One of the realities of living in the public spotlight is that all your shining victories are there for everyone to gaze upon. But so are your failures. And, worst of all, your tragedies.

And Altan's greatest tragedy, the death in 1994 of its co-founder Frankie Kennedy, was only made worse by his relationship to another Altan original, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. He was her husband. They met when Mairead was only 15 and were married in 1981.

"I thought it was the end of my world," she says.

Ah, but Celtic music is more often than any other form of music about deep, overwhelming twists of fate, camped out in front of a backdrop of wild rivers, deep lakes and horrible voyages.

By comparison, the blues has a lot of songs about infidelity and bad luck. Country music? Well, who knows what that's even about any more? Trucks with kegs in the back, or something. But Celtic music shines light on cruel acts, horrible murders and mass starvation, particularly when the Irish are involved.

Called too often the next-most-famous Celtic band after the Chieftains, Altan, kicking off its North American tour at the Arden Theatre in St. Albert tonight, has survived Kennedy's death from cancer, with his blessing, something that was very important to them. And they sound great. But as Mhaonaigh recently said in the Sunday Mirror, "If you'd told me what was in store five years before, I think I would have jumped into the Liffey."

Her attitude has stayed strong over the last five years, which, combined with Kennedy's blessing gives the big band the fuel to carry on.

"But you have to keep going. I feel I've made the most of it and I've been luckier than most people who've gone through the same thing," she says. "I think love is a never-ending thing and I realize that now, because I went through what I did. The body is gone, the physical person is gone but the love remains."

Among Kennedy's childhood friends was Enya, whose real name is Eithne Ni Bhraonain, and who was in Altan in the early days, before moving on to a career worth over $41 million, with 44 million records sold. Enya's Only Time is featured heavily in the upcoming Keanu Reeves tearjerker Sweet November, and her decision to be part of the movie has much to do with its plot, that is, a romance with deadly cancer thrown into the works. I was pointed to a quote from Enya about it: "He and Mairead had been more or less childhood sweethearts. They did everything together and were deeply in love to the day that Frankie died."

So bring your hankies to the Arden, folks, because the emotions are going to be running wild, like those rivers. But the mere act of them still playing speaks to a higher sensibility. One which feels like victory, don't you think?

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There's a reason there's so much talk of love in this article, that being Valentine's Day, fast approaching. And while I made a little fun of country back there, which it deserves, John Berry has one of the sweetest voices in the genre, and would have been a perfect date for Feb. 14. But after a call to the hotel I found out the gig was cancelled. So much for the Rolls-Royce of country voice! Well, back to the hoser truck with the keg in it. Man!