http://www.ourmidland.com/accent/celtic-woman-performs-saturday-in-saginaw/article_f3f569ac-1450-5c0e-b687-2d82317ab8de.htmlCeltic Woman performs Saturday in SaginawThursday, May 8, 2014, 10:30 am
By Roger Bryant for the Daily News
A member of Celtic Woman says she believes the Irish musical group’s phenomenal popularity is due in part to audiences tiring of the typical musical fare heard on radio and in many public places.
“We’re bombarded by pop music everywhere we go,” Lynn Hilary said in a recent phone interview. “People want something different … It is definitely refreshing.”
Celtic Woman will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Saginaw at The Dow Event Center’s Heritage Theater.
Hilary said there also is something deeper at work in audiences’ embrace of haunting and inspiring songs such as “Danny Boy” and “You Raise Me Up.”
“Music is so important to people,” she said. “Music is a subliminal communicator, a healer … Maybe there’s also some nostalgia in there or some fantasy of what Ireland might be like.”
Hilary, a classically trained soprano, is joined on the current Celtic Woman tour by original member Máiréad Nesbitt, a violinist; singer/actress Susan McFadden; and singer Máiréad Carlin.
The group released a new CD, “Emerald: Musical Gems,” in February. The CD features new arrangements of fan favorites including “Caledonia,” as well as interpretations of “Amazing Grace” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Hilary previously was with the group from 2007 to 2010, and said the current show is quite different from what she experienced previously.
“It’s honestly been so lovely to be back,” she said. “It’s a different dynamic, a different show … The whole show has had a makeover since I’ve been in it.”
“It’s a lot more high-octane now than it was.”
In addition to singing, there are “two world-class Irish male dancers,” formerly in the show “Riverdance.”
“One was the male lead in ‘Riverdance’ for many years … He kind of steals the show for two or three numbers,” Hilary said.
Fans of the group shouldn’t worry that their favorite ballads are missing, though. “Danny Boy,” “You Raise Me Up” and “The Parting Glass” are very much a part of the show.
Not having those would be “like going to see Steely Dan and them not playing ‘Reelin’ in the Years,’” Hilary said.
She also touted the musicians accompanying the group for the current U.S. tour, which began on St. Patrick’s Day in St. Paul, Minn. and is scheduled to conclude in Syracuse, N.Y. in June.
“We’re so lucky to have the musicians that we have,” she said. “They’re some of the best in Ireland. Some of these musicians have been working 30 or 40 years in the business.”
Founding Celtic Woman member Nesbitt also is “an icon” who first gained fame in the show “Lord of the Dance” in the 1990s.
“I think how lucky I am to be working with her,” Hilary said. “That style of music she plays is completely from her heart … It’s 100 percent genuine with her.”
Hilary was the lead vocalist for “Riverdance” in Dublin for a 10-week run and on tour in the U.S., Canada and Europe. She also was on the “Riverdance” 10th anniversary CD and DVD. She has worked with artists including Daniel O’Donnell, Luka Bloom, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club and Don Mescall.
For the Saginaw show, she promised not only the standards but also “some things you wouldn’t expect at all – original songs that tell a little bit of a story.”
The finale is what she called “bagpipes gone mad.”
“It’s very funky. It’s very powerful,” she said.
