The debut album by the Chieftains, recorded when they were still a semi-professional outfit, is more restrained than their subsequent efforts. The opening number introduces each of the bandmembers, Paddy Moloney and Sean Potts on pipes, followed by Michael Tubridy on flute and David Fallon on bodhran, Martin Fay on the fiddle, and then Tubridy on the concertina. The group would later acquire what can only be called a more soulful approach, but the playing here was a revelation at the t...   [ read more ]

CD $13.26

The weakest of the group's albums, Chieftains 3 suffers from a sameness to the material. The album starts out rousingly enough with the double-time jig "Strike the Gay Harp," and has a handful of memorable tracks, such as "Carolan's Concerto"; "The Trip to Sligo," a haunting theme-and-variations piece; and "Sonny's Mazurka," a beautiful piece written by a departed colleague of the band, played with poignant, inspiring intensity. It is clear on repeated listening, however, that the group had ...   [ read more ]

CD $13.26

Well, sort of. The 50 minutes of music here represent the best of the group's three albums (Chieftains 7, Chieftains 8, Boil the Breakfast Early) recorded for Columbia Records during 1977, 1978, and 1979. It's a good collection, and not a bad place to start for the new listener, though it won't offer any revelations for longtime fans, who'd tuned in long before this point in their history. The lineup during this era was Paddy Moloney (uillean pipes, tin whistle), Sean Keane (fiddle), {$Mi...   [ read more ]

CD $7.59