The dark clouds forming over CN Centre tonight are bringing the best sort of storm. Celtic Thunder will rain down on Prince George yet again. This festival of Irish song and personality has been here a number of times in the past and local audiences keep calling for more.
"This is our biggest tour in North America, ever, 72 cities, and we couldn't do a tour like that and not come back and see everyone in Prince George again," said Celtic Thunder singer Emmet Cahill.
"I have been to Prince George on two occasions previously, so yeah, we know Canada very well, we've a great fan base there, and we know all about the affection for Irish music that people have, so we're really looking forward to coming back."
Celtic Thunder is more of a theatre event than a standard concert.
The music leads the performance, but the five singers in the cast also have stage elements - costumes, props, stage sets, etc. - that add to the show.
"There's a lot of joking and us guys messing about on stage, as well. No show is the same as the previous one, and there's always an element of improvisation," Cahill said "If you want to escape to Ireland for a couple of hours, this is the show to go see."
This tour is entitled Legacy. Each time the ensemble embarks on their trips around the world the whole presentation gets redesigned. There are so many songs under the Irish umbrella that there is never a problem setting up a repertoire.
The singers often stay with the ensemble for years at a time, sometimes substituting out for awhile, then in some cases rejoining the group for future endeavors. Cahill said he has had the opportunity to perform everything from Danny Boy to The Boys Are Back In Town as a member of this unique group.
He is a classical singer by original trade (he has a classical solo album pending, with full Celtic Thunder support), so he appreciates the chance to try out some new styles and techniques.
"It was something I never envisaged for my life, growing up in Ireland," he said of doing world tours with a popular musical revue. "Music was just something that was part of daily life. And for me personally, my dad was my piano teacher and my mom taught me how to sing."
They did some shows together as a family "but I suppose when you're growing up like that, in a small country like Ireland, where you can't even fathom the vastness of a place like Canada in the first place," the idea of travelling such distances was a mental stretch, "and especially singing Irish songs - it was something I never imagined. But I'm certainly delighted it has happened. It's one thing to travel the world, and to do something you love, but it's another to do so bringing your own culture and your own identity with you and see other people enjoy that and really be interested in that."
The show is popular the world over, which is exciting and constantly surprising to Cahill, to see the thirst so many different countries and cultures have for his homeland.
"It's a very inclusive genre of music," he said.
"The Irish are famous for telling stories, and we go all over the world telling our stories. And there's something in our stories and our songs that everyone can relate to. We sing about very common themes like love and heartbreak as well as loss, but Irish people are also famous for their parties and being able to dance around and sing, so there is a lot of that as well and it's immediately infectious.
"I don't think anyone has to have any Irish or Celtic heritage in them to enjoy and appreciate what we bring in the concerts."
They even dabble in some songs from the countries in which they're touring. You can expect to hear Celtic Thunder do their version of Song For The Mira, a Canadian national treasure-tune written by Nova Scotia composer Allister MacGillivray and famously done by John Allan Cameron, John McDermott and Anne Murray, among others, as well as translated in languages like Dutch and Japanese. It is especially embraced, internationally, by Irish music fans.
It's a close relationship that Celtic Thunder has with Canadian fans, and Cahill supposes it is because of the similar backgrounds and shared historical points both countries have in common. He has much more fun in the Canadian pubs on tour than the social life offered in many other countries. He appreciates it.
To keep his mind and body prepped for the many miles a tour like this presents, he tries to get to the gym or go for a run or take a swing at boxing almost every day. He's a big fan of sports in general so he's primed to hear Prince George fans try converting him to hockey.
The Celtic Thunder rumbles at CN Centre tonight at 7:30. Tickets are available at the CN Centre box office or online via Ticketmaster.
