time with Celtic Woman was indeed special...further strengthening her fanbase particularly in North America. 

Hayley has been writing material for new ideas, as she continues her lovely journey. This 'Greener Lands' video shared this week may lead to something exciting. 

Looking forward to more wonderful posts from ya, Tom!  Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving on Monday!

All my best!
Joe 

Thank you!

[schrodinger]

Hello! I'm from Colorado, USA. I never paid any attention to CC until about 6 years ago I saw Jackie Evancho on the YouTube sidebar when listening to Renee Fleming's O mio babbino caro. Of course I then quickly also became aware of Hayley and have long followed her with interest- I just last night became aware of this forum from a mention on the Jackie Evancho Fans Proboards forum. I spent several hours reliving Jackie's history through Hayley Fans' eyes on the JE thread here. From my heart, thank you for preserving all that, and also want to thank long-time Hayley fans for their support of Jackie in 2010 in the YT voting that got JE on AGT, which surely helped her and may well have been decisive. I know there are many others who have come to know Hayley by way of Jackie. I hope someday to hear Hayley and Jackie sing together.

[comet]

Welcome schrodinger,

It can be fascinating reading a thread from start to finish, especially if it covers eight years in chronological order,
you can watch as the opinions changed, grew and developed in real time over Jackie's career so far.................
A real living historical document with views and opinions from around the world.

It is a pity that most of this kind of discussion has moved over to Twitter and Instagram where the short message or comment is king. There is no sense of continuity in a discussion and the pieces become scattered and fragmented all over the different discussion platforms.

[schrodinger]

Thanks, comet, I appreciate it, and I very much appreciate this forum. What you say is true. It is most unfortunate that the reading/commenting segment of Jackie's fan base has been fragmented since the sudden taking down of the Proboards forum started by Lisa Evancho, and before that, when the same thing happened to the JEFC forum when Jackie's official website was revamped. Now we are split between a couple of Proboards forums started by fans, and several Facebook sites, which are worthless as a long-term record. It will tough to get everyone together again as there is discord between some of the people, and lately politics has been a problem. Of course if the Evanchos were to restart an official forum I'm sure everyone would want to go there. In the meantime, the Jackie Evancho Fans Proboards seems to be doing the best, but with only 135 members so far.

[schrodinger]

As a rank newbie, I'm having a little trouble navigating. I'm sure this completely lovely video has been posted somewhere, but I haven't figured out how to search for it, so begging pardon in advance, I'm going to post it here, and perhaps someone will tell me where I should have looked for it, or put it. 

[juxtaposer]

Hi. I've also trotted over from a Jackie Evancho forum. I've always liked Hayley too, but mainly on You Tube and TV Celtic Woman performances. I'd like to improve on that, so can anyone please advise me where to start. What would be a good Hayley album to acquire first up? Cheers.

[Libby]

Welcome, schrodinger and jusxtaposer!

If Celtic Woman is where you're most familiar with Hayley, then I'd recommend Treasure/Celtic Treasure to start with, since that's a similar genre. Odyssey also has some Celtic-type songs on it.

[Joe]

Mar 12, 2017 22:37:00 GMT schrodinger said:

As a rank newbie, I'm having a little trouble navigating. I'm sure this completely lovely video has been posted somewhere, but I haven't figured out how to search for it, so begging pardon in advance, I'm going to post it here, and perhaps someone will tell me where I should have looked for it, or put it. 

Hello and welcome, schrodinger! 

This marvellous video of Hayley and Máiréad's performance of 'Lascia Ch'io Pianga' deserves to be seen!  I would say the best place for it would be on the "DVD" board under the "CDs and DVDs" category on the main page.  There you'll find the " Celtic Woman - A New Journey" sub-board, with the top thread a great place to post it!  The search feature of ProBoards forums has come a long way and might aid you.

I had intended to reply to you sooner...I tend to lose myself reading old posts as this forum is nearly 14 years old! 

Very much looking forward to more of your posts!

Best wishes,
Joe from PA 

[Joe]

Mar 12, 2017 23:35:53 GMT juxtaposer said:

Hi. I've also trotted over from a Jackie Evancho forum. I've always liked Hayley too, but mainly on You Tube and TV Celtic Woman performances. I'd like to improve on that, so can anyone please advise me where to start. What would be a good Hayley album to acquire first up? Cheers.

Thanks for joining this forum, juxtaposer!  I would recommend Hayley's album "Pure" , her first international album! 

Best wishes,
Joe 

[Richard]

Welcome to the forum, schrodinger and juxtaposer!

It's good to see people are still enjoying forums in the social media age, so thank you for joining us. Decca closed down the forum on Hayley's official website last year, but we're still going strong at HWI. I hope you will both enjoy your visits here, and I'm looking forward to your future posts.

Best wishes from London,

Richard

[juxtaposer]

Thanks for those recommendations. They will be my Hayley starter kit. I'm not surprised she's got an album called "Pure". That's exactly how I think of her voice.

[Libby]

Mar 14, 2017 2:52:40 GMT juxtaposer said:

Thanks for those recommendations. They will be my Hayley starter kit. I'm not surprised she's got an album called "Pure". That's exactly how I think of her voice.

Well, between Joe and me, we've just recommended her first 3 intl. CDs, Pure, Odyssey and Celtic Treasure, so there you go!

One thing that gets tricky is the various versions of her albums. There is only a tiny difference between the American and UK versions of Pure; I think the UK one has one extra song that the US one doesn't (My Heart and I), and then, there are also UK Special editions with bonus tracks. That's actually the version I wish I had bought instead of the American release (well, actually, I wasn't the one to buy it, my sister bought it for my dad, since he was the one who first discovered her in my family; but I own it now! LOL). So, I suppose if I were to recommend a version of Pure, I'd choose the UK Special edition.

Odyssey is a bit ridiculous as far as different versions go. It's the album that has about 22 songs altogether scattered about on 3 different versions. THEN, there are different versions of certain songs! Confused yet? LOL If you only buy one version, you will miss great songs from at least one other version, if not 2. So, unfortunately, in order not to miss any of the songs, you'd have to buy 3 different versions. I have the US and Special UK edition. The original UK version unfortunately has a slightly different tracklist from the Special edition; I believe it's about 3 or 4 songs off. I also have the Japanese compilation album, called Prayer, which contains one of my missing songs (Bridal Ballad), but is missing the other one (Dido's Lament). Actually, what you should probably do, as a US citizen... buy the 2 UK albums, and then download the (I think) 3 tracks you'd miss off the US version (Never Saw Blue, You Are Water and I Say Grace) from Itunes or Amazon. However, my goal is to always support her US endeavors, so I plan to always buy her US albums no matter what. In fact, I have her US release of Paradiso, yet I've never opened it (I have the Japanese and New Zealand versions, which came out first).

Treasure and Celtic Treasure are slightly less confusing. Celtic Treasure is the US version, and is geared towards CW fans. It contains The Last Rose of Summer duet with Meav, Scarborough Fair, and The Water is Wide. Those last 2 are also on the Special UK version of Odyssey, so actually, if you got that album, you almost wouldn't need the US version of Celtic Treasure, but you'd still be missing the duet. The songs on the UK version, Treasure, that you would miss, are Le Note del Silenzio, Santa Lucia, The Heart Worships, E Pari Ra, and Bist du Bei Mir. They are too good to miss.

Luckily, Winter Magic, Paradiso, and Hushabye have very few versions to get confused about. In fact, Paradiso is her only album with a universal tracklist!

I hope I didn't confuse you too much. LOL

[cloudbusting.heights]

Even with all the versions of Odyssey, it's still my favorite...even a decade later. I own at least 7 versions-US, 2 different UK versions, Japanese, Taiwanese, Australian/NZ, and South African. And I may or may not have bought it as a cassette as well....LOL And I also own the piano/voice book for Odyssey as well as a poster.

Basically, despite the ridiculousness that are the Odyssey versions, it's the one I recommend.

Now. If we go international, Hayley's Japanese albums- Hayley Sings Japanese Songs 1 & 2- I highly recommend those. Maybe even more than Odyssey. But Odyssey is a good starting point

[Libby]

I do love Odyssey, too; it's the album that sold me on Hayley for good, but the different versions make it hard to recommend to new fans, which explains my long essay on the matter. I just feel that not everyone is ready to buy several versions of the same album, if even more than one. I do think my solution (described above) is probably the most economical solution that gives you all of the songs. It only requires buying 2 full versions, and then adding 3 downloaded songs, if that's an option. But, I certainly would not discourage a US fan supporting Hayley's US albums.

[martindn]

Yes, it is a pity about all those different versions of her albums, but I understand the reasons why the UK versions, at least are different. You may notice that the UK additions on Odyssey and especially Treasure are tracks which would be categorised as "classical", the reason being that it is important in the UK that her albums qualify for the classical chart, and get airplay on Classic FM. They dropped a clanger with Hushabye of course.

But yes my favourites are still her Japanese Songs albums, which are not remotely classical. And it is strange that nobody mentioned Paradiso, which is perhaps her most technically challenging album.

Martin D