Happy Holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  


HAPPY HANUKKAH!   


FESTIVE FESTIVUS!    


JOYOUS YULE!            


GOOD KWANZAA!  

I Am Simply Heart Broken

I have been inconsolably sorrowful four times in my life.  I mean the kind of sadness that causes uncontrollable crying, mournful and funeral weeping and wailing, and heart wrenching,  body racking sobbing.
The first was when my wife, the one true, great love of my life let me know that I wasn't hers and she left in 1985.  The second was when my best buddy, my dad died in 2007.  The third was when my political hero, the one best hope for saving our Republic, Herman Cain allowed himself to be forced out of the presidential race in 2012.  And now, Celtic Woman is no more.

Don't misunderstand.  Celtic woman, as a touring and recording entity is still alive, if not well.
  As long as musical maestro and ensemble founder and creator, David Downes remains musical director, the group shall continue to flourish, finding new fans, to join the legions of us who have loved these women for over a decade.  I fear, though that those new fans will never know the true and real Celtic Woman.  And now, it comes to my attention, that The Maestro has moved on.
During the decade or so of its existence, Celtic Woman has presented innumerable combinations and incarnations of groupings from among about a dozen breathtakingly beautiful and paramountly talented women, to perform as a vocal group who is more uplifting and inspiring than any I've witnessed. Their soaring, celestial solos and high, heavenly harmonies send physical chills through me, and wells my eyes with tears of utter joy.  With no dismissiveness or disrespect to any of these lovely, love inducing women, including the one I consider as cousin, with whom I'm most proud to share a family name, the best ensemble of songstresses was that of Chloe, Lisa and Lisa.

As evidenced by all of Celtic Woman's variations of vocalists, as well as shows such as
,  and ,
we know that singers, even singers who are perfectly pitched and preposterously pretty, are a dime, maybe a quarter a dozen and are totally interchangeable and replaceable.  Such is not the case with world class instrumentalists, who come along once in a generation, like Vanessa Mae did some twenty years ago.
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Through all of the personnel sequences of Celtic Woman singers, there has always been one constant, one continuing bright shining star that, for me, made Celtic Woman the magical musical experience that it is.  And that is charter member, violinist/fiddler, Mairead (rhymes with parade) Nesbitt.


Mairead Nesbitt has given me more delight and hope over the years than any performer I've seen or heard.  Her beauty and her talent are unsurpassable.  I don't give a care about how God gifted good new member Tara McNeill might turn out to be, she shall never equal Mairead.   No one shall.  Tara is perhaps more artistically versatile, additionally being a harpist and a vocalist.  But to me, that shows a lack of the concentrated commitment that Mairead has given to her violin.  And adding a singer to the group with Ms. Nesbitt's same first name doesn't placate.
Mairead's bow and smile; her verve and her vim; her love and her legs make Celtic Woman the world class act that it is.  And now, like everyone else most important in my life, she has left.  It makes finding a lone remaining, front row seat, with a seat number matching 'my' number meaningless, rather than magical and meant to be.