Joy To My Soul

𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅮  Joy to my my soul!
Celtic Woman has come
And performed their Christmas show!
I am so happy
I'm all aglow!
'Cause these heavenly angels play and sing
These heavenly angels play and sing!
These heavenly angels to me joy bring! 𝅗𝅥𝅗𝅥
𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅮  They delight the world
With beauty and grace
And let the nations know
That through their music
Eternal love shall flow!
These heavenly angels play and sing
These heavenly angels play and sing
These heavenly angels to me joy bring!  𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥

And they really do.  I simply love these little women.  I have adored and admired all of the women of Celtic Woman throughout the years.  Though they say and sing that it us who do it for them, it is they who do it for me. 

It was no different this past Friday the 13th, in the event center at Harrah's Cherokee where and when I was overjoyed to be sitting front row center for their Magic of Christmas/Symphony concert, accompanied by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra.   

My first joy was that they performed to an nearly sold out arena.  My second joy was that the two people who were supposed to be sitting to my right didn't show up, so that I was able to move one seat over, so as to have plenty of room and space for chair dancing, cheering, softly singing along and celebrating the spirit of the season.  My tertiary joy was their second selection, Angels We Have Heard On High, which has long, if not forever been my thought to be the most joyous of all the Christmas carol standards.  It was an astonishing arrangement and presentation.  

       

My most joyous perhaps, was Tara's violin instrumental solos, so clean, so crisp and ever so Christmasy.

    It has been a privilege and a pleasure to see and hear this young woman ever evolving artistically.  She had huge shoes to fill when she moved from accompanying harpist to lead, out front violinist and fiddler.  Though she has not been, is not now, nor ever may be Mairead Nesbitt, Mairead Nesbitt is no Tara McNeill. 

With her long, luxurious, bright red hair and alabaster complexion, Tara is probably the most Celtic of all of the women of Celtic Woman, at least since Lisa Lambe. 😊  

Tara's violin virtuosity places her in the world class of others whom I've adored and admired over the decades, making her instrument sound as the voices of angels.

Yes, one might see, that for me, the musical mastery is but half of that that I admire and adore most in feminine instrumental artistry.  Visual presentation is as aesthetic.  As Tara matures, professionally and personally, I've no doubt that she shall be all that all can be. 

As for the vocal virtuosas of Celtic Woman, I truly love these little women, as I have loved all of the women of Celtic Woman.  The female human voice is the most uplifting and inspirational of all of musical instruments.  In my most melancholy moods, the music of Celtic Woman has lifted me from depths of despair to heights of happiness.  Though not particularly melancholy this past weekend,  these ladies' Christmas caroling, even in an unknown language at times, lifted me out of my seat and my arms to Heaven.    

 Purely purest Mairead Carlin continues to become the showwoman I've always known her to be.

 Songstress extraordinaire and composer astonishing, Eabha McMahon remains the most distinctive of all of the Celtic Woman voices and my absolute heroess.

 Expressive and emotive newest sister in the Celtic Woman sisterhood, Megan Walsh lifts and breaks my heart with her most heartfelt renditions of such classics as Fields of Gold and Shenandoah, as well as her Christmas caroling.  

As you all of us in the audience Friday, I extend to you now, my most heartfelt adieu

I am so eagerly anticipating celebrating twice with you next Spring, the fifteen years of Celtic Woman, from Chloe, Lisa, Orla, Maev and Mairead to Mairead, Eabha, Megan and Tara.

To touch a grumpy, sad old man's hardened heart the way you have and do, is truly magical.

An Open Letter to Sean Hannity, Since His Email Doesn't Seem To Work

We met briefly, sort of, at the edge of the tarmac of the Burlington (NC) airport, I made you laugh out loud regarding the screaming 'Tyranny Response Team' member whom you were trying to spontaneously interview through the fence.   
Regardless, a couple of points.  You've been comparing this impeachment bull squeeze to the impeachments of Clinton's and even Nixon's, while ignoring the similarities of this one and Johnson's. 

A century and a half apart, in both cases, members of the president's opposing party, rightfully labeled as radical are and were pushing impeachment.  In 1868, they were so radical that the 'r' was capitalized.  Then, as now, impeachment was and is based on policy preferences and politics of personalities. 
Secondly, and as importantly, I've listened to your interview with Garland Tucker, R candidate for US Senate, from here in NC.   I was very excited to hear of Mr. Tucker, because I'm an Unaffiliated North Carolina conservative, who is, as are many of my fellow Old North Staters, disappointed, disillusioned and disgusted with Thom.  (I facetiously pronounce it with the diphthong.)  😇
But Sean, Garland Tucker will be no better.  Though he's never before sought elective office, he is a long term, John Kossack supporting, Ivy League establishmentarianist R politician, where the R stands for RINO, or in my vernacular, Repulsican.   He will get right in that hot tub of which he spoke in your interview with him, to be just another money wasting, overstaffed swamp monster. 
In researching my blog article "Please Withdraw Your Endorsement of My Senator, Mr. President", I discovered that there is a third and better candidate than T n T.  
She's a farmer, businesswoman and military mom (of a Marine daughter) who is a true Trump supporter and native North Carolinian conservative.  Check her out.  I think that you will want to interview her.  She's Sandy Smith.
 
B N Sharpe

A Friend Says That I Need An Intervention

I really don't think that an act of intervening is necessary.  All I have done is to arrange to see my favorite, favorite, all time favorite singing/musical group three times in a six month period.


Since receiving, from that same friend, Celtic Woman's A Christmas Celebration DVD, I have wanted to be in attendance for one of their Christmas concerts.  This year, I shall drive four plus hours to sit in my front row center seat at Harrah's Cherokee Event Center to hear and see their The Best of Christmas concert.  Mairead, I hope that you like the bow tie I'll be wearing as much as or more than the one you said you liked after your show in Durham this past Spring. 
I plan to arrive there hours and hours before the 9 pm show, in hopes of seeing and spending some time with these lovely and beloved ladies of Ireland.  Maybe they'll be in the casino.  If so, I shall hope to have good luck, as I hope that they will be having good gaming luck, despite the Friday the 13th date.  Maybe they'll let me sing to them the two verse Christmas carol I've sort of plagiarized for them, that I call Joy To My Soul.  
As they let Mairead Nesbitt vocalize the final line in A Christmas Celebration, maybe we can finally hear Tara's beautiful voice.  Just don't sing or say "Let it snow". 

Six months following, during the last week of their Celebration tour, I shall immensely enjoy them again, from my orchestra right center, front row seat in the brand new Tanger Performing Arts Center in my hometown of Greensboro, NC.
Between those shows, I shall share, for the first time, my in-person admiration and adoration of these women with another.  I'm treating my beloved elder sister in honor of her Friday the 13th birthday in her adopted hometown of Raleigh.  Though her musical tastes tend toward beach oldies and country, even she recognizes Celtic Woman as "remarkable".
Given the Spring tour name, I'm hoping that Maestro Murphy can pen an Irish/Celtic arrangement of the Kool and The Gang classic Celebration to open the show, probably with Eabha singing lead.

The show could close with a Celtic version of Three Dog Night's hit Celebrate!  Dance to the Music.

That could segue into Finale/ Mo Ghile Mear, as they did to wrap up their Powerscourt performance in 2009 and their San Antonio show in 2013, as well as others, I'm sure.

 

 

Within the show, I would love for Celtic Woman to celebrate the kinship shared between the group and their American fans, of which Chloe spoke.  After all, many of us in the US are of proud Irish ancestry.   O America!, with a video screen backdrop of Americana and fireworks would be so special and celebratory,  Wouldn't I love to join, playing Ray Fean's snare part.  I don't have my drum anymore, but I do have my sticks, which he autographed a couple of years ago.
Whether solo sung by Eabha, as I saw and heard her do in Charlotte a few years back, or with all voices, as Chloe, Lisa, cousin Alex and Lynn Hilary performed it in years past, the story of Annie Moore ties Irish and American together like no tale ever told.  The Elvis Costello classic, Long Journey Home which Celtic Woman performs so heartfeltly, as does their countryman, Tommy Fleming, is another grand celebratory song which I interpret as another lyrical example of the alliance and allegiance shared by Ireland and America, would be welcomed to hear.     

I would love to celebrate with Celtic Woman standards like Nil Se'n La, Teir Abhaile Riu and Mo Ghile Meir, especially if they don't, or even if they do use Mo Ghile Meir as part of the show's closing.  I would LOVE to see and hear Tara run and play her way onstage following a double percussion solo, her long, luxurious, rare red hair flowing behind her.   I would be delighted whether they were performed as they were in years past, or as they have been more recently.

Sorry about all of the Teir Abhaile Riu videos, but it has always been maybe my very favorite.  The various groupings of women of Celtic Woman have performed it in so many wonderful arrangements over the years.  Whether from the Emerald or Believe dvd's, two concerts at which I wish I had been, or from The Voices of Angels show in Charlotte, where I was in attendance, it is just a wonderfully celebratory song.  Their presentation of it in The Queen City, on a sunny Sunday Spring afternoon, the weekend of St. Patrick's Day was a mystical, magical, musical moment for me.   Superlative Susan playing her spoons; Eabha, my heroess fingering her flute; cute, cute, supercute Mairead wearing her cute little squeezebox; and of course, terrific Tara bowing her fabulous fiddle demonstrate the outrageous range of talent the women of Celtic Woman possess.
I'm not sure if any Celtic Woman show, especially one called Celebration would be complete without a celebratory salute to the Celtic woman who perhaps pioneered the concept of beautiful Irish women making beautiful Irish music making it a staple in so many (but not enough) American recordings collections.  It was Enya's Orinoco Flow which made me aware in the early, early nineties.

It was happenstance that I discovered and fell in love with Enya and her music.  She was on the Muzac in a restaurant where I was dining.  Finding out who she was, I immediately went to the record store in the same shopping center as the restaurant and bought her cassette, as one of my quite rare music purchases   If Orinoco Flow is performed, perhaps a slight bit of lyrical literary license could alter the lyrics, from "Rob Dickens" to "Kavanaugh" to celebrate the business brilliance of Dave Kavanaugh, which coupled with the musical genius of Maestro David Downes made Celtic Woman possible.

  

And to further feature the ladies' instrumental mastery, along with the mastercraft of their musicians' and dancers, they just have to perform The Kesh Inn.  It won't be quite the same for me, without Ray, but it will still be wonderful and I will love love love it.

  I'm not sure if there has ever been a happier tune and celebratory song presented by any contingent of Celtic Woman than Ballroom of Romance, as presented by the current four at Johnstown Castle.

And I would SO love to see and hear Tara McNeill perform her rendition of Granuaile's Dance.  I'll be the old man chair dancing and cheering in Raleigh and Greensboro.

And I do so hope that Megan will reprise her remarkable rendition of Fields of Gold, which has so much and many bittersweet, heartwarming/heartbreaking personal meaning and memories for me.

.
I would be ecstatic to see and hear Eabha tell her talents as songstress and songwriter with her original composition Garden of Eden and any other she may have recently written.

If Amazing Grace is included, as it generally is to feature Sir Byrne and his bagpipes, I DO wish that they would include the "When we've been there ten thousand years" contemporarily accepted final verse.  Granted, it wasn't part of the 1779 originally written hymn, but it so inspiring and uplifting.

Regardless of how Maestro Murphy, the musicians and Celtic Woman arrange and present, I know that I shall be raised up.

Justin Trudeau Is NOT a Racist

He is just another dumb mass Dummycrap 'guilty white liberal' Caucasoid.  Yeah, yeah, yesh, I know that he's a member of the Labour or Liberal Party, or whatever, but it's all the same thing.
In dressing up in blackface or brownface, he was not denigrating the Negroid race.  He was portraying his positive adoration of them, much like how so many American Caucasoid youths emulate the contemporary urban culture by wearing their hats backwards, their pants below their butt cheeks and their hair in cornrows and by listening to thuggish rap crap, becoming an enclave of 'whiggers', as Demoncat Senate President Pro Tem, Robert 'KKK' Byrd once labeled them.
                                                                                                                   

Please Withdraw Your Endorsement of My Senator, Mr. President

  Mister President, during your rally in Fayettenam, you were recently duped into endorsing Senator Thom (pronounce that with the diphthong 'th', as in the, those, them) Tillis.  In his most recent ad, Thom quotes you calling him a warrior.  Truth is, he is just another overly ambitious professional politician.  The main thing that I would beseech you to recall and remember from that Fayettenam rally, Mister President, are all of the "boo's" he received from the crowd, which would have included me, if I hadn't had to work that night.  They were and are due to his bottom of the barrel approval ratings among R senators.
Starting out as a town commissioner, Thom quickly moved to the General Assembly and with amazing rapidity, was selected as Speaker of the House.  In that position, he showed himself to be a conservatively fiscal hawk.  For that, I was an easy and adamant supporter in his quest to unseat Sen. Kay Hagan, Baracka Hussein and Shemelle Obama's probable threesome partner.

Upon assuming his Senate seat, Thom immediately put his head up NC's senior senator, Richard Burr's butt to instantly become an establishment Repulsican.
   As a tenured Congressman, representing current Congresswoman Virginia Foxx's district,  Dick Burr was a capable and competent conservative representative for the people of the western piedmont.   But upon his inclusion into the 'most exclusive club in the world', Senator Burr's primary objective became personal political power and prestige.  Time and again, he sought selection to the body's party leadership.  Time and again, he was rejected.   He was placated by the leadership with the assignment to chair the highly important Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
But back to Thom, Mister President...yes, he supported your national emergency declaration to build the border wall.  But that was only after flip flopping from his original position opposing the declaration, as he declared in his Washington Post article.  It is easy to assume that he would not have changed that position, if not pressured to do so by you and fellow conservatives, or face a conservative backed primary challenge.  After your cancellation of Baracka Hussein O's DACA executive order, he devised a plan to allow illegal alien minors a pass and a path to citizenship.  Thom joined with the likes of 'Spartacus' Cory Booker, Lindsey Gramnesty and uber-lib Chris Coons to protect rapscallion Robert Mueller.

He is siding with Fauxcahontas Elizabeth Warren in opposing your plan to reduce foreign aid.  He also worked with her to co-sponsor basically meaningless legislation supposedly designed to help veterans in dealing with federally backed mortgage lenders.           

Tillis can be credited with siding with the Trump agenda 93% to 98% of the time. depending on source.  But these votes were ones in which ANYone with ANY type of 'R' after his or her name pretty much had to do so.  They were cast for the sake of personal protection, rather than for political principle.  Relatively, I must credit Thom with introducing legislation that would allow victims of illegal alien criminality to sue sanctuary jurisdictions.  But, all in all, Thom's 'R' stands for RINO, much like his three big endorsers, Jip Bush, Mutt Romney and Putz McCrory.


Thom has recently positioned himself as a supporter of yours, Mr. President, but only for political expediency of avoiding party primary opposition.  Despite your recent endorsement and the backing of the RNCC, intra-party primary challenges have arisen.  The first one of which I learned, which piqued my interest and excited my hope is that of retired businessman, entrepreneur and author Garland Tucker.
.  Much like yourself, Mr. President, Mr. Tucker can and will be, to a lesser extent, a self-financing candidate.  Other positive points to ponder about Garland Tucker include that he is a native North Carolinian.  He's a fellow at the John Locke Foundation and and a board member of the Civitas Institute.  Generally, those associations are good things.   Realistically, they point out that despite having never run for office. Garland Tucker is a professional politician.
In the earliest stages of the 2016 Republican primary season, he supported Scott Walker.  I have absolutely no problem with that.  I like and respect Scott Walker as a true conservative.  I've always maintained that he is whom you should've picked as your Secretary of Labor, Mr. President. 
  After Governor Walker left the race, Mr. Tucker's final primary support went to perhaps the quintessential 'Never Trumper' and epitomical establishment politician John Kossack.   Tucker finally did come to support you in the general election, Mr. President, but only as a lesser of two evils.   Granted, early on, I suggested John Kossack as your best choice to be your Vice-President, for a variety of reasons.  But that was before I learned what an absolute asshole and epitomical prevaricator he is.  If Kossack proceeds with his apparent plan to run a primary campaign against you next year, Mr. President, you can imagine that Garland Tucker will be in his camp.  And there are two other Garland Tucker negatives to consider:  He's an Ivy League pinhead and he's already well into his seventies.  As for that last one, he does promise that he'll serve only one term.  I can imagine that Mr. Tucker is intelligent enough to know that that about all the time he has left.  And it would be enough to secure all those cushy Congressional retirement benefits.
President Trump. here in North Carolina, we are being daily deluged with negative campaign ads from both camps.   Primarily, these ads point out each candidate's propensity for prevarication.  Mr. President, they both are epitomical prevaricators and Repulsican party hacks and political opportunists.  They both lyingly align themselves with you, simply because they both know how  popular and approved you are among and by the state's electorate.  If Thom is reelected, he will immediately return to his previous anti-Trump positions.  If Garland is elected, he will immediately show his establishmentarian stripes, most likely by sticking his head up Mutt's butt, much like Lindsey Gramnesty did with John McCaint Tell the Truth and as Tillis did with my senior senator, Dick Cur.
Mr. President, the declared candidate whom you should be supporting, advocating and endorsing is North Carolina native, businesswoman and farmer, Sandy Smith.
  She's a real constitutional conservative, who is pro-America, pro-Trump and a believer in national sovereignty through border enforcement and defense.  She is a proud military mom, with a daughter in the Marine Corps.   
Sandy is an honors graduate of the state university system with a Bachelor of Science degree in business and technology.  She has extensive real world work experience dating back to her early teens, including acquisitions, negotiation and arbitration, and corporate training.   If she's not chosen to serve North Carolina and the nation as a senator, she could and would well serve you, Mr. President, as well as the rest of us (US) as your US Trade Representative.
Sandy says that "we have the most women ever elected to Congress and the Senate, which is truly a great thing."  I agree.  She goes on to say "The problem is, that in many cases, we've elected the wrong women."  I wholeheartedly agree.
 

Sandy concludes that thought by declaring "The time is now that we elect the right women.  I am a strong conservative woman who loves this great country, respects and stands with our President, and is truly proud to embrace all of America's greatness."   Agin, I wholeheartedly agree with that about the right women.  Sandy Smith would be a excellent addition to that too short of a list.
    

At this point, Sandy doesn't have a snowball's chance in Estados Unidas del Nuevo Norte Mexico.  But a public Presidential proclamation denouncing Tillis and Tucker and emphatically endorsing her definitely could and most probably would change those chances.
Mr. President, do North Carolina, the nation and yourself a favor.  PLEASE publicly withdraw your endorsement of professional political opportunist Thom Tillis to openly, adamantly and enthusiastically endorse Sandy Smith for US Senate. I do, as I (at least temporarily) cease my write-in campaign for the seat.  😁