Irish Tenors: Heart, Humor, and Harmonies Go On
Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan, and Declan Kelly, better known as the Irish Tenors, are all well on in years and miles on the road, but have piled into one hotel room in Plymouth, Massachusetts, like a band out on its first tour. The Tenors have a history of hits with classics from the Emerald Isle (“Danny Boy,” “Whiskey in the Jar”) and modern songs (“My Heart Will Go On”) as well as Christmas nuggets dating back a quarter century, when they first came together for a PBS television special.
Yet the Celtic music kings are as peppy as puppies, so talkative that Tynan didn’t even get a word in edgewise in our phone conversation to preview their concert at the Granada on December 22. Here are excerpts:
Q. You all have had solo careers, recordings, teach, do theater, and more. Why do you keep coming back to the Irish Tenors and doing these tours?
Anthony Kearns [AK]. That’s the thing, you just want to keep it going, take on the challenge to keep the show on the road. And we love it. It’s been 25 years, but the time has just flown by. It’s a wonderful thing. We don’t take it for granted. We work hard behind the scenes as well as on stage. What you have to understand is we were the top selling Irish act for many years with PBS. People who’ve seen us from the inception still love to see us coming back… We were the ones who took the sound out of the pub and put it on the concert platform –
Declan Kelly [DK]. With a full orchestra. It gets people excited to be able to enjoy Irish music in a huge new context.
AK. Right. We have a wealth of music to choose from, and never run out. The Christmas tour is even more successful. We perform the same repertoire as any of the tenors going, [Luciano] Pavarotti, [Plácido] Domingo or anyone…. Modesty is our strong suit as you can see.
Q. What can people expect? How do you combine the 25th anniversary tour and the annual Christmas tour?
AK. They’re very lucky in that we have divided up the program. The first quarter of the show is Irish music, then we go into more spiritual, religious songs, and then all of the second half is Christmas music, all the classics: “We Three Kings,” “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” lots of fun stuff.
DK. It’s mostly trios, but we all have some solos in each of the sections. But having all three of us singing on stage adds that huge extra dimension, the harmony and the ensemble verses within the song. It’s very exciting.
AK. The tenor voices require solid singing, and you have the power of three with a full orchestra behind you with wonderful arrangements. When you have three tenors sailing to the high notes together in harmony, well, it gives you quite a lift.
Q. Speaking of that, you’ve described your music as comfort food, which I imagine a lot of artists might hate. But it works for you.
AK. That’s what it’s all about. At the end of the day, people need to be entertained. There’s no point of being all serious and up your nose. You just have to sing and entertain and let people enjoy themselves. That’s the bottom line.
DK. People are on their feet by the end of every night. That’s the beauty of music. It changes people. It makes you feel better.
The Irish Tenors perform at 7:30 pm on December 22 at the Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street. Tickets cost $50-$106. Call (805) 899-2222 or visit www.granadasb.org.
