It’s been eight years since Ryan Kelly responded to an advertisement for a little-known touring group called Celtic Thunder.
“It was my first-ever professional music job and I didn’t know what Celtic Thunder was going to be or the lengths that it would go to. I always say that I’m happy that I didn’t know that because it probably would have freaked me out,” Kelly said.
“If someone had told me you’re going to end up touring around the world, at the top of the Billboard charts, singing in the White House for the president that would have freaked me right out,” Kelly said.
This year marks the seventh tour for Kelly who will be stopping in Penticton with the rest of the group on March 13 at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
After touring for so long, it becomes a way of life, according to Kelly.
“It really does. You do get used to it,” Kelly said. “When you’re working in the same places that you have before it feels a bit like normal life.”
While he is used to the constant travel, Kelly is just coming around to finding familiarity with the many stops on the tour.
“I’ll put my running shoes on and get out and then I realize, oh now I remember this place,” Kelly said. “It takes awhile to go ‘ah, now I know where I am,’ and it’s funny that way because you are just moving constantly.”
Revisiting familiar tour stops fits thematically with a greatest hits tour. Kelly and the rest of Celtic Thunder will be bringing back songs from as far back as the first tour seven years ago.
One of his favourite tunes to revisit was Ride On.
“It’s a song I remember playing on guitar when I was 14 years old. The version we play with Celtic Thunder is a bit more rocked up. It’s just great to be back doing that,” Kelly said.
“All in all it’s just nice to revisit these songs again. It has been a few years since I’ve had the chance to perform them and maybe it’s a bit of a different take on the songs then I did singing them seven years ago. That’s something that I find exciting. Getting to try some new things with the songs that I didn’t before.”
One of two remaining from the original line up, Kelly will be reuniting with fellow original member Damien McGinty on this tour.
“A few of us have stuck it out until now and they haven’t gotten rid of us yet,” Kelly said.
The tour has a lot of stops, but Kelly remembers the enthusiasm particularly from the Penticton crowd.
“The crowds there really like to sing along with us. These are the greatest hits songs. Nobody is hearing these songs for the first time that’s for sure,” Kelly said.
He said the greatest hits tour will only add to the excitement.
“I think this tour more than any other tour before is full of sing along moments because these are songs that we have sang for so many years,” Kelly said. “There’s nothing better than going to a concert in the audience and just being able to enjoy yourself and let yourself go with it. I’m hoping for more of the same from the Penticton crowd this time around.”
Tickets are available at www.valleyfirsttix.com on the phone at 1-877-763-2849 or in person at the Valley First Box Office at the SOEC.