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Celtic Coulter's Biggest Act Yet

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"HOW do I do it? I show up for work on Monday morning. Your track record is nice and reaffirming, but it doesn't make you walk on water."

In typical Irish fashion, Phil Coulter downplays the success he's had in a career as songwriter, producer and singer these last 40 years. Now, he can add a new occupation to the list - musical director of Celtic Thunder, the big budget spectacle that has taken PBS by storm and is breaking attendance records onstage on a national tour that ends next month.

To fan the fires and to keep up with what has turned out to be an insatiable demand for these newly minted heartthrobs in the show, Coulter has packaged a second CD, Celtic Thunder: Act 2. Like the first collection, Act 2 has the same eccentric blend of pop, rock, trad and show tunes that made the first installment so popular.

"The whole ploy was not to do the predictable Irish thing," he explains when asked why he thinks melodies from the Eagles' "Desperado" and Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" fits into the brand of Celtic music he is trying to create.

"I wanted this to be a good showcase for good singers singing works from great songwriters. I consider myself a songwriter first and foremost.

"I wanted to put a Celtic feel on the songs that I felt were a lot more than just hits on the charts. These compositions make the soundtracks of people's lives. I knew if I put in a song like 'Puppy Love' there was a certain age of a woman that was gonna go 'ah,' and think of Donny Osmond. That's the point of entertainment, isn't it?"

Coulter is an expert at coaxing emotions from his audience, often times, against your own better judgment. The arrangement around Keith Harkin's read of Foreigners' "I Want to Know What Love Is" might be as sappy as the brown stuff running down your Belgian waffles, yet it still produces a lump in your throat. And yes, you hate yourself for it.

Of course, no Celtic collection would be complete without Irish tunes, and Act 2 offers a spine-tingling a capella treatment of "Danny Boy."

Though this is one of the most contrived songs in Irish culture, these performers breathe new warmth into the melody. The live show that I saw in Atlantic City over the weekend has frequent outbursts of fine fiddling from the band, and there's a nice read of "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" that is sure to go down well with Coulter's targeted public television viewership.

"You have to know your audience; you always look to who it was aimed at," reasons Coulter. "If you are an entertainer, you don't just create things in a vacuum that pleases you alone. This was put together to reach and energize the PBS audience that love Irish culture. If you look after them and continue to give them quality they will stick with you, and they are huge in number."

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