Okay, okay, so with the frightful weather outside, I been leaving the unwelcome one-eyed cousin in the corner on too much. I avoided and avoided the PBS stations when I kept seeing this dippy blonde with a fiddle prancing around in a Riverdance-type set on the pledge.
But finally, I fell in during a rendition of an Enya song and stayed a bit. They were losing me on Somewhere Over the Rainbow, then I bolted on Beyond the Sea.
Sigh. “Celtic” music is boffo. Even if its barely, barely, remotely somehow “Celtic.”
I will acknowledge that most of 'em are cute, and one has her dress cut so low that I surmise the use of special makeup and adhesive are present…
Fire away if you have been afflicted by a morbid drive-by of this thing.
My main gripe is that the acknowledged great Celtic women singers are not actually on this program,replaced by marketable nubile up-and-comers.
My anthropology adviser (she’s a folklorist who does her fieldwork in Donegal) and I sat and laughed at this thing for a while the other day when I turned in my final paper. Silly stuff. I think I’ll go listen to my copy of the Titanic soundtrack, now.
Oh yeah, and I wanted to mention the official uniform of bodhran and celtic-bongo player boys. Black leather vest with dark wife-beater shirt, black pants, pony tail. There seems to be no end to those kinda fellers. The other men are these altar-boy choristers who stand at rigid attention in anonymous “casual” gets up of slacks and shirt. There are some pit players, including a good whistler who are not noticeably uniformed but the bodhran-boys cracked me up…
Ah, The Weekenders, I’ve watched the last several shows. I like them, and I’m deeply dyed in the traditional wool. [u]Máiréad[/u], the fiddle player, does dance around a lot, but it’s tailored for a certain audience. She does traditional stuff as well or better than most. I remember watching her do the Contradiction Reel last year. I’ll bet your favorite trad Irish fiddler can’t do that at the same time!
Anyone notice the audience. They’re all professors, lawyers, and librarians!
“Dance around” Lar??? It’d liken it much more to a drug withdrawl induced thrashing. Sad too for someone who was at least at some point in the past an all Ireland champ. I’m sure it wasn’t for her “skill” at dancing. She just comes off as a pompous ass to me. SO full of herself and her flippy blond hair that it makes any notes she plays inaudible to me. Sure, we all have that pompous stage too - but I cut my hair off and it changed me. Now I’m just an ass.
As for the audience - I thought they were all relatives of the performers…
like a jr. high band recital or drama club play gone horribly wrong.
Sorry, pal, I’m not sure she is even playing. I could swear I saw a few motion-sound inconsistencies in the bowing, like a lip-sync catch. But I am hard-line about the traipsing; I wanted to throw a towel over my head, I found it so embarassingly weird…
As for the audience, yes, they seemed to enjoy it… I hope the tickets were free…
And I would neither ask nor want to see my favorite tradfids do such a thing… I think CTL members step a bit, but its recognizably Irish…not a wounded Riverdancer slip-jigging with one shorter leg like the aforementioned… But hey, I am no expert on the dancing part…
I think Blee and I are on the same page on this one…
Ah, Bri…she’s suppose to be playing the Butterfly in this act, you know, flying around lightly (“where was I?”). And it’s performed like this for the elite. You guise just want to meet her in the dressing room, I know.
Ah, Weekenders, you can’t fool a live audience, faking/syncing it. Those retired profs paid big bucks to see a live perfomance.
I haven’t caught the act yet, as I’ve heard plenty enough about it in the past from the Chiffboards to know how much I’d care for it. I’m sure it’s nice.
I can tell you that when someone says to me, “Oh! You play Irish music! Have you seen ‘Celtic Woman’, then?”, my reply has been, “Um…no, but that’s not the music I play.” Then again, a few years back the same person would probably have referred to Enya or U2, and be as baffled by my response. It’s happened.
But Lisa is a huge fan of Madonna, and she says “Barbra Streisand would be my biggest influence because she can cross over between pop and theatre very, very well.”
And Orla’s great passion was, and continues to be, horses.
And Meav can sing “Danny Boy” as if she’s never sung it before.
And as for Chloe, let her speak for herself –
Finally, there’s Mairead –
Whereas in classical music, players read sheet music, Irish music is typically improvised or played by ear. Classical music also includes a vibrato sound not typically found in Irish music, but which Máiréad has introduced into her playing.
Enjoyin’ the peanut gallery immensely today… Love those meaningful quotes from the talent.
One girl, who I don’t know which because they don’t offer captions in the part I watched, looks decidedly non-Celtic. She has the cheekbones and face shape of a certain Goth family popular down London way. She looks like she might even be related to Elizabeth. That gave me further nyux.
I only lasted about three seconds into Scarborough Fair, I’m afraid. Perhaps I was … um … yes, yes, that’s it! I was overwhelmed by the artistry, the brilliance, the sheer celtistry of the moment, as it were … or maybe not.
C’mon, the Contradicton Reel can’t be Irish, so why would an Irish fiddler want to play it? When I saw the show, I wouldn’t describe anything I saw as traditional.
My impression of the audience was that they were all either over 80 years old, or else the performers’ relatives.
It’d liken it much more to a drug withdrawl induced thrashing. Sad too for someone who was at least at some point in the past an all Ireland champ. I’m sure it wasn’t for her “skill” at dancing. She just comes off as a pompous ass to me. SO full of herself and her flippy blond hair that it makes any notes she plays inaudible to me. Sure, we all have that pompous stage too - but I cut my hair off and it changed me. 
Now I’m just an ass. 
When I saw the show, I wouldn’t describe anything I saw as traditional.