At 50, the Chieftains explore a new frontier

By Randy Lewis

Los Angeles Times

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.

As leading ambassadors of Ireland’s traditional music for half a century, the Chieftains have long been lauded for promoting and nurturing both folk and world music. Now they’re tackling the final frontier.

“The Chieftains in Orbit,” a song off their new album, “Voice of Ages,” was partially recorded aboard the International Space Station, on St. Patrick’s Day no less. The album was released last week as part of a celebration around the group’s 50th anniversary.

The song features astronaut Cady Coleman playing an Irish folk tune on a flute and tin whistle she borrowed from Chieftains’ founding member Paddy Moloney and flutist Matt Molloy before blastoff.

“Matt had received this video of Cady Coleman on his iPad [from space], her hair floating, saying, ‘Hello, this is Cady. I’m wishing you all a happy St. Patrick’s Day,’” said founding member Moloney, 73, at his seaside hotel last week in Santa Barbara, where the Chieftains launched their U.S. tour Feb. 17.

The Chieftains are known for going well beyond the borders of Ireland for inspiration. Over a five-decade career, Moloney, Molloy and longtime core members Sean Keane and Kevin Conneff have explored the connective strains between their native music and that of England, Scotland and other parts of the globe including India and Japan.

The Chieftains have been equally catholic in their choices of collaborators, opening their arms to acts as varied as the Rolling Stones, country’s Chet Atkins and classical music titan Luciano Pavarotti.

Those collaborations have contributed to several of the six Grammy Awards bestowed on the group in traditional and contemporary folk, as well as world music categories, along with an Academy Award for their work on Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film “Barry Lyndon.”

“Voice of Ages” connects the Chieftains with a who’s who of critically acclaimed young alt-rock, country and folk collaborators, including this year’s new-artist Grammy-winner Bon Iver and nominees from other categories including the Decemberists and the Civil Wars. Moloney co-produced many of the tracks with America’s modern-day roots music czar T Bone Burnett.

“We started to talk about the idea of these younger bands, and I got a bit nervous because I haven’t been mad about what’s been happening for 20 years. Music-wise, it’s not my thing,” said Moloney, who is often characterized as “elfin” for his stature and the effervescent and musical lilt in his voice. “We approached T Bone [and] pitched the idea to him: What about some of these young bands — would they suit the Chieftains? They sent me the CDs of their material, and when I heard the melodies, for me it was like going back to the early folk [days] in the ’50s and ’60s: The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, that kind of stuff. The melodies are there — good stuff.”