All good things have to come to an end and, unfortunately, a Celtic Woman tour is no exception.  This was my last show, not only for the year, but for the Isle of Hope tour.  I knew it was going to be rough and I prepared myself all day.

Monday morning dawned clear and cold in Albuquerque and when I went down for breakfast who do I see but Tony, Glenn, and Tink.  So much for getting on the road early!  We talked for quite a while, reliving the previous day and the very special Meet & Greet.  I finally hit the road around 8:15 (instead of a planned 7:30) but my GPS gave me a Tucson ETA of 2:30 so I didn't have to hurry.  I stopped in Belen for a short while and did a little railroad photography and I kept my eyes open for trains on I-10 as I headed west from Deming.  Along the way I started mentally composing two significant posts that I need to make now that the tour is over.  The first will be a retrospective on the tour and a big thank you to CW, Máiréad, and this forum for their collective effects on me, this year especially.  The second will be a letter to Máiréad.  Have your Kleenex ready for that one.  As random thoughts began to turn into sentences, and with the Greatest Journey CD playing, most of the drive was with misty eyes.  Thinking ahead to tonight's performance and realizing that I would be hearing many of those songs for potentially the very last time only made it worse.  On the plus side, it did help to distract me from the “wonderful” New Mexico scenery.  Also on the plus side, although it took all day, I got most of it out of my system.  If I hadn't, I know that I would have been a puddle of goo during the show.

With a few stops en route, I arrived in Tucson a little before 4pm and chilled for a while before heading over to the Hotel Arizona to meet Scott, Tink, Dwight, and a few others whose names I unfortunately don't remember.  We had planned to have dinner at the hotel, which is adjacent to the venue, but the restaurant was closed.  Fortunately the bartender said we could still order food, so we pushed a couple of small tables together and had dinner in the lobby!

After dinner we walked to the Tucson Music Hall next door.  Like Albuquerque, this is a relatively new building and not a restored theater.  It is bigger than Popejoy Hall but equally boring architecturally; I guess that's why it's called a hall rather than a theater.  The balcony is very far back, one of the most distant ones I've seen and only covers the last 10 rows or so of the floor seats.  Also unlike other theaters, the floor seats extend all the way to the back wall; there is no walkway across the back of the seating area.  This forced the CW crew to have the sound board in the back right corner of the theater and the lighting board in the back left corner.  I don't recall ever seeing them separated like that before, but they seemed to function OK.

Since we had all purchased our tickets individually, most of us were not seated together.  Tony and I were next to each other (purely coincidentally) at the left end of the first pit row, Scott was somewhat right of center, also in the front row, and Dwight had 3 seats in the second pit row near the center.  Tink was originally back in the orchestra seats but Dwight gave her one of his tickets which was unspoken for so she joined us in the pit.  Scott did his promotional duties on the right side and I did the same on the left.  There was a delightful older lady on my side who, like most, had only seen them on PBS.  She told me that she was on a fixed income and would never have been able to attend a show until, on the day of the pledge drive, a check arrived from someone that she had done work for in the past and that the amount of the check was exactly the pledge amount for a ticket.  I told her that there were other forces at work and she was destined to see the show.  We talked for quite a while before the show and I explained the differences between what she had seen on PBS compared to what she was about to see.  At intermission she told me that she was blown away and I, of course, told her that the best was yet to come.  Unfortunately, she had to leave immediately after the show so I didn't get to hear her final comments but I did hear several exclamations from her during the show.  There were several people directly behind me who, before the show, thought I was perhaps a little daffy to go to so many shows and after the show said that they now understood completely.  Ah, redemption from complete strangers is so sweet.

The show itself was, as usual, totally amazing.  This was the first show in a while that I was on the piano side and it was a nice change of pace.  I would, of course, have preferred to have been in the center for my last show but this was fine.  I got lots of looks from Lisa and Máiréad, and even some from Lynn and Alex.  Chloë was all over Tony and me, smiling and winking, and the person next to me with an “I heart Chloë” shirt got even more attention, include having her blow him a kiss at the end.  To say he was happy would be a serious understatement!

I was prepared to be blubbering through the entire show but since I got most of the emotions out of my system during the drive from Albuquerque I was able to see through clear eyes (well, some of the time anyway) and tried to cement as much of the show as possible in my memory banks.  Máiréad only did 9 spins tonight but was a ball of fire, flying all over the stage, letting out little yelps, and flashing those ear to ear smiles for all to see.  I got a personal hello when she was on my side of the stage during Granuaile's Dance and it took me a while to recover, with the memories of the night before still so vivid.

My curling iron theory got shot down with Lisa bringing her curls back and Alex keeping hers.  Maybe they read my review and decided to mess with me!  The ad-libbing continued during At the Ceili.  Tonight I saw Máiréad flirting with Eoghan after Lynn's part and Lisa ran over from the piano and shooed her away.  The look that Máiréad shot at Lisa was priceless!

The audience started out rather lifeless, with only a few of us in the front row clapping along.  They did clap along when encouraged by the performers, but only grudgingly.  And, as usual, we were the only ones giving standing ovations until O, America.  There were some boisterous audience members who whistled at Lisa a few times, which she replied to with a sweet smile.

It seems that the shows go faster and faster and far too soon it was time for You Raise Me Up and I started feeling those early twinges of withdrawal.  All of the girls smiled at Tony and I as both we and they were standing.  I've always been glad that they don't end the show with that song because it would leave me so depressed that it was over.  The Finale and Spanish Lady really close the show on a high note and so it was tonight.  While not happy that it was my last show, I was at least on the upward side of the emotional arc that follows a show.  And there was still the final Meet & Greet to come.

Mitch came and took attendance and then led us into the Green Room.  It's getting to the point that even he knows me now because he saw my name on the list and checked it off before I said anything!  The Green Room was not green, but was one of the nicer rooms that I've been in recently for a M&G.  Claire announced that we would be meeting Lisa and Chloë, which surprised me since we had seen Chloë the previous night.  I was hoping for Lynn since I had some things for her to sign, both for me and for Rick, but I wasn't complaining.  There will be other opportunities.

I must be an official groupie now because before I said anything Lisa held out her hand and said, “Hi, Mike.  How are you doing?”  I know I go to a lot of shows, but it still gives me a little thrill that I'm on a first name basis with them.  I had her sign some group shots from the Powerscourt filming and my new Tinkerbell DVD liner.  She remarked that she had just watched it with her kids and thought it was great.  I did have some things I wanted to ask her but they, as always, disappeared from my memory banks and we just had a delightful little chat.  I told her that this was my last show and I wouldn't see her again until February and she seemed genuinely disappointed.  What more can you ask for?  I had nothing for Chloë to sign since she had signed everything the night before.  If I had known, I'd have saved something.  In any case, the same thing happened as with Lisa.  I totally forgot to ask her some questions that I wanted to ask and we just had a wonderful conversation. We talked about the new show a little and some other things I no longer remember.  Forgetfulness seems to be the common thread for me.  This was one of the best Meet & Greets that I've been to.  It was a small group and because the next day was a day off for them there was no rushing and everyone had plenty of time to get things signed and to chat (and to forget things).  Lisa and Chloë were both so wonderful and friendly and I left on a very happy note, at least until withdrawal kicks in.

So ends this show, this road trip, and this tour for me.  I'll be working on my retrospective and my letter to Máiréad over the next few days and hopefully have them up by the weekend.  My only hedge against full-scale withdrawal is that I have two Orla concerts coming up in December to get me through the holidays and then the DVD in January.  Actually, the DVD will arrive only about 2 weeks before the first shows of the spring tour.  Roanoke here I come!

The original review is here.