Estevan will get a taste of the Irish when Celtic Thunder stops in the Energy City on their fall tour.
Emmet Cahill is part of Celtic Thunder, a group of Irish, and one Scottish, singers who will be performing in Estevan on Sept. 17 at Spectra Place. Cahill will be joined on stage with fellow bandmates Ryan Kelly, Colm Keegan, Neil Byrne, Keith Harkin and George Donaldson, the lone Scot from Glasgow.
Cahill spoke with The Mercury from Dublin last week prior to the group's arrival in Vancouver on Monday as they begin the tour on Sept. 7 to promote the group's latest effort, Mythology, released earlier this year.
Cahill, 22, is from Mullingar in Country Westmeath in Ireland and has been performing with Celtic Thunder for two and a half years. While he has enjoyed his time with the group, he said his career trajectory wasn't originally going to take him down this path.
"It has been an amazing experience for me. I was in a very different path. I was headed toward an opera career before this madness took me away and brought me halfway around the world," he said. "It's been probably the best three years of my life. I'm just delighted to be part of it, to go out and showcase what I do on the stage as well as with the guys with the group numbers."
This is Cahill's third time touring in North America with Celtic Thunder.
"Everyone gets to shine in their solo songs, but we just get on the stage and have fun. It's like a group of brothers out there having a good time. I think people really get to see that. They see the honesty on the stage and see we're just ourselves," said Cahill.
"The shows are very carefully constructed because we have our solo songs that reflect who we are as individual singers. We're all very different. George kind of sings the older folky songs."
Donaldson is the oldest member, at 43, while Cahill is the youngest. Cahill has come in as the classic crossover singer who handles some of the big anthems, while Kelly practises his craft with some of the more dramatic numbers.
"We all have our own styles, but we have to be very versatile, because you can literally go from a rock song, like The Boys Are Back in Town, to Danny Boy, and you have to be able to go from one style completely to another. That's what keeps it interesting with Celtic Thunder."
There was a lot of preparation before departing for the tour, which runs from Sept. 7 to Dec. 2 with stops in 13 Canadian and 46 U.S. cities.
"Once we get it going, the wheel turns every night and the show rolls in and rolls out. For 62 cities from now until Christmas, it's going to be quite a busy schedule. I'm looking forward to getting out and getting performing again.
"Things are so hectic that you don't get much time to think. It's all go, and this show that we're doing, Mythology, we recorded it this time last year. We sort of had to forget about it and do a completely different tour last year. We're reminding ourselves of what we were doing when we were shooting the DVD."
After they shot Mythology and recorded all the tracks last year they toured using a different set list rather than performing the new material.
"You guys in Canada will be the first people to see this new stuff. We're really excited about that. The fans are really appreciative of that. It's exciting to finally get to perform this new show. We've been wanting to get this show out there for so long, it's great that it's finally here."
He said this show will be very different compared with much of the Celtic Thunder of the past.
"I feel that the music has really been upped a couple of notches. In terms of everything we do, we've really pulled out all the stops with Mythology," said Cahill, who added there are 40 new tracks they will be rotating through each show to keep things fresh.
Breaking up the North American tour this fall will be a five-day cruise, setting sail from Miami on Nov. 2. It will be the inaugural Celtic Thunder Cruise and will see the group performing shows each night.
"We'll be on the Caribbean for five days. It's going to be fun. It'll be one big Irish party on the high seas for five days."
He said there are still some tickets and cabins available for the cruise.
"People are finally going to get an opportunity to see us outside of the big Celtic Thunder thing. It's going to be more intimate."
Along with a group show, he said there will be smaller, solo shows. He and Keegan will be performing a show apart from the main group.
Cahill hinted at more new music from Celtic Thunder, teasing that they have been working this summer on another "secret project" that may be coming later in the year.
Tickets for Celtic Thunder are still available for the Sept. 17 show at Spectra Place.
