Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 08:15:30 AM

Home Help Search Calendar Login Register
+  Celtic Woman Forum
|-+  Everything Else
| |-+  Other Musicians (Moderator: CWazyTom)
| | |-+  Celtic Thunder: Ireland (PBS Special)
« previous next »
Pages: [1] Go Down Print
Author Topic: Celtic Thunder: Ireland (PBS Special)  (Read 1480 times)
CWazyTom
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2095


CWazy for Celtic Woman. Chlovër for life.

View Profile
« on: March 15, 2020, 01:55:18 PM »

I had a chance to watch the new Celtic Thunder special "Ireland." It's a highlight reel special (no new performances), but I enjoyed it. It was about 90 minutes long including pledge breaks.

Segment 1: The Show (2008)

Mull of Kintyre
A Bird Without Wings (Damian and George)
Ride On
Steal Away
Raggle Taggle Gypsy
Caledonia

Pledge Break 1:

It seems you get way more bang for your buck (if you're a serious Thunderhead) with the Celtic Thunder M+Gs than you do with the Celtic Woman M+Gs these days. My PBS station (Buffalo) was offering a pair of Sound Check tickets for $400 USD (that's getting to experience 3-4 songs during the pre-show soundcheck, a Meet and Greet / photo op with all the lead performers, and "the best seats in the house" to the show.

PBS also did a much better job during the pledge breaks than they did with Celtic Woman: The Best Of... One of the PBS reps was actually an enthusiastic Thunderhead. She know all about the group, their history, their musical director, their founder, and the current members of the group. She did a good job of hyping up their December 5th show in Buffalo. Considering I may not be travelling to any more Celtic Woman shows out of driving distance in the forseable future, I might just grab some tickets to this one instead and hope CW comes close enough I can see them too at some point.

Segment 2: Celtic Thunder: Mythology special

She Moved Through the Fair
Rocky Road to Dublin
The Star of the County Down
Danny Boy
Seven Drunken Nights
Lonesome Boatman Into Reels (band)
My Land

Pledge break 2:

The same enthusiastic Thunderhead PBS rep mentioned she had been interviewing Damian since he was little (~14 or 15, when he joined the group) and how they had sort of grown up over that past 12 years with their fans. This stuff is coming from the heart folks. If I end up doing a writeup on the Celtic Woman: The Best Of... (PBS special), I assure you my feedback on the pledge breaks will not be nearly as complimentary.

Segment 3: Celtic Thunder: Legacy special

Out on the Mira
Isle if Innisfee
Galway Girl
A Place in the Choir
Mountains of Mourne
Take Me Home
Mo Ghile Mear

Pledge Break 3:

They talked about the lead performers in Celtic Thunder being great guys. See, this is the stuff they SHOULD be saying about Celtic Woman, because the lead performers in Celtic Woman are some of the nicest, most tolerant people I've had the pleasure of meeting.

Segment 4: Celtic Thunder: X special

Toora Loora Lay
Wild Rover
The Galway Girl ( it's a completely different song than the one they performed in the previous segment ;) )
Castle on the Hill
May the Road Rise to Meet You
Rise Again
Ireland's Call


Overall Thoughts

Celtic Thunder is fun to listen to! I enjoy most of their songs (not quite at as high a rate as Celtic Woman, but they have a lot of good stuff). Their harmony is great and because they usually have more lead singers than Celtic Woman, they do tend to produce a fuller vocal sound.

I was a little disappointed that the 3rd and 4th segments were from PBS specials I'd already seen. I was hoping for more of their older stuff, since I haven't seen most of that yet.

A Bird Without Wings was really good. Damian's voice back then in the first special was much higher than it is now (as the PBS rep pointed out during one of the pledge breaks) and the combo of his high voice, George's low voice, and the melody itself was pretty effective.

If there's one song they do whose version I actually prefer to the Celtic Woman version, it's Caledonia. I really like the CW versions, but the Celtic Thunder version was arranged as a group song and was strong enough to be a finale number. It's absolutely awesome to listen to!

My Land was also well done. I like the Celtic Woman arrangement better overall, but there were definitely a few aspects of the Celtic Thunder arrangement I enjoyed more. Celtic Thunder had a much bigger ending, whereas the Celtic Woman version sort of tapers off at the end.

I'm not sure what else to say about Ireland's Call other than it's ridiculously awesome in every way!

This was fun to watch! Once in a while, it's fun to experience something different than the musical genius of Celtic Woman. :D

Logged
Pages: [1] Go Up Print 
« previous next »
 
SMF 2.0.19 | SMF © 2017, Simple Machines
Celtic Woman Forum, Celtic Thunder: Ireland (PBS Special) - Theme by GlenS