Why I believe in Celtic Woman's music

My new CD of the moment, that means I play it over and over again and that I will be writing superlatives, is Believe by Celtic Woman. This is no new group. It must have already released four or five albums before but I do not think those were ever available in the local stores. Which is really a pity because Celtic Woman has a very commercial style that is part-country, part-New Age and part-folk that I am sure lots of people out here can relate to. Think Enya combined with The Corrs and spiced with country with lots of violin solos.

Celtic comes from Celt, which is the name of people native to some areas of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and in parts of Spain and Portugal. I do not know how true Celtic music sounds like but a pop form became quite popular in the ’70s, thanks to groups like the Clannads and the Chieftains and flautist James Galway. This later evolved into the New Age music of Enya and Loreena McKennitt. It also influenced rockers like U2 and Jeff Beck and pop acts like The Corrs and Sarah McLachlan.

Celtic Woman has all these ingredients but with more country and folk in the arrangements. The group is made up of three distinctive vocalists, Chloe Agnew, Lisa Kelly and Lisa Lambe and Celtic violinist Mairead Nesbitt. All young and pretty, the girls have made quite a mark worldwide for their sold-out shows and big-selling albums. With producer and arranger David Downes at the helm, they have created a unique, otherworldly sound that is pure enchantment.

I am glad that Believe has been released locally. This one must be Celtic Woman’s most commercial album and the production is truly excellent. There is such clarity of sounds, you can literally hear strings being plucked and air entering the pipes. The singing, too, is magnificent, with the girls showing off angelic tones, alone or together. I would describe the whole package as convincing. This music encourages the listener to either break out into energetic gigs or go into spiritual meditation with little effort.

As far as total performance goes, the best of the lot are the dramatic Songs From The Heart medley, which is made up of Walking The Night and The World Falls Away and the rousing opener Awakening. All composed by Downes, the cuts feature all four members of the group. That means Mairead’s fiddle also gets its share of solos, and this girl plays really well. I believe that it is these tracks that embody all the qualities that made Celtic Woman a favorite with the critics.

Then for samples of a Celtic Woman as a soloist, there are Chloe Agnew’s Ave Maria and Lisa Lambe’s version of the old Irish folk song Black Is The Colour. These are simply moving.

As for the instant crowd pleasers, Believe also presents old folk songs and popular pop tunes in the line-up. Rod Stewart’s Sailing, Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkle, Paul Young’s Follow On, the Christmas song A Spaceman Came Traveling by Chris de Burgh, A Woman’s Heart, the big Irish hit by Eleanor McEvoy, and the standard You’ll Never Walk Alone by Rodgers and Hammerstein, now all sounds heavenly.

Do not let the term Celtic keep you away from the album. That is just a term and terms should not deprive you of beautiful music. For those who are already convinced of the beauty of Celtic pop, you might want to check out, Pure….Celtic. You must have already come across the Pure… series, four-CD collections of various types from Sony Music that sound great and do not cost an arm and a leg. Among these are Pure… Hip-Hop; Pure… Divas, Pure… Country, Pure… Soul, Pure… Movies and Pure… Celtic which boasts of 60 songs.

There are cuts by the Clannads, Theme From Harry’s Game; The Chieftains, Molly Ban (Bawn); James Galway, Brian Boru’s March; Sarah McLachlan, Fallen; plus Where You Are by the October Project; Waiting For The Wind by Cantara; Rocky Road To Dublin by the Young Dubliners; The Shores Of The Swilly by the New Age Chamber Orchestra; and an incredible Danny Boy by the legendary Kate Smith with the Boston Pops Orchestra.