Cherish the Ladies

Sometimes, I play a concert where I'm more an audience member than a player, and where I'm absolutely captivated by our guest artists. Pops concerts rarely do this for me. Those are workaday concerts usually, where we just punch in and punch out, and look forward to going home. I call those concerts "flipping burgers," just paying the bills.

Tonight, I was absolutely enthralled by our guest artists, and was left wishing we could play more. An Irish all-women band called Cherish the Ladies was our guest tonight, and they're absolutely fantastic. They're amazing musicians, and incredible entertainers. I could have listened to them for hours. To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed the concert, this will be the first time in my ten years with the symphony that I will go out to the lobby to buy a CD of any artist we've ever had perform with us. And that's a LOT of artists.

Their lead vocalist has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard. Remember this name, because I think you'll be hearing from her in the next few years: Heidi Talbot. Her voice has a haunting quality that draws you into whatever she's singing--it's very throaty and has incredible depth. Do a search on iTunes for Heidi Talbot, and listen to the clip of either High Germany or Macrimmon's Lament. If you do a search on iTunes, check out "Sweet Thames Flow Softly" and you'll hear a bit of one of the songs Heidi sang with us tonight. She's so, so good.

I remember a few of my blogging buddies were talking about Christmas CDs back in December. Apparently, Cherish the Ladies produced a Christmas CD a year or two ago that the New York Times declared was one of the top ten Christmas CDs of the year. Might be worth a look, even in March.

No one in the audience tonight left unhappy. There's something infectious about Irish music that makes you feel better just by listening, and if you hear a concert of great Irish music like tonight, you definitely leave feeling better than when you came. It's times like tonight that make me think that we all must have a little bit of Irish in us. I had a great time, and wished I was in the audience. I'll be following their career from now on, and keeping tabs on them--especially Heidi Talbot.