LIVE: Celtic Crossroads @ the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, 3/7/12

Review and photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk

The packaged concert hall and theater tour of Celtic Crossroads got a big boost in audience appeal and attendance at their shows due to the recent public television special (now also available on DVD), “World Fusion,” which aired on PBS-TV affiliates across the country. And last week the tour made a stop at the Troy Savings Bank Music in Troy

Though the presentation is rather formulaic and predictable – in the vein of other blockbuster traditional Celtic music and dance revues from Celtic Woman to “Lord of the Dance,” from Celtic Thunder to “Spirit of the Dance” – this one focuses on a handful of incredibly talented young (and unknown) musicians and dancers from Galway, Ireland.

Celtic Crossroads’ music is truly a fabulous fusion. And while the bulk of the performance repertoire was primarily drawn from the traditional Irish music songbag, the musicians also mixed things up a bit with a handful of Scottish airs, some Appalachian Mountain bluegrass and a few folk-country tunes thrown in.

The three dancers – dance director Marcus Donnell and his two female dancers – came in and out of the over-all presentation, raising the visual excitement level by defying gravity and tapping up a storm.

The dynamic Celtic Crossroads performed beautifully at the mid-week concert, ushering in that St. Patrick’s Day spirit which makes everyone just a little bit Irish deep-down inside.