“I was 21, straight out of music college, given this golden ticket and then I felt like the rug was pulled from under me.”
This is what went through Mairéad Carlin’s head after being promised a six-album deal that never came, but fate has a wicked wee sense of humor.
“I went back and reevaluated. I started teaching singing to young kids in a theatre school just outside London. It was everything that I needed,” the Celtic Woman star recalled of a path that would lead to a new opportunity.
Behind the alluring harmonies and the fiddles and the dresses of Celtic Woman lies a quartet of four remarkable women. Formed in 2005, the Irish ensemble group has stayed the ever-changing course of the music industry. Long-standing member Mairéad Carlin knows the ebbs and flows of show business like the back of her microphone. Ahead of their upcoming North American tour “A New Era,” I had the pleasure of chatting with her about the years that led to this moment and the ones still yet to come.
“Out of nowhere, I got a call. It was from Celtic Woman and they were looking for a new member,” she said. After regaining her sonic spark as a teacher, the Derry native found herself as the newest Celtic woman in 2013. “Not a lot of people get second chances so I appreciated it all that more because I knew that all I wanted to do was sing. I felt like I was the luckiest person in the world and I still genuinely feel that way to this day.”
Call it luck or perseverance, but Carlin suspects it might be a little bit of both (with a healthy dose of aptitude). “What’s actually more important for me than the good times is how you deal with the hard times,” she said. “I had a mentor years ago and he always says there’s three things to succeed in any creative industry. It’s three T’s; talent, tenacity, and temperament.” If I can suggest a fourth T to add to the sentiment, it would be time. Carlin has learned the value in waiting right outside the spotlight whatever the weather. “Nothing’s ever going to be perfect all the time. This industry doesn’t just reward the most talented people, it’s the people that can weather the storm,” she said.
Perseverance is not the only trick Carlin has picked up along the way; she can point to a few key artists that have informed her musicality. “Maybe it’s because I’m from Derry, but I do have an English folk influence. My dad would’ve listened to people like Sandy Denny from ‘Faircourt Convention’ and ‘The Birds’ and Steely Dan and of course Joni Mitchell,” she said of her long term influences. “Personally, I have always gravitated towards a lot of Americana singers like Mary Chapin Carpenter and Alison Krauss. Real storytellers.”
When her good friend and studio owner, Rocky O’Reilly, uploaded a social media post inquiring about singers’ tips on honing their craft, it was Alison Krauss that inclined Carlin’s response: “I work on singing into the center of the note. When I go into the recording studio, it means that in post-production when the mixing engineer is going in they don’t have to tune your voice. You end up sounding more like you,” she said. “I learned that from Alison Krauss”. For Carlin, it’s the authenticity of the music that draws her in, whether it’s the rawness of the vocals or the message within the lyrics. “The core of everything I do is the story,” she said. “I find it really difficult to sing songs that I can’t relate to. I don’t believe in singing something for the sake of it.”
From growing up in Derry all the way to touring North America, Carlin shared her pride in bringing her Irish voice across the pond, a feeling made deeper in the memory of her father. “My dad was a bass player in a band and he toured his whole adult life,” she said. “In some ways I feel like I’m living in his legacy which is beautiful because my dad has passed. So for me it really means a lot.” Carlin not only holds her father close to her on stage but also all of Derry and what it means to her to represent her city. “I feel so lucky that I come from Derry because we have this strength and almost dark sense of humor because of everything we’ve been through,” she said. “We’re just our own little thing up in Derry and I’m really proud to come from there and that I get to share that little part of the world.”
Despite the excitement that comes with touring overseas, Carlin has her own ideas for shows back home, a place where she ironically doesn’t get to perform often. “I’m always pushing for the acoustic gigs back home. People know Celtic Woman as being this theatrical thing and I think the Irish people don’t realize that there’s a lot of raw talent there particularly with the girls in the group. I’d love to do something very stripped back and show that side of us.” In the spirit of a new era, she’s ready to show off the foundation that Celtic Woman’s bravado is built upon: the women. Although, she’s no fool to the high expectations of the Irish. “The Irish audience is a tough crowd because they really know their music!”
Now, almost 14 years into her Celtic Woman journey, Carlin can’t hide her excitement for the next stage. “The amazing thing about Celtic Woman is that it’s ever-evolving,” she said. “There’s this kind of wheel; when you feel like you’ve done everything, you do something else and it feels fresh again.” Carlin credits this musical Darwinism to the eclectic women who have come and gone from the ensemble over the years. “Celtic Woman is such a beautiful spectrum of so many different women from all walks of life. We all bring our own wee thing. I’m obviously from Derry so I have my own stories and my own songs that I grew up with in comparison to Caitríona [Sherlock] who grew up on a farm with cows in Monaghan. That’s what I love about Celtic Woman.”
So what’s to come in this new era? In a world as erratic as ours, fans shouldn’t fear a departure too far from the sound that has made Celtic Woman so special. Carlin, however, will tell you herself how excited she is for a fresh take on an old faithful. “These new arrangements are like a breath of fresh air. Brian Byrne, our musical director and Golden Globe nominated Irish writer, is really being brave and I think that’s what we need. I think we need to be brave,” she said. “After 21 years, we want to remain true to the sound of Celtic Woman but we also want to move it on and bring it to the modern world. The women that are in the group right now can do that.”
Most evidently of all, there is something for everyone in this new era. “There’s the upbeat stuff which we love, the ones where people feel like they can get up and dance. There’s also these really intricate harmonies,” she said, and rest assured that authenticity is the motto for Carlin and her fellow Celtic women. “I feel like we’re in this very strange time, this AI thing, where we don’t know if things are real. Hopefully people will see and appreciate groups like Celtic Woman even more. It’s from the ground up.
“If you heard our arrangements and how they’re built and the love and the passion that goes into them from all of us, I feel like that will win every time,” Mairéad Carlin said. “I’m just grateful that we’re still doing it and people are still craving that authentic thing. And long may it reign!”
Celtic Woman’s tour “A New Era” commences March 4, hitting New York City on March 20th at United Palace. Tickets are available here.
