Celtic Woman Looks Forward To Bangor Show

Ever since 2005, a group of women and full ensemble of musicians have been bringing the joys of Celtic music to the world under the name of Celtic Woman. They have five CDs and DVDs, the latest happens to be “Songs From the Heart” (Manhattan Records), and they have been touring since February of this year supporting this chart-topping album. On Wednesday, July 28, they will perform in Bangor’s Waterfront Park, and to that end, a phone interview was arranged that found singer Lisa Kelly calling on July 9 to chat about the new album and her involvement in this project (she was also the lead singer for five years in the wildly popular production of “Riverdance” before coming on-board with Celtic Woman) … I was curious to know from where she was calling.

KELLY: I’m calling from St. John, New Brunswick, in Canada.

Q: How’s the second half of the tour going now?

KELLY: Well, we haven’t started yet. We’re back here for rehearsals and we start our tour on Monday.

Q: Oh, so the Bangor date is pretty near the beginning of this 47-city schedule, right?

KELLY: It is, I know; I'm really looking forward to it, actually -- I love Maine.

Q: Well, you ladies have been through our fair state quite a number of times over the time you've been together.

KELLY: We have, yeah, this will be our fifth time. It is such a great place. We always get an amazing welcome when we're there -- we're dying to get back.

Q: Now, just how long have you been with Celtic Woman?

KELLY: I've been here since the very beginning. Yes, nearly six years now -- it's a long time.

Q: Does it still provide excitement and pleasure for you after all this time?

KELLY: Oh, of course, absolutely. Well, we're really lucky: Celtic Woman has been kind of unique in its own way, because nearly every year -- or every 18 months, anyway, it's been a new show or a new tour ... and that keeps it fresh for us; and because of that touring, we go to different places all the time, so you get different reactions every night from different audiences; and that kind of keeps your energy levels up. So, it's fun and, to be honest, touring is a hard life and you couldn't do it if you didn't enjoy it.

Q: There is something about Celtic music that touches most people who hear it ... do you know what I mean?

KELLY: Yeah, absolutely. It also helps that a lot of the tunes are recognizable, I think, and some things stir up a lot of emotions in people. Celtic music is, in itself, about feelings, it's about emotions, it's about telling a story. It's lives, love, loss: things that everybody can relate to.

Q: And you, of all people on the planet, can probably attest to the universality of this genre of music, seeing your tours take you all around the world, correct?

KELLY: Oh, yeah! I mean, we're just back from Australia -- we had two weeks there in Australia -- and to see even the depth of knowledge the people have about Celtic music and Irish music and Celtic instruments, even that kind of thing never ceases to amaze me. We've been to Japan with Celtic Woman, we've been to South Africa, we've been to China -- we've been to places where you would not expect people to know anything about Irish music, ya know?

Q: No, seeing you've been performing here in Maine quite frequently and with all of those PBS specials that air around pledge week, will this new tour present some surprises to the folks who travel up to catch the show in Bangor on the 28th?

KELLY: Well, I always think a live show is so different to seeing us on PBS -- or on a DVD -- it's totally different, it's a totally different vibe when you come to a live show. This tour is a continuation of the tour we started in February, which is called "Songs From the Heart;" the only major difference in this tour is that Alex (Sharpe, who joined in 2007) isn't with us: we lost one of our girls -- she decided to take a break and spend some time with her family -- so it's only going to be the four of us ... that's going to be exciting: we're really looking forward to it.

It means without Alex, Chloë (Agnew), Lynn (Hilary), Máiréad (Nesbitt, the fiddler) and I have different things to do now in the show. So that's what I was trying to say earlier: it never gets tired, because it's constantly changing ... it's good in some ways -- it's good to shake things up -- we'll miss Alex terribly 'cause (she) was really a solid member of the group, but, at the end of the day, it's Celtic Woman, and, you know, women have needs, as well, and she needs to be with her family and her husband, so we're all very supportive of that.

Q: Is there anything that you would like to have passed on to the readers of this "What's Happening" article?

KELLY: Just tell people to come on out and have a good night -- it's a wonderful night of entertainment -- it's one of the very few things that you can bring your whole family to ... I'm very proud of the fact that Celtic Woman is one of those shows where people can come in and forget their troubles for two hours and just enjoy themselves: just sing and cry and clap. That's a great day of work for me.

Posted: July 22
Updated: Today at 3:27 PM
Morning Sentinel Staff
Kennebec Journal
Augusta, Maine