Celtic Woman, the Irish vocal group, has announced a big list of 2009 dates in the US. The concerts will be spread over a majority of the coming year’s first half.

The tour will kick off in the city of St. Paul, MN on February 13 and during the next year will visit over 70 cities across the US. The huge outing called the “Isle of Hope Tour” includes multiple multi-night engagements. These include three night engagements in Boston from March 20-22 and Seattle from May 15-17.

On December 15 A majority of the shows will be going on sale for the general public. However most of the May, June and July dates won’t go on sale until March. Celtic Woman’s website contains additional information about specific dates.

Celtic Woman is supporting “The Greatest Journey: Essential Collection”, their best-of release. David Downes was the musical director for the set. The album brings together material from previous releases for the group as well as four new songs (“You Raise Me Up,” “Ave Maria,” “Pie Jesu,” and “The Call”). The LP is a follow up to “Celtic Woman: A New Journey” that was released last year. It was filmed in Ireland at Slane Castle, capturing the second of the group’s on-stage production.

The Celtic Woman craze started out as a PBS 90 minute show that premiered in March 2005 in the US. The program was aired over 3,400 times over 316 PBS stations. The success of program resulted in a full-scale tour production.

Currently the group consists of vocalists Lynn Hilary, Alex Sharpe, Lisa Kelly and Chloe Agnew as well as Mairead Nesbitt, fiddle player. In addition to the Celtic Woman recordings, each of the women in the group have released their own solo albums.