Emmet Cahill, going solo.
One of the things that happens when you join a popular music group already in progress is that you inherit their fans. In the case of Celtic Thunder, you inherit the “Thunderheads,” as they’re called, admirers so devoted they’ll travel to other countries and continents at great expense to see their “boys” perform.
That’s what happened to Emmet Cahill when he was chosen to join the theatrical Irish singing group in 2010 at the age of 20. The adulation was an eye-opener. “When I first walked on stage and heard the cheering I was looking around for who they were cheering for,” he admits.
How did he cope?
“Oh it was awful, absolutely terrible, I’m still recovering from the emotional scars,” laughs Cahill, now the ripe old age of 24 and launching his first American tour of his solo career which will bring him to Philadelphia’s Irish Center on Wednesday, May 27. “Of course, it was absolutely brilliant!”
He’s talking by phone from his family home in Mullingar, County Westmeath, where he’s preparing his set list for the tour. “There’s sheet music all over,” he says. “You caught me in mid-destruction, as my mam likes to call it.”
Celtic Thunder was started in 2007 by producer Sharon Browne and musical director Phil Coulter, an experiment to see if five different voices from men of different ages (from 14 to 44 at one point) would meld. They melded just fine. The group has released 11 albums, appeared on countless PBS specials, and was Billboard’s top world album artist for three years.
Over the years, members have come and gone. Paul Byrom, Damien McGinty, and George Donaldson are probably the best known of the former singing mates who’ve moved on to solo careers. Sadly, Donaldson, who performed frequently in Philadelphia, died suddenly last year of a heart attack at the age of 46. Cahill had left the group by the time of Donaldson’s death, but he rejoined them for a tribute tour to the man they called “Big George” in Australia last year and was on the group’s most recent fan cruise in November.
Cahill grew up in a musical family—his father is a music teacher and both parents sing. He started piano when he was four and his mother had him in voice training at the age of seven. “When I was 12 I was still a boy soprano and I won a music scholarship to high school,” he says. “I also took up guitar and violin as well. I was quite busy as you can imagine.”
He always had his sights set on a solo career in music. In 2010, he was at the Royal Irish Academy of Music studying opera and theater where he was awarded the John McCormack Bursary for the most promising young tenor, named the most promising young singer at the Academy, and was a multiple prize winner at the National Feis Ceoil singing competition.
Then to his own surprise he found himself auditioning for Celtic Thunder. “I knew nothing about Celtic Thunder and I didn’t even want to do it but my Dad pushed me into it,” says Cahill. He thinks the fact that he really didn’t know what he was getting into—and was reluctant to even do it—curbed any audition stress he might have felt that would have affected his performance. They grabbed him up. “I guess those are the ones you get, the ones you don’t care about,” he says, laughing. “It helps when you walk in and you’re easy going.”
Though someone as musically gifted as Cahill might be dreaming of the rock star life, the 24-year-old was classically trained and raised on old recordings of famed Irish tenor John McCormack, who was also from Westmeath, operatically trained and enormously popular in both Europe and the US in the early 20th century.
So there are plenty of McCormack songs among the sheet music Cahill is using to build his set list. “I like to think I’m following in his footsteps,” says Cahill. “He made a career in America singing Irish songs. He was so well-loved in the States. So I’m going to be singing some of the songs he made famous during my tour.”
Songs like “I Hear You Calling,” and “Macushla” – don’t worry if you don’t think you know them. You’ve probably heard them and can even download McCormack’s versions from iTunes to refresh your memory.
“I’ll be doing Irish favorites, like ‘I’ll Take You Home, Kathleen,’ and I’m known for singing the likes of ‘Danny Boy.’ In Celtic Thunder, it was my big solo song,” he says.
Expect some Rogers and Hammerstein, some gospel music (when he’s home he’s the cantor at Mullingar Cathedral) and, when he picks up the guitar, some old folk tunes. “I do modern songs as well,” he adds. “I want there to be something for everyone, from grandparents to kids.”
While he’s inherited a tight fan base from Celtic Thunder, his goal for his US tour is to introduce himself to Thunder fans and others who may not know that he’s also a good storyteller (“I have no trouble getting up telling embarrassing stories about myself and my childhood. Most of them are fresh in the memory,” he quips, giving himself a jab about his age.) and to create new fans—Emmet Cahill fans. He hopes the smaller venues for his US tour will let fans get to know him, up close and personal.
“I’m really looking forward meeting people and letting them get to see me up close. I know from my Celtic Thunder experience, especially from the cruises, that that’s something people are interested in. They ask me, ‘Emmet, what do you do when you’re off?’ They’re sometimes more interested in that than the songs I’m singing. When I’m up on stage, I want people to feel that they know me, that I’m a guy they could go have a beer with.”
And, he says, that’s not out of the question. “There’s no barrier. If you walk up to me in the street to have a chat and ask me how it’s going I’ll tell you if it’s good or going crap,” he laughs. “I think people see me as a young fella from Ireland singing songs and having a bit of craic.”
Which, of course, is what he is. And enjoying every second of it. “What other job gives you the opportunity to bring happiness to people?” he says. “I want to do that as long as possible.”
Catch Emmet Cahill at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119, on Wednesday, May 27, at 7;30 PM. Order tickets here.
