The Chieftains 'The Essential Chieftains' album

The enduring lineup of Ireland’s Chieftains, which coalesced for the recording of their fourth album in 1973 (about ten years after their creation) comprised founding member Paddy Moloney on Uilleann pipes, tin whistle and accordion, Sean Potts on the tin whistle, fiddler Martin Fay, Mick Tubridy on flute and concertina, Kevin Conneff on bodhrán (the hand-held drum) and occasional vocals, and the beloved Derek Bell on harp, oboe and timpan (who passed away in 2003). The Chieftains’ traditional instrumentation built them a worldwide audience, and won them six Grammy Awards, two gold records, an Academy Award, and the respect of fellow musicians everywhere from Spain and France, to Nashville and China. This collection reaches back to their debut album of 1965, released in the U.S. for the first time in 1977 on Columbia, the label that ultimately reissued the first nine Chieftains albums over the next three years. They spent virtually the entire ’80s on Shanachie Records in the U.S., including such landmark international releases as The Year Of The French and the live album The Chieftains In China.

They arrived at RCA Victor in the U.S. in 1989; the earliest tracks here date from 1991’s incredible all-star sessions, The Bells Of Dublin, in which an A-list of artists showed up to share their talents, among them Jackson Browne (“The Rebel Jesus”) and the duo of Kate and Anna McGarrigle (“Il Est Né/Ca Berger”). 1989 also brought another historic collaboration, James Galway & The Chieftains – In Ireland (“The Munster Cloak / Tabhair Dom Do Lamh [Give Me Your Hand]”). Three years later, the Chieftains were joined at the Grand Opera House in Belfast by Nanci Griffith on An Irish Evening (“Red Is The Rose”), a concert that also starred Roger Daltrey. That same year, the Chieftains traveled to Nashville for the first time to record American tunes for Another Country with a show-stopping array of friends including Ricky Skaggs (“Cotton-Eyed Joe”). In 1995, came yet another gathering of stars for The Long Black Veil, on which the Chieftains welcomed, among others, Sting (“Mo Ghile Mear - Our Hero”), Marianne Faithfull (“Love Is Teasin’”), and Sinéad O’Connor (“The Foggy Dew”), a track also featuring guitarist Ry Cooder and BMG’s Galician pipes virtuoso Carlos Nuñez.

Nuñez turned out to be the focal point of 1996’s Santiago, an album that explored the Celtic connection to the Basque provinces of Galicia in northwest Spain. The musical strain spread to the New World as heard on a cameo from Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos (“Guadalupe”) and another that featured Ry Cooder and Cuban bassist Cachaito, son of Cachao (“Santiago De Cuba”). When the producers of 1998’s Long Journey Home, the PBS/Disney documentary of Irish-American life, chose Paddy to produce the soundtrack featuring the Irish Film Orchestra with the Chieftains, Paddy invited an impressive guest list including, among others, Elvis Costello and the Anúna choir (“Long Journey Home - Anthem”), and Van Morrison (“Shenandoah”).

1999’s Tears Of Stone was conceived as a sequel to The Long Black Veil, with an all-star cast boasting the Corrs (“I Know My Love”) and the Rankins (“Jimmy Mó Mhíle Stor”). The guests on Water From The Well in 2000 were drawn from the traditional (rather than pop) field, among them the dancer and fiddler Ashley MacIsaac (“An Poc Ar Buile/The Dingle Set”) and the group Altan (“The Donegal Set”). That was the year of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? phenom, and plans were soon set for the Chieftains to return to Nashville for 2002’s Down The Old Plank Road, (a sequel to Another Country). Music City’s greatest names joined them: Buddy & Julie Miller (“Country Blues,” with Bryan Sutton), Béla Fleck (“Ladies Pantalettes/Belles Of Blackville/First House Of Connaught,” with Jeff White and Tim O’Brien), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (“The Squid Jiggin’ Ground/Larry O’Gaff,” with Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer), Emmylou Harris (“Lambs In The Greenfield”), and Alison Krauss (“Molly Bán,” with Béla Fleck), to name a few. Most recently, the Chieftains and their friends gathered to honor the memory of Derek Bell on Live From Dublin, recorded in 2004 and released February 2005. This collection is their first new album release since then.

IRISH DRINKING SONGS

Here is an able-bodied collection that serves two purposes – a celebration of Irish history and culture in song, as well as a non-stop program of rousers, weepers, dance tunes and sing-alongs that should keep any well-oiled ceilidh reeling ’til the wee hours of morn. In addition to three tunes from contemporary tenor Frank Patterson, more than two-thirds of the tracks deservedly feature the two finest self-contained groups of Irish traditional musicians and singers, Tipperary’s Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem and Dublin’s rowdy favorites, the Dubliners. The latter have kept their reputation alive and kicking over the last four decades despite lineup changes, the departure of founding member Ronnie Drew, and the deaths in the 1980s of founding members Luke Kelly and Ciaren Bourke. To their everlasting credit, the Dubliners’ music never seems to age, and has attracted such young partisans as the Pogues, Hot House Flowers, Rory Gallagher, Billy Connolly and others. In the ’90s, they even inspired the formation of the Young Dubliners in Los Angeles (“The Rocky Road To Dublin”), a jam band led by Dublin-born Keith Roberts and Paul O’Toole.

As for the Pogues, no self-respecting collection of Irish music worth its salt should go without a few tracks by Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer, Phil Chevron and the boys. This collection wets its whistle with a couple of numbers (“Sally MacLennane,” “Dirty Old Town”) recorded live in Leysin, Switzerland in 1991, a show that was finally released on CD in the U.S. in 2002 (and on DVD last year) as Streams of Whiskey. The Boston band Dropkick Murphys invited MacGowan to join them on a revival of “Wild Rover” which, along with “Fields of Athenry,” bring disc one to a high-spirited closing. This collection also invites a listen to Hoboken’s own Rogue’s March on “Amsterdam Mistress,” as Joe Hurley and the band earn the longest track on the set (at 6:31), worth every minute of it, too.

IRISH TENORS

The grand tradition of Irish tenor vocalists in America was one of the foundations of the recording business from the very start, owing to an immigrant population that found solace, redemption, or just plain nostalgic value in the music. From its late-19th century beginnings until virtually the onset of the commercial rock and roll era some six decades later, the record industry nurtured an abundance or Irish tenors, some born in the Auld Sod and some born in America, relying almost exclusively on traditional songs. This is best illustrated by the acoustic Victor recordings of Irish-born John McCormack, an often overlooked star who was a primal influence on Bing Crosby and others. The tenor is heard in recordings of traditional from 1921 (“The Wearing Of The Green”) and 1927 (“Kathleen Mavourneen,” “Mother Machree”).

In the Depression era, the Irish tenor repertoire began to mix traditional material with tunes by Tin Pan Alley songsmiths. Recording for Columbia in 1935, Brooklyn’s “Singing Cop” movie star Phil Regan had a go at updating “A Sweet Irish Sweetheart Of Mine,” “Come Back To Erin” (a favorite of McCormack’s), and Chauncey Olcott’s venerable “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” American-born Morton Downey, voted America’s “Radio Singer of the Year” in 1932, relied on the old turn-of-the-century saws to ensure his success, including “Where The River Shannon Flows,” “Molly Brannigan,” “The Same Old Shillelegh,” “That’s How You Spell Ireland,” and of course Olcott’s “My Wild Irish Rose,” all of which were recorded for Columbia in 1939.

1932 was also the year that “The Jack Benny Show” debuted on NBC Radio, with its first original Irish tenor Frank Parker (heard here, nearly two decades later, on the best known Irish Immigrant song “Danny Boy,” a rare version with its often omitted second verse). As Himes explains, Parker was replaced by Michael Bartlett in 1934, who in turn was replaced by Kenny Baker in ’35. New York City-born Dennis Day was hired as the obligatory Irish tenor in 1939, and his personality won him great success with Benny (as a cast member on radio and tv until 1974), as well as movie roles, his own radio show starting in 1946, a string of hit records with RCA Victor starting in ’47, and his own tv show starting in 1952. This collection includes Day’s hit version of “Clancy Lowered the Boom” and three songs associated with Bing Crosby: “St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” “How Can You Buy Killarney” and “Galway Bay.”

Finally, in the post-WWII years, the “Voice of Firestone” radio show’s resident Irish tenor was Christopher Lynch, born in County Limerick, who became a protégé of McCormack's when he retired there. Recording for Columbia in 1947, Lynch adhered to the McCormack songbook on the five tunes here: “The Rose of Tralee,” “A Ballynure Ballad,” “A Little Bit of Heaven,” “The Minstrel Boy,” and “I Met Her in the Garden Where the Praties Grow.”

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The Chieftains - The Essential Chieftains