Byline: Richard Duckett

The Celtic Tenors are on the road in their new home away from home.

The lineup of Irish tenors James Nelson, Matthew Gilsenan and Daryl Simpson along with guest soprano Donna Malone, pianist Danny Sheridan and road manager Matt Svobodny are undertaking

They had flown from Ireland to the United States on Monday, and Tuesday were about to open the tour in Lebanon, Pa.

The customized van with room to stretch, sleep and watch TV will be welcome.

"It's very, very intensive," Simpson said of the travel schedule during a telephone interview hours before the Lebanon concert.

"We're on tour nearly three quarters of the year." And of that about 90 percent of the touring is in North America, Simpson said.

So America itself is almost like home. "It's absolutely first class," Simpson said. "I've always found there's a great affinity among American people for the Irish and Irish music and performers."

The van will be pulling into Worcester next week for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The concert is free and open to the public. This performance has been made possible through a gift from an alumnus.

This will be the first time the Celtic Tenors have come to Worcester, Simpson said. "We're really looking forward to it. It will be a neat first for all of us." Given Worcester's strong Irish-American heritage, the singers should feel right at home here.

The group's music could be defined as "Celtic crossover," as it includes an extensive mix of classical, traditional Irish and Scottish, folk and pop. Formed in 2000, the group's original lineup scored an immediate success with its first self-titled CD. The album topped the charts in Ireland and Germany, made No. 2 in the United Kingdom, and reached the Billboard Top Ten in the U.S. The Celtic Tenors have performed for former President Clinton when he visited Dublin Castle, and played at a private show for former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at the request of Bono of U2.

All three tenors, as well as Malone, have had an extensive classical training. Simpson is from Omagh in Northern Ireland, and completed his Opera Masters Degree at the Alexander Gibson Opera School in Glasgow, Scotland. He continued his studies at the Internationales Opera Studio in Zurich, Switzerland, and performed with Opera Zurich.

He is the newest member of the Celtic Tenors, joining Gilsenan and Nelson 15 months ago. However, they all knew each other from the music world, and when Simpson tried out there was an almost immediate musical rapport

"I think we knew quite quickly when we walked into the rehearsal room that the balance was quite good," Simpson said.

The three choose their own material and collaborate as a team. "Very much so. That's the beauty of this group. Others tend to be a little more manufactured," Simpson said. "We have a saying that if there's a certain song we like, we'll try it out. There's a real eclectic mix in what we're doing. We feel that we're quite unique in that."

A given concert might include "Bheir mi o" (an Eriskay love song), "Danny Boy," "Fields of Athenry" and even "All Out of Love."

"The challenge is how to shift through the gears," he said of the different vocal styles and demands of the material. So that a concert doesn't come across as a musical hodge-podge, "we do spend a lot of time constructing the show so that there's a flow," Simpson said. "We like to talk to the audience and engage the audience. It's very important for us to get that right."

Recently, the Celtic Tenors have been getting rave reviews about what has been described as a haunting rendition of the classic American song "Oh, Shenandoah."

"It's an arrangement we worked out ourselves about a year ago. It's one of those songs we had heard as kids. It's a beautiful old song. It's starting to become a highlight of the show, especially for American audiences. I think they like the treatment of the song and the fact that we're doing an American song. It's one of those numbers that's gorgeous."

Malone will add a female dimension to the singing. Simpson described the young soprano as "one of the most exciting talents to come out of Ireland in some time."

Everyone gets along both on stage and off - and in the van - Simpson said. "We're really like brothers," he said of the three Irish tenors.

One requisite to getting along is that they have to travel well, because there is a lot of it.

Fortunately, "We really love to travel," Simpson said. "As a child watching American TV shows I was wondering about the size of the country. Now I'm enjoying and savoring the experience."

In fact Simpson, 30 and single, has done so much traveling that he's not so sure he has a home anymore.

"I kind of don't live anywhere," he said. He was living in Zurich when he was picked up by the Celtic Tenors. He shipped his possessions back to his home in Omagh, but only goes back there about two nights every five weeks, he said. "It's been a little bit strange not to have a permanent base."

Nevertheless, he seemed to be taking it in stride. Lebanon looked like it was going to be a good start to the tour. "It's a nice town; good weather," Simpson observed.

And then there was the new van. "There's a certain level of comfort now. We can watch DVDs if we want. And sleep."

And no worries about driving.

"The road manager does the driving," Simpson said. "He loves to drive."

The Celtic Tenors

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13

Where: Hogan Campus Center Ballroom, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester

How Much: Free

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: The Celtic Tenors - Daryl Simpson, left, James Nelson, center, and Matthew Gilsenan - will perform Sept. 13 at the College of the Holy Cross.