Year in Review: 2020

Year in Review 2020

I don't think 2020 was the year any of us were expecting. Personally, I had 13 Celtic Woman: Celebration tour shows lined up for 2020, many with my best friends. That included at least 4 Meet and Greets. I had some highly anticipated shows scheduled with Chloë and Mairead Nesbitt. I had plans to finally see Alex live in Utah. I had tickets to see all the Celtic Woman shows in Killarney. After a packed travel schedule in 2019, this year was going to be even more ambitious!

On January 22, it was announced that Eabha was taking leave from Celtic Woman to pursue her solo work. My gut kept telling me a departure was coming and I had a feeling, especially at times during the Christmas tour last year, that it might be her. At some point, I assumed I was just being negative and started ignoring the feeling and managed to convince myself nobody was leaving in spite of all the clues my subconscious had picked up. Coinciding with Eabha's departure (and in a shocking turn of events), Chloë returned to Celtic Woman!

Chloë was going to proceed with her solo shows as well and Susan was going to fill in for Chloë at 6 Celebration tour shows.

The Celebration tour kicked off in Lakeland, Florida and for the first time, I got to see the start of the tour! I also got to see 3 more Celebration tour shows in Florida. In Fort Myers, I got to meet Meav for the first time and met most of the girls and a bunch of the band members after the show. I even got to meet Silje! After Florida, I headed straight to Georgia, where I saw Celtic Woman at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, with a Meet and Greet. The following night, I got to see one of Chloë's solo shows before heading home. I didn't get to meet her after the show.

About a week later, after the show in Norfolk, VA on March 13, 2020, the Celebration tour got suspended and the girls rushed home to Ireland. The Canada/US border and the Ireland border got closed days later and everything got shut down. This was an effort to try to rapidly terminate Coronavirus transmission chains and delay the spread long enough to get extended containment measures in place.

The Celebration tour did not return in 2020 and even the Christmas tour got cancelled.

After Chloë's solo show in Georgia, I only saw one more in-theatre concert for the rest of the year, a distanced Fitzgeralds concert with mandatory masks and minimal attendance. It was a fun concert! Almost all concerts after mid-March were purely virtual. Some of our favorite Celtic Woman performers did do some shows after the lockdown with limited in-theatre audiences, including Susan, Edel, and Chloë (who flew back to the US for a mini-tour in December).

2020 was a pretty rough year, but it wasn't all bad...

Here are some highlights:

- Celtic Woman released a Celebration compilation CD/DVD to commemorate 15 years since their debut on PBS

- Celtic Woman did a few really fun social media takeovers and live Q+As

- Several EPs or albums were released:
* Alex: Broken By Design
* Lisa Lambe: Juniper
* Orla: Lore
* Rebecca Winckworth: Together at El Alto

- Eabha worked on her new album and released a few singles:
* One More Day
* Loud
* Seas Suas

- There were lots of singles released. Some highlights for me:
* Amy Rivard: Skipping Stone, On the Platform, In the Arms of Morpheus
* CaraNua: Be Still My Soul (with Jason Tonioli)
* Chloë: Stay At Home Stay Alive (with Nathan Carter), L'Assenza (re-release), May the Road Rise - A New Dawn (with Nathan Carter), Waking Up Slow (with Brian McGrane), From Me To You
* Edel: Motherland, American Tune
* Glenn Murphy: Both Sides Now
* Lynn: Don't Want to Know, Raglan Road, Sweet Freedom
* Mairead Carlin / Ronan: Leave A Light On, Hope We All Deserve, Still With You
* Mairead Nesbitt: Christmas Joy Medley
* Sarah Rebecca (Gannon): Lost & Found, Eglantine, Every Tear, Lights

- A Riverdance 25th Anniversary show got recorded with Edel Murphy before lockdown and released on PBS and DVD

Some of our favorite ladies embarked on side-ventures:

- Mairead Nesbitt:
* Ran a series of online variety shows called Mairead Mondays
* Started offering personalized messages on Cameo
* Launched a monthly subscription on Facebook

- Alex:
* Ran a series of covers called Soul Song Sunday
* Started offering personalized messages, virtual Meet and Greets, and private Christmas concerts

- Lessons:
* Mairead Carlin and Megan both started offering virtual singing lessons
* Alex and Lisa Kelly continued their performance / singing lessons (Alex in virtual form only)

- Eabha:
* Launched a Patreon profile

Virtual Concerts:

In place of in-theatre shows, I took to virtual shows and saw over 150 of them between mid-March and the end of 2020. Some Celtic-Woman-related highlights:
* Chloë's virtual concert with John Driskell Hopkins. The audio, video, and stream quality were all excellent. The best quality virtual Chloë concert I've ever seen!
* Chloë's virtual concerts from Red Clay Music Foundry. The video wasn't as crisp, but the audio and stream integrity were great. The set list was fantastic and Chloë's heartfelt thanks to her fans near the end of the first show was epic!
* I did a virtual group M+G with Chloë after her show with John Driskell Hopkins.
* Alex's private Christmas concert with my friends. We were her first show! She put a lot of effort into it and made it very special for us.
* Rebecca Winckworth's "Citizens of Song" concerts. Not all of them featured Celtic Woman performers, but they were all pretty good.
* Susan (and Chloë's dad) on the RTE Orchestra's "Best of Musical Theatre" show. It was great to see Susan perform again!

The quality of streams (sets, amount of buffering, sound and video quality, etc.) varied widely. Some consisted of people singing in front of their phones or laptop screens. Some had professional camera work, editing, and sound as well as fancy sets. Overall, the quality improved near the end of November when Christmas concerts started. There's nothing like seeing Celtic Woman live, but online shows do have the advantage of being convenient and cheaper (no travel expenses needed).

Personal:

This year, I finally got to see Chloë perform live with Celtic Woman and I got to see a show at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, where Celtic Woman: Believe was filmed!

I also finally got to meet Alex and to see her perform live (albeit virtually). I was really nervous about meeting her and trying to sustain a conversation for 30 minutes, but she made me feel comfortable quickly and was easy to talk to. I enjoyed her virtual M+Gs far more than the rushed photo ops from PBS and brief stage door encounters. Though the girls have learned about me through letters over the years, I feel like Alex already knows me the best.

It was a rough start to the year for me though. Even before the pandemic started (going back to around the middle of 2019), my anxiety and depression issues started escalating again. It got REALLY bad near the end of 2019 and that continued right through until May 2020. It had a significant impact on the Celebration tour for me. I'm glad I got to see some shows, but the enjoyment I could get out of it was severely impacted by mental health issues throughout my trip to Florida and Georgia prior to the first lockdown. I'm glad I took some notes and have some photos, because I don't remember very much from that trip: the severe anxiety and depression blocked or washed away most of the memories. I had a meltdown during one of the CW concerts and it took a herculean effort and ultimately a coin flip to decide whether or not to even bother to go to the M+G or show at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

Ironically, the lockdown came at a time when I needed it most. I was deep into the "danger zone" with mental health and I would not have been ok if I hadn't been forced to come to a complete stop in March.

Leading into the lockdown and for several months afterward, social media became a serious problem. However, by blocking aggressively while I developed additional coping skills, I managed to survive it.

I'm better now than I was at the start of the year, but still have a lot of room for improvement.

I don't imagine this personal part has been very fun to read so far, but I think it's important because I'm not the only one that's had problems this year and if you're out there struggling, you need to know you're not alone and that things do get better if you say nice things to yourself, even if you don't believe them at first.

On a more positive note, I was fortunate enough that all my work could be done from home. In the mornings, I got to sleep in a little longer and after work, I got to go for walks instead of having my anxiety stew in rush hour traffic. I got the most exercise I have in probably 15+ years! Also, without the stress/distraction of planning for upcoming trips, I finally had time to focus on taking care of myself.

I also used the extra time to start practicing whistles more. I started out with some soprano D whistles I got through CaraNua last year. I added a soprano C whistle and a low G whistle this year. Practice definitely helped, but though I'm not a complete novice anymore and can play a bunch of tunes by ear with basic ornamentation, I'm still years of practice away from being any good.

Although I only got to go on one trip to see Celtic Woman, I did get to travel back to a cottage I used to go to as a kid but haven't stayed at in over 29 years. I also got see a few other outdoor places close to home I wouldn't have had the time or motivation to see during a "normal" year.

The Year Ahead:

At some point next year, the disruptions and inconvenience caused by the pandemic will start to ease and hopefully in-theatre concerts will return. But it looks like 2021 is going to get off to a rough start and I'd be very surprised to see any major touring shows return before at least summer. Just keep holding on, make the most of things, and find the silver lining. It will get better next year eventually.

Here are some things to look forward to:
- The return of the Celtic Woman: Celebration tour and a probably a Christmas tour as well
- Eabha's album and ongoing Patreon content
- Chloë's next solo album: Written on My Heart
- Mairead Nesbitt's new live show: Celtic Spells
- Mairead Nesbitt in Rock Me Amadeus
- The Wild Atlantic Fleah week of streaming, featuring Chloë (as host and performer) and many other talented artists
- Many more online shows for at least the first half of the year
- For me: I'm finally going to get to meet Lisa Kelly (via virtual Meet and Greet)!

If I missed anything significant that happened this year or that's hopefully coming up next year, let me know.

Please take care of yourselves and each other and reach out to someone if you need help. Let's find happiness wherever we can and let's all get through the New Year together.

And people thought I was crazy for the years I did 7 or 8 shows!  13 is really ambitious.  Yes, traveling has become a giant hassle, even before COVID. 

I got to see 3 CW shows live this year, had a ticket for 1 more, and was thinking about adding one more show.  My 3 shows were all in Florida, so I could drive.  I too was at Lakeland, Fort Myers and St Petersburg.  I saw one Chloe show before the tour started, and thanks to your posting here, I went to her show in Atlanta in December  OK, maybe BOTH the Atlanta shows!

Without getting into a big debate about COVID, I maintain that my 95 year old mother died this year because of COVID, but she did not have COVID.  It was the isolation, lack of contact with people, lack of exercise (walking).  I had not seen her in person for about 3 months before she went in the hospital and passed away.  At the funeral (don't ask), I, of course, had to do a eulogy.  I closed with a verse from The Parting Glass -- Of all the money, ere I had ... Good night and joy be to you all.  Of course, several people had to ask me about it later.  When I explained, one or two had heard of CW.  If the tour goes ahead next year, I've offered them tickets to join me at a show.  We shall see.

I've tried to do a couple of virtual shows.  Recognizing I am older, I probably will not continue to do so.  I tend to get distracted/lose interest.   I do understand that performers live to perform, and the pandemic has impacted them just like everyone else.  Chloe said something similar during her Atlanta concert. 

Like everyone, I hope 2021 gets us back "closer" to normal.  While typing this, I flipped over to Chloe's website.  Her tour page is now blank.  Earlier (i.e pre Atlanta show), it was showing mostly CW shows).  CW's website still lists the shows.  I have tickets for the February 28th show in St Petersburg, FL.  Right now, the venue's website is still listing it as going forward.  And yes, Florida does not have a lot of restrictions in place. 

I also have a ticket for Cleveland Ohio and Morgantown, WV.  I can get a non-stop flight to Pittsburgh and easily drive to both.  I haven't pulled the trigger on a plane flight yet, since they are still being kind of squirrely about the virus and it's effects on travel. 

Here's to a better 2021!
 


 
 

Thanks for the review, Tom!  It's really helpful to look back at what happened and see if I missed anything.  I'm so glad you are doing better this year.  Hopefully we can see each other at a concert the next time Celtic Woman comes to North America!

--David