The old CaraNua site has been taken offline, so I suspect their new site will be launching soon.

I got my confirmation this morning for both shows (Sept 13 and 14)!

I woke up to the good news and almost couldn't get out of bed I was shaking from excitement so much. I'm pretty sure I was very unproductive at work today.

I may have to bail on one of the shows between now and then depending on how other plans work and on what my guest's schedule allows. But for now, I'm confirmed for both. If I have to choose, I'll be going to the one of the 14th (it will probably be a cleaner show the second time around, although the impact of a rain delay would also be greater).

Depends if I can actually get a hotel in Wexford too (bites fingernails nervously).

Yes, I think doing a fan gathering would be great! Tentatively, I think Sept 13 afternoon before the show or after the show would work best for me, depending on what time the show is.

Because I'm planning to do other things in Ireland besides the CW show, there's not much around Wexford, and and due to the possibility of weather delays, this is going to be a crazy-complicated trip to plan, especially the hotel booking.

We'll see how it goes when my mind is clear enough to think properly.

Wooo!!!!!!!

A Celtic Christmas (aka An Irish Christmas) was released by David Agnew and then re-released under the same name by Fir Na Keol. They have different covers, but they're the same album (identical track listing) and were both released under Celtic Collections.

I finally saw Lindsey last night when she performed with Evanescence!

It was a great show!

I showed up in a Mairead Nesbitt t-shirt to a Lindsey Stirling concert on Tara's birthday. 

It was scheduled to start at 7 PM, but it actually started at 8 PM. There was a pre-show before the show: a 2-person cello and percussion set. It was a mixture of classical and rock, similar to Rocktopia and was entertaining. A large part of the audience showed up near 8 PM, so I guess they weren't interested in the pre-show (or got stuck in traffic).

The main part of the concert was more or less split into two acts. Lindsey's set was the first half of the show and Evanescence was the second half. They did a couple of guest spots in each others' sets.

Lindsey was fantastic! There was quite a bit of production value, with moving stage pieces, video screen backdrops, dancers, and lots of lights. I've seen a bunch of Lindsey's YouTube videos and I have her DVD, so I knew she was going to move around a lot, but I was still pretty surprised. She moves energetically all over the stage like Mairead Nesbitt does and she has legit dance skills. She told some inspirational stories to introduce some of her songs. One got a bit long-winded, but most of them were really good. She seems like such a down to earth, genuine person.

The show was at a partially-covered open air venue. My friend and I were sitting under the covered part, but pretty far back. I could see the performers moving around, but couldn't see details. It was no good for pictures with my phone from that distance, especially not with Lindsey moving around the stage so much. One think I thought could have been better was the contrast between Lindsey and the background (the video screens). She blended into the background a lot. It was really hard to see her in most of the pictures I took.

Both Lindsey and Evanescence performed with a local orchestra. They both sounded great with an orchestra.

I thought Lindsey's act was very enjoyable! It was everything I was expecting, but even better!

I got the sense that while there were people there that were interested in both acts, there were also quite few who were there for one of the acts and not so much for the other. While the crowd was very supportive of Lindsey, I'd guess 70% of the audience was there for Evanescence. The crowd was definitely getting a little restless by the end of Lindsey's set because they were wondering if they were going to get to hear Amy Lee or not.

After Lindsey's set (Act 1), they pretty much just brought the lights up and didn't explain it was intermission. I think most people knew there was a second half coming, but there was a chunk of the audience that didn't stick around for the second half. I guess they were Lindsey fans that saw everything they came to see.

Prior to last night's show, there was only a few Evanescence songs I had heard before. I thought the second half was good, although it was a bit too loud for my liking. They really turned up the volume on the speakers. The second half was definitely less energetic than Lindsey's set, but it still managed to hold my attention pretty well, except when people were moving around and getting food and drink orders at their seats during the show. That got distracting and a little annoying after a while.

Amy Lee (lead singer of Evanescence) is an incredible singer! She has tremendous range and nearly unlimited power. I have no idea how she sings so loud, so high, for so long and repeats that over a whole tour. I suspect that's part of the reason she's doing a split show with Lindsey though, because singing like that has to be wearing out her voice.

The show was about 3 hours, but after Evanescence performed My Immortal towards the end of the show, a sizable part of the crowd left. I guess they heard what they came to hear or were trying to avoid the thunderstorm that was approaching. We stayed for the rest of the show, which was a few more songs. It was kind of odd timing that lightning was flashing all around the venue at about the same time as Evanescence was performing a song with lightning bolts arcing across the video screens.

Overall, I thought it was a great show! I was there primarily to see Lindsey, but I definitely enjoyed both acts. I have even more respect for Lindsey and Amy Lee after having seen them live for the first time.

If this show is coming near you and you're into Lindsey Stirling and/or Evanescence music, consider seeing this show if you can.

I hope this announcement is soon. The rumors are really starting to heat up.

Some people are definitely going to be blindsided. Someone noted that Sue wasn't in the recording pictures and was worried she was leaving. Here are some of the replies:

"I would not panic yet as she is married to the piper for the group - I am sure she would tell us herself if she had new plans!"

"She may not had time to post and it is doubtful she is leaving because she loves the fans and she would tell us if she is."

Traditionally, they announce new members around the first week of August, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this one a week or two early, possibly within the next couple of days.

I'd say that's coming along nicely!

As far as solo DVDs go, Chloe's Walking in the Air DVD and Orla Fallon's Celtic Christmas DVD are great ones to look into as you're expanding your collection. All the solos DVDs are good, but I'd start with those two.

I'm a little biased as Chloe is one of my absolute favorites, but I really love her DVD! The scenery is really nice ( you may recognize some of the locations  ) and Chloe's voice is breathtakingly beautiful.

Orla's Christmas DVD has a nice mixture of fun and soothing Christmas music and has Meav and Eabha as special guests. There are some other noteworthy members of Anuna you may recognize too.  It's definitely one of my favorite holiday DVDs.

The Bloody Irish is a musical about the 1916 Easter Rising (Irish rebellion). David Downes was closely involved with the music. It co-stars Lisa Lambe and has some other familiar faces. It sounds really different from Celtic Woman, but I thought it was quite well done. Malcolm Sinclair (who plays General Maxwell), did an outstanding job.

The Music of Ireland: Welcome Home and Music of Ireland: Welcome to America DVDs are interesting documentaries about the evolution and proliferation of Irish music, but there isn't a lot of Celtic Woman content. There are some interviews and cameos. I'd consider them fringe works as far as Celtic Woman goes.

Chloe's The Thing About You EP is "must have!" If you're planning to go see one of Chloe's shows, I'm sure she'll have copies, but you can listen on Spotify or order it from various places if you can't wait. It's a totally different sound for her, but her voice is absolutely perfect for the arrangements.

Both of Deirdre's albums have quite a few good songs.

Orla's Distant Shore is really good as well.

Hayley has a lot of good stuff, but the challenge is there's a lot of it.

All of Edel's recordings are fantastic. She has an incredibly beautiful voice.

As far as the Fringe Albums go, I enjoyed If You're Irish the most. It has a bunch of songs featuring Deirdre and it has big orchestration.

I still see pretty serious fans tagging Sue that they can't wait to see her on the Christmas tour shows etc.

Maybe some of those are just force of habit or playing along until there's an announcement, but I suspect this is going to blindside a lot of people.