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Topics - VegasDavid

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Ancient Land / Signed CD experience

« on: October 30, 2018, 12:12:17 AM »

I got my signed Ancient Land CD today!

SPOILER ALERT, I GUESS

It came with a double-sided photo. One side shows Susan sitting and Tara standing nearby. It looks very vintage, like it's from the 1960s. The other side shows Éabha and Susan standing in front of a stone staircase and some elegant windows. I wonder if you guys will get the same photo! (Another thing for Tom to frame! 😃)

The CD itself is beautiful.

The seal on the top edge of the CD was broken, so the girls could sign it. The back of the CD has many scratches in the plastic, probably from the same activity.

The seal on the top edge of the CD says "Celtic Woman Ancient Land (Return to the Castle)" (in all caps). It also says "UMG", says the UPC, and has a bar code, like you would expect on any CD.

We've already seen the images that Celtic Woman posted on Facebook with the track names and performer names. Each of those images turns out to be two pages in the liner notes, facing each other.

There are two more pages of liner notes that give proper credit to all the musicians and lists what tracks they performed on.

The back page of the liner notes has a picture of the four girls in white dresses, their printed first names, and signatures of their first names made with thick markers. Tara's signature in silver and Éabha's signature in black both look great, and they were given plenty of space. Mairéad's signature is some kind of gold, and Megan's signature is very similar but maybe I'd call it bronze. The gold and bronze do not stand out very well against the pink. Mairéad's signature goes outside of the small allotted area, overlapping her printed name and the logos below it, while Megan managed to squeeze her signature into that limited space. (Personality analyzers... go!)

There are 21 orchestra members listed from the Orchestra of Ireland. I only counted 19 at the filming of the DVD. (The harpist doesn't count, the orchestra only has violins, violas, and cellos.)

I still see the same message on the Celtic Collections website which says "We've accepted your order, and we're getting it ready." So their order tracking system basically doesn't work and if you see that same message it could mean anything.

I ripped the CD to my computer using iTunes. All 18 tracks seem to be there and approximately the right length, adding up to 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Ancient Land / Ancient Land: #1 iTunes world music album in the U.S

« on: October 27, 2018, 11:17:17 AM »

Mairéad Carlin just announced that Ancient Land is the #1 album in the World Music category on iTunes in the U.S.:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpbmBm_BMQ0/?taken-by=maireadcarlinsings

Hey, #20 looks like it could be good too!

(I installed iTunes on my computer so I could check out the other albums on the list. There are lots of other Celtic Woman albums if you scroll through all 175 albums on the chart.)

Mairead Carlin / Accents in Mairéad's name

« on: October 08, 2018, 11:17:42 PM »

As far as I can tell, Mairéad Carlin never puts an accent over the first "a" in her name. I checked her Twitter account and various official documents from Celtic Woman.

Reading Tom's new Wikipedia article on Ancient Land reminded me of this. The Wikipedia article entitled Máiréad Carlin, should probably be renamed, and references to her in related articles should be fixed, no?

Máiréad Nesbitt, on the other hand, does use an accent on that letter, so it's easy to see how people might make that mistake.

P.S. Thanks again to Glen for switching the forum over to UTF-8 so we can talk about these special characters! 🎉

Eabha McMahon / Éabha in a political ad

« on: October 08, 2018, 12:45:05 PM »

Éabha appears in this video ad that is trying to raise €50,000 for the Michael D. Higgins presidential campaign:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bod1CCUnvkY/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlocSavzQEg

Presidents in Ireland have a 7-year term, and Higgins in the incumbent. He is also super popular and likely to win in a landslide (source).

New Members / Hello from Las Vegas

« on: October 07, 2018, 05:10:49 AM »

Hello from Las Vegas! I joined the forum on July 31st. I already feel very welcome here but I figured it's about time to introduce myself and say how I ended up here.

College, community radio, and world music

I grew up in Urbana, Illinois and went to college there too, at the University of Illinois. I had a radio at my desk in the dorm, so I explored it and found a community radio station named WEFT (90.1 FM). They played world music from 2pm to 4pm every weekday afternoon, and I really liked it.

From 2006 to 2008, I volunteered as an airshifter at WEFT, helping to play the news broadcasts from 4pm to 6pm every Wednesday. This meant that I had access to all the CDs at the station. Here is the world music section:

Thanks to WEFT and the Urbana Free Library, I discovered lots of artists, including Capercaillie, Afro Celt Sound System, Enya, Pink Martini, and Moya Brennan. I was also into lots of other music that isn't relevant to this forum, like gypsy music.

In 2008, I had my own world music radio show at WEFT where I got to share the world music I had found every Wednesday from 2pm to 4pm. I even hosted one live performance on my show: Jamie Laval and Ashley Broder joined me on 2008-03-12 to promote their new CD, Zephyr in the Confetti Factory, and perform songs from it. (They were in town that day and contacted the radio station to set it up. Between songs, I asked them a few questions about their music and careers.) Here is the control panel at the radio station where I ran my show:

I could have conceivably played the original Celtic Woman CD or A New Journey on my show if I had known about them, but I did not! I don't think we had those CDs at the station or the Urbana Free Library. And I did not really follow the local PBS radio station or TV station.

I moved to Las Vegas in June 2008 and had to stop doing the show. Nothing relevant happened until 2018...

Early 2018

I didn't take perfect notes on this stuff, but my path to discovering Celtic Woman in early 2018 was something like this:

Netflix made The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring available for online streaming some time in January 2018.
I remembered that Lord of the Rings is a cool series, and I'm a fan of it, and I should watch it again for a third time.
I remembered that May It Be by Enya is a really beautiful song, and decided I'd like to hear more music like it.
I started listening to "May It Be radio" on Google Play Music (i.e. I clicked on that song and asked them to make a radio station for it).
Based on the tracks I was liking, Google recommended that I listen to "Celtic Woman radio". That sounded like a nice genre to me because I like Celtic music and music with women singing, so I started listening to it. It took me at least a few weeks to figure out that "Celtic Woman" is an artist, not a genre!
I really liked the wholesome, happy feeling this kind of music gave me, and I started listening to "Celtic Woman radio" exclusively, ignoring all the other types of music I used to like. Mainly I would listen in the car for 30 minutes every day while driving to work and back.
I distinctly remember driving to my favorite pizza place on a chilly Las Vegas night while Google Play Music was playing Send Me A Song by Lisa Kelly. It was so weird, because one particular note in the song actually sounded like a blatting saxophone to my ear! I listened to that song over and over in the car, before and after picking up my pizza, trying to figure out what was happening. I eventually figured out that the Google Play Music Android app was skipping part of the song, so the playback of the song jumped abruptly from an instrumental part into the middle of a long note sung by Lisa Kelly. (It wasn't happening on the web version of Google Play Music, and the bug has since been fixed in the Android version.)
I think this was the night when I first looked up who Lisa Kelly is, and discovered that Celtic Woman was an artist, not a genre!
Shortly after that, I watched all the YouTube videos on the CelticWomanVEVO and CelticWomenVEVO channels. I really liked seeing this beautiful music performed in video form. I paid close attention to the faces and tried to associate names to them, using the Celtic Woman About page.
I started ordering Celtic Woman DVDs and putting them on after coming home from work. At this point, they had become my favorite musical artist of all time. I don't think there were any previous artists where I had taken the time to learn the names of more than 2 or 3 of their members.

Concerts in 2018

I moved this to its own post below.

Favorite social media interactions

I've had a handful of social medial interactions with Celtic Woman members where I say something amusing or sweet about their music and they like the comment or respond to it. Here are links to my favorites:

Mairéad Carlin: https://twitter.com/DavidEGrayson/status/1012357998298054656
Megan Walsh: https://twitter.com/DavidEGrayson/status/1031248207517556736
Tara McNeill: https://twitter.com/tara_mcneill/status/1021416010648375297
Máiréad Nesbitt: https://twitter.com/DavidEGrayson/status/1007130600505929728

Future plans

In the near future, I'm looking forward to seeing the Christmas 2018 tour and seeing Evermore Park. Máiréad Nesbitt was teasing a performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC some time in November but at this point I doubt it will happen. I really want to see Lisa Kelly sing some time; she might be my favorite former Celtic Woman member and it's not too hard to fly to Georgia.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll probably post future personal updates in this thread if they are not super relevant to the other forums.

Other Musicians / Hillary Klug

« on: October 01, 2018, 10:42:45 PM »

I saw this awesome video on Facebook today and thought most of you would enjoy it:

https://www.facebook.com/FiddleAndDance/videos/1982218255175417

Ancient Land / Garden of Eden lyrics

« on: September 28, 2018, 02:12:29 AM »

Track 14 on the album Ancient Land by Celtic Woman is entitled Garden of Eden, and it was written and performed by Éabha McMahon. She wrote a little about her experience writing songs on Instragram. It makes me a little happy to think I get to be the first person to transcribe the lyrics and put them online. Here you go:

Oh you run through the Garden of Eden and what did you see?
Was it thrilling, fulfilling, and all it was cracked up to be?
Oh you left her alone after placing a ring on her hand.
Oh you run through the Garden of Eden, you're borne from this land.

Now that woman you vowed, did she chased you out with her drum?
And did love turn to anguish when all of her crying was done?
And the ground broke beneath you, you lost every thing that you know.
Oh you run through the Garden of Eden, where no one should go.

If I could hold you for one more hour, would you lie with me among the flowers?
I wrote you a letter every day but the Garden of Eden took my love away.

And you begged for forgiveness, you cried until no tears were left.
But that woman of wisdom had wished for you only the best.
Now your beard overgrown and disheveled, you're barely a man.
Oh you run through the Garden of Eden, as fast as you can.

If I could hold you for one more hour, would you lie with me among the flowers?
I wrote you a letter every day but the Garden of Eden took my love away.

There's no pain in this garden, the sky knows nothing but blue.
But perfection is nothing, when all she can think of is you.
And you broke her to pieces, set fire to a wall that she built.
Now you're left in the garden alone, with nothing but guilt.

If I could hold you for one more hour, would you lie with me among the flowers?
I wrote you a letter every day but the Garden of Eden took my love away.

If I could hold you for one more hour, would you lie with me among the flowers?
I wrote you a letter every day but the Garden of Eden took my love away.

But the Garden of Eden took my love away.

Ancient Land / Ancient Land photo index

« on: September 17, 2018, 10:42:10 AM »

This is an index of photos and videos pertaining to the Ancient Land concert at Johnstown Castle.

2018-12-xx

Celtic Woman posted a full-length, official music video for Homeland. It contains shots from the concert, back stage at Johnstown Castle, and the recording of the Ancient Land album.

2018-11-xx

The Times published an article about Celtic Woman that has a picture of them wearing their first act dresses outdoors in front of a lake. I think it is from the Johnstown Castle grounds. Tara tweeted a picture of the printed article.

Celtic Woman released a 2:55 teaser video on YouTube.

Celtic Woman posted a nice picture of the second act without words on it this time.

Celtic Woman posted a 3:54 teaser video on YouTube.

2018-10-xx

Mark Brewer posted the 30-second DVD teaser (sizzle reel).

Celtic Woman Official on YouTube posted a 30-second clip with footage from the DVD filming (songs: Ancient Land, Homeland). They also posted it on Instagram later. Tara posted a copy of it on Instagram.

Tara McNeill posted a short video on Instagram that shows a little bit more of the song Ancient Land. (You can see the back of my head.) Éabha posted it too.

Celtic Woman on Facebook posted a 15-second clip from DVD (song: Follow Me). This has drone footage that shows me on the right side, indicating it is from the second night.

Celtic Woman posted banners on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, most of which have Ancient Land DVD filming images in the background:
2019 Spring Tour Announced Today - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
Fan Presale Starts Today - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
5 Days Left - Twitter, Facebook
4 Days Left - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
2 Days Left - Twitter, Instagram,
Fan Presale Ends Today - Twitter, Instagram

2018-09-30

@tara_mcneill on Twitter posted a picture of herself outside the castle during the day looking excited.

2018-09-23

celticwomanofficial posted a picture of the concert with all four stars performing center stage and the castle lit with orange light. taramcneillmusic posted a copy of it. maireadcarlinsings posted a copy of it. (Seems to be the same photo they posted on Twitter on 2018-09-21.)

2018-09-21

@Celtic_Woman tweeted a photo of all four stars on stage during act 1.

matt_deanelx posted 5 pictures of the castle, its spotlights, and the lighting equipment. Sounds like he was one of the lighting guys.

2018-09-18

taramcneillmusic posted a photo of Tara in a sweatshirt at the back end of the stage in during the day

taramcneillmusic posted a video of Tara running to the stage in daylight while Derek Fang sweeps the catwalk in front of her

maireadcarlinsings posted a picture of herself wearing the act 1 blue dress and matching shoulder piece.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of his Ancient Land tickets.

carlmaguir posted 6 pictures that seem to mostly be copies of stuff other people posted on previous days.

2018-09-17

Anthony Byrne posted 14 photos on Facebook:
- Anthony Byrne with Susan McFadden at night
- A daytime shot of people rehearsing on the stage (got copied to Instagram by someone)
- A nighttime shot of the stage, mostly empty (the chairs for the orchestra were not even there)
- Some of the New Ross & District Pipe Band members at the back side of the stage`.
- The audience and the stage, during a performance, with lots of green light.
- Anthony Byrne on the stage posing with his father and 6 of the New Ross & District Pipe Band members.
- A monitor showing Anthony Byrne and the 4 stars on stage.
- A zoomed-out picture of the 8-person band posing at the back of the stage.
- A monitor showing Anthony Byrne playing bagpipes in front of some of the non-microphone choir members
- Anthony Byrne playing with other bagpipers.
- Anthony Byrne and the 4 stars on stage (wide shot, cameras visible).
- Anthony Byrne and the 4 stars on stage (a little more zoomed in).
- Anthony Byrne, other bagpipers, and the 4 stars on stage.
- A monitor showing an aerial shot of the stage and audience on the second night.

jimbogreen posted 5 photos
- diagonal view of empty stage
- drone view while audience is arriving
- 4 choir members posing on stage
- orchestra practicing in the castle

maireadcarlinsings posted a photo of the inside of her audio gear (with a fake spider)

@celticpiper tweeted 4 photos:
- Anthony Byrne with Susan McFadden (posted earlier on Instagram by susiemcfads)
- A view of the stars rehearsing on the stage during the day, with the castle in the backgrounds
- A zoomed-out view of the 8-person band.
- A TV monitor showing himself playing bagpipes on stage in front of the girls during one of those songs where all the musicians were on stage.

2018-09-16

susiemcfads posted a picture of Susan McFadden with Anthony Byrne at the concert

davidegrayson (that's me) posted a picture of the castle from the front of the line at dusk on night two.

davidegrayson posted a picture of himself in front of the castle after the show, with the purple lights on.

maireadcarlinsings posted a picture of herself with Éabha in Wexford but you can't tell where.

Also, on this forum, prideslaw posted a bunch of behind the scenes pictures.

fangpyro posted a picture of himself making horn signs with Tara

cwazytom67 posted a picture of Mairead, Eabha, and others rehearsing on the stage as seen from the line.

rmc1878 posted a really cool picture of the castle and audience where the castle seems to be illuminated only with white light (from night 2).

2018-09-15

antobyrne posted a picture of the 8-member band

tommybuckley posted a 7 photos:
- Tommy Buckley with a guitar
- Tommy Buckley with Caitríona Frost
- The 8-person band photo, but it looks worse than the one antobyrne posted
- A zoomed out view of the 8-person band
- The side of the castle
- The lake on the castle grounds
- A distant view of the castle and concert, from behind the stage

alanmcgrath posted a picture of the 4-man choir on stage

tracie_dorn posted 7 photos:
- Tracie and Gregg in front of the stage
- The castle, as seen from across the lake (#1)
- The castle, as seen from across the lake (#2)
- The center of the stage at dusk
- The center of the stage at dusk with purple lights turned on
- The left side of the stage at dusk
- The left side of the stage at dusk with spotlights visible in the smoke/fog

tracie_dorn posted a picture of Tracie and Gregg with Anthony Byrne.

Caitríona Frost posted 4 photos:
- The 8-person band photo
- Caitríona Frost with Tommy Buckley
- A selfie of the band hanging out inside the castle, with instruments, about to go on stage.
- A zoomed out view of the 8-person band

meganwalshcelticwoman posted 3 photos
- A beatiful picture of the stage all ready for a concert, but empty
- The stage during daytime with performers on the stage practicing
- The four stars and the four choir guys together back stage in street clothes.
This is a cropped and filtered version of the original photo
posted by celticwomanofficial.

caitriona_frost posted a picture of Caitriona Frost with her drums on stage

celebrantrosemaryhartigan posted a picture of her Ancient Land production badge.

2018-09-14

rolandmt posted 6 pictures of himself near the castle meeting people: Megan, Eabha, Anthony Byrne, two guys I don't know, and Glenn. He also met Carl Maguire on the street and met met Alan McGrath by the food truck.

susiemcfads posted her the view from her seat

antobyrne posted a view of the stage during the day

antobyrne posted a picture of Anthony Byrne with the guest bagpipers/drummers. susiemcfads reposted. celticwomanofficial reposted.

celticwomanofficial posted an animated spin around the castle grounds

tracie_dorn posted 5 photos:
- Tracie and Gregg in front of the castle
- The left side of the stage and the castle behind it at dusk
- Tracie and Gregg at the side of the castle
- Tracie, Gregg, and Tom across the lake from the castle
- The castle, as seen from across the lake

cwazytom67 posted two pictures of himself and the side of the castle, a picture of himself and the lake, another picture of himself and the lake, a picture of the side of the castle, a picture of the lake, a picture of the lake with the castle really far away, a picture of the tower on the lake, a a picture of a bird on the lake, and a picture of the castle across the lake.

cwazytom67 posted two pictures: the view in front and behind him while waiting at the front of the line at dusk on night two. He posted. them again in separated posts a few days later.

cwazytowm67 posted a 7 pictures of the girls rehearsing on stage as seen from the line on night 2. He posted
one of those pictures again a few days later.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of himself with Tracie and David (me) in front of the stage after the show on night one. 💗💗💗

cwazytom67 posted 7 pictures from his seat on night one at dusk (David is in one of them.)

cwazytom67 posted a picture of Glenn and Ronan taking their seats before the show.

cwazytom67 posted 3 pictures from the line on night one.

2018-09-13

carlmaguire posted a picture of the four choir guys in mid-jump in front of the castle

caitriona_frost posted a picture of a bug on her drum, a picture of a big insect, and a picture of a peacock.

celticwomanofficial posted a picture of the stage at night with the band and orchestra ready to play.

johnstowncastle posted a unique aerial view of the concert area from behind the castle.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of the castle lit up purple at the end of night one, from the line area.

cwazytom67 posted 6 pictures of the stage and castle at dusk on night one.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of the Amazing Grace fountain.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of Anthony Byrne and the bagpipers/drummers on stage while they were posing for their photo.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of himself on the stage with the piano and castle in the background after night one.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of himself with outstretched arms in front of the stage and castle after night one.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of himself with Glenn and Ronan after night one.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of himself with Anthony Byrne after night one.

cwazytom67 posted a picture of the darkened stage and purple castle after night one.

2018-09-12

celticwomanofficial posted a picture of the castle with blue lighting.

celticwomanofficial posted a animation of a car driving from some parking garage to Johnstown Castle. From the video, it looks like they were staying at the Talbot Hotel in Wexford and drove south, by a Topaz gas station, to get to the castle.

celticwomanofficial posted a picture of the stars and the 4-guy choir backstage in street clothes. taramcneill copied it. susiemcfads reposted.

caitriona_frost posted a video of a bee sitting on her cymbal while she plays it.

2018-09-11

taramcneill posted a picture of the castle from across the lake, with a caption superimposed on the picture.

maireadcarlinsings posted a picture of the castle as seen from inside one of the other structures across the lake.

Ancient Land / I saw spotlights

« on: September 12, 2018, 04:47:00 PM »

I was walking around Wexford at night just an hour ago and saw a circle of spot lights radiating out from some point to the south, lighting up the clouds. I saw them change angle once, and saw one of them flicker as if someone had stepped in front of it. I'd like to think it is a rehearsal at Johnstown Castle!

According to Susan they already started filming today (without us!):

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnnl8awnZ8M/

Other Musicians / New York Trad Fest: November 10 & 17

« on: September 06, 2018, 11:44:19 AM »

The New York Trad Fest 2018 was just announced:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnUDcVxn4iC/?taken-by=newyorktradfest
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnUDVL6HlN3/?taken-by=newyorktradfest

I already bought tickets for the November 10th show. I couldn't figure out how to buy tickets for November 17th.

It is organized by Tony Demacro, a Celtic fiddle player who runs a seisún every week at the 11th St. Bar in New York City. Here is a picture of me meeting him there for the first time in August 2018. He says that he once jammed (is that the right word?) with Máiréad Nesbitt and has nothing but good things to say about her talent.

--David

Ancient Land / Album title is Ancient Land

« on: August 31, 2018, 09:29:01 AM »

Breaking news: Celtic Woman just announced on Twitter that their upcoming album is entitled Ancient Land.

https://twitter.com/Celtic_Woman/status/1035527786046398464

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