The anticipation was incredible. After a bit, the lights go out and steeped in darkness, I anxiously await. A hush fills the room. It’s amazing how thousands of people can sit so quiet, so still, waiting to feel the magic. A bright purple light illuminates the stage from behind and in the brightness there is a silhouette; a lone musician, who waves her bow and strikes that first note. The magic has begun. My heart bursts with joy and continues to fill with love for the next two hours and beyond. I am talking about a night out on the town at a concert held at the Mass. Mutual Center in Springfield, MA on Friday night. But not just any concert. A concert that is so enchanting, so captivating, so beautiful that it is incomparable to any other event one can conceive. Celtic Woman: A New Journey has begun and it was pure magic, without question by anybody who attended.

Celtic Woman began their sensational journey in March of 2005 when their first show aired on public television to audiences all over the country. The show consisted of four singers: Chloe Agnew, Lisa Kelly, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha, and Orla Fallon along with a fiddler Mairead Nesbitt. With musical director and composer David Downes, they have taken the world by storm and haven’t looked back since, topping the Billboard World Music charts for 95 consecutive weeks. In August 2006, they were joined by Haley Westenra, an international star in her own right, and began their next phase: A New Journey. They recorded their next DVD at Slane Castle in Ireland which aired on PBS on December 2, 2006 and started touring shortly thereafter. And that brings us back to this concert.

Listening to the CD and watching the DVD every chance I got over the last six months, I couldn’t wait to see and hear this bit of heaven on earth, live, and in person. Being a musician for the last 35 years of my life, I could only hear beauty and perfection on the CD, and watching the DVD, I could only see beauty and perfection. Now I wanted to see if all that beauty, that perfection and that magic would manifest in a live performance; a performance that has been on the road for months touring all over the country.

I’ve been to concerts at the beginning of the tour and the artists weren’t quite ready and I’ve been to concerts at the end of the tour and the artists were tired or bored. Although this concert is at the end of their US tour, there was not a hint of boredom or tiredness by the performers or their crew. In fact, it seems that they get rejuvenated every time they perform. This was confirmed when I chatted with the sound engineer, Wayne Pauley, who masterfully recreates that magic every time. He told me “it was the greatest job on earth”.

Seeing that the stage was much smaller than expected, a minute sense of disappointment set in. But looking around I noticed they still had two complete fortresses of percussion equipment, so both drummers were there. There is no way to financially take a production like the one done at Slane Castle on the road and still be profitable, so logic told me that there would not be a full orchestra. But surprisingly enough, it wasn’t even noticed. Every note, every sound was there. A keyboard and piano, along with the guitar, bass and whistle/pipe players joining the drummer and percussionist was all that was needed and any trace of that disappointment disappeared.

So let the magic begin. The concert opens with Mairead, the fiddler, in the center of that back-illuminated stage and then the other ladies join her and proceed to sing “The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun”, an opening that is perfect in every respect. Mairead comes back in the middle of the song and apparently just brings her own light wherever she goes. I imagine she carries that light around her even when she’s not performing. She is a fireball, a dancing angel, playing such sweet music on that fiddle like it was part of her all her life. I haven’t had the amount of energy in all my life combined as she does in one performance. There is not enough space here to describe her energy, her beauty. Her facial expressions, as well as every other performer’s expression on stage, tell you that they all love what they are doing. She strives for perfection from every note.

You will read this often in any description of any one of these incredible ladies, there’s no getting around it: they are angels, they are beautiful….each and every one of them.

After the applause dies down, a hush fills the arena again and Chloe, the youngest angel, comes out and sings “The Prayer”, again, her voice is pure and sweet. ….and the audience is mesmerized. This happens again and again after every song. People applaud and then sit in dead silence with intense anticipation of the next bit of beauty.

Lisa’s performance of “Caledonia” shows the longing of being away and her facial expressions draw you into this world and you feel the song too. Enchanting…captivating.

Whether it’s a solo performance showcasing one of these ladies, such as Orla singing “Newgrange” or Meav singing “Danny Boy”, or an ensemble number, such as all of the ladies singing “Over the Rainbow” or “Beyond the Sea”, the voices were absolute perfection, the harmonies pure beauty, the experience something every human being with a soul would appreciate and love. All one has to do is listen…not passively, but actively….with your heart.

The energy, excitement, and love build with every note. Up tempo songs like “Sing Out” and “Spanish Lady” and the pure fun of “Granuaile’s Dance”, “Dulaman” and “At the Ceili” are intoxicating.

When Meav sings “The Last Rose of Summer” with Chloe (Haley isn’t there; they only tour with 5 of the ladies, with Haley and Meav switching off), the harmonies just float into the air and linger there sending healing endorphins through your brain, making the hairs on your neck stand up and the goose bumps appear. The emotion is so strong that tears welled up in my eyes as well as the people sitting next to me; tears of love and appreciation…oh, the joy. (This happened on more than one occasion.)

David Downes is a genius…a musical god (I hope this doesn’t go to his head). His original compositions are lovely exciting, hopeful, fun and his arrangements of the other pieces are a work of art. In fact, this whole production is a masterpiece that hasn’t been duplicated anywhere.

These are only words. Celtic Woman has to be experienced to be appreciated. I highly recommend that you get one of their CD’s to listen too, one of their DVD’s to watch, or attend a concert. It is a cathartic, liberating experience that transcends all the problems in this world and there is a peace, a healing that takes place in every listener’s heart and mind. You won’t be sorry, your heart and mind will thank you for it.