Chieftans' collaborations are an encyclopedia's worth of talent

If Paddy Moloney has proved nothing else in his near half-century tenure as chieftain of The Chieftains, it's that Irish music can mix with almost any company.

Scan the list of collaborators who have recorded and/or performed with the multi-Grammy-winning traditional Irish band, and you quickly get a hint of just how far its reach can be. Among the names on the diverse guest list: The Rolling Stones, The Who's Roger Daltrey, Luciano Pavarotti, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs and Lyle Lovett. And who else could list Mick Jagger, Mike Oldfield and The Muppets as musical brethren?

Even Moloney cracks up when those names are mentioned side by side during a phone conversation from a country retreat outside of Dublin, Ireland.

"Oh my, The Muppets," Moloney said. "I forgot about them."

But The Chieftains' pioneering music has involved far more than mere elbow-rubbing with celebrities. During the past two decades of its 48 years, the band has been a conduit between Moloney-arranged or -written jigs and reels, and numerous global sounds. Ensuing recordings have brought The Chieftains to Americana music (the two-volume Down the Old Plank Road), harp orchestras (the beautiful The Celtic Harp), Galacian music (Santiago), high-profile pop and rock vocalists (The Long Black Veil) and jazz (an extraordinary collaboration with Herbie Hancock on his recent album The Imagine Project). The Chieftains' newest album, San Patricio, explores an unexpected link between Celtic and Mexican cultures.

But examine how migratory the Irish people have been over the centuries, and the global effect and infatuation with Irish music comes more keenly into view.

"Look into the history of Ireland, and you see how we made our way everywhere around the world," Moloney said. "In particular, we went into Celtic countries of Brittany and Galacia. But our names also turn up in Mexico and Cuba. There's an O'Reilly's Bar in Havana, even. I know. I've been there."

The Chieftains' latest global journey lands them in Lexington smack in the middle of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and its accompanying Alltech Fortnight Festival. The concert Monday at the Singletary Center for the Arts is a benefit titled "Haitian Harmony." The performance will help raise money for a school, a medical clinic and an Alltech production plant in Haiti.

"We're coming to America for just this one show," Moloney said. "And that's it, although we've been asked to remain on for the rest of the Equestrian Games. I think this performance will be something very, very special. Giving our services is our contribution."

The performance is officially billed as "The Chieftains and Friends." The actual number of Chieftains will be three — Moloney, who founded the group in 1962, on uilleann pipes and whistle; Kevin Conneff, who joined in 1976, on vocals and the hand-held bodhran drum; and Matt Molloy, a member since 1979, on flute and whistle. Longtime Chieftains fiddler Sean Keane will not be traveling to Lexington for the concert.

The number of friends, though, will be substantial. The Chieftains' performance entourage will include Nashville guitarist Jeff White, harpist Triona Marshall, fiddler Deanie Richardson, vocalist Alyth McCormack, dancer Cara Butler and dancer/siblings Jon and Nathan Pilatzke.

"They're show-stoppers, those guys," Moloney said of the Pilatzke brothers. "We did a show at Elvis Costello's wedding to the lovely Diana Krall. Sir Paul McCartney was there, and when these guys started to dance, even he couldn't hold back. He was up dancing, legs flying everywhere. It was brilliant."

The concert's special guests will be two larger musical ensembles designed to enforce the Chieftains' — and the concert's — global reach. The first will be members of the Haitian Harmony children's choir that performed at the WEG opening ceremony last weekend. Moloney said they will assist on a version of Amazing Grace that will be performed in English and French.

"Their voices are just amazing. I've been talking with Pearse (Lyons, Alltech president and founder) and have had many calls back and forth to people looking after the choir in Haiti. I think it's going to be a great coming together."

The other featured group is Kentucky United Pipes and Drums, a regional bagpipe and drumming brigade that will assist on one of Moloney's key works from San Patricio.

"San Patricio is about an Irish battalion that fought with the Mexicans in 1847" in the Mexican-American War, he said. "It's a bit of history that even here in Ireland has been kept secret. There is a lot of shame and embarrassment about it. (Many of the Irish immigrants fighting in the war were hung as traitors.) But there is a piece of music in it, The March to Battle, that is played on the record by the wonderful San Patricio Pipe Band. We couldn't bring them along. So we will have your local pipe band joining us."

And so the global adventures of The Chieftains continue. Moloney hinted that future projects for the band could include a Broadway-bound production of some sort ("That's one of my dreams, anyway") and possible works that would connect the band's Irish roots with the music of Scandinavia and possibly even Argentina. Work with Indian music pioneer Ravi Shankar also is being discussed. And there are already ideas floating about for 2012, when The Chieftains will celebrate their 50th anniversary as a band.

"What's happening? Where are we going? It just continues, really," Moloney said. "It's all very exciting. Through it all, we just love to play our music. It seems to excite and communicate with people of all kinds. That's quite wonderful, really."

This story was originally published October 3, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Chieftans' collaborations are an encyclopedia's worth of talent."