Take a bow, President tells music ambassadors
Entertaining audiences worldwide for 40 years with their own brand of traditional music, yesterday President McAleese paid tribute to the band’s unique achievements. Like millions of others, the President is an enthusiastic Chieftains fan who likes nothing better than a rousing seisiún.
But yesterday’s proceedings were more formal and sober as she paid tribute to the world’s best-known ambassadors of traditional Irish music. A sad note was also struck when the group remembered harpist Derek Bell, who died suddenly last October during a tour of the US. Throughout the decades, The Chieftains have mined the wealth of traditional Irish music with a distinctive style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive.
“If there is a more beautiful musical sound in all the world than that made by The Chieftains, I haven’t heard it,” declared Bob Claypool, music critic of the Houston Post in a review of the band during a recent sold-out US tour.
The band’s many albums read like a Who’s Who of world-famous singers and musicians and include collaborations with Sting, Mick Jagger, Sinéad O’Connor, Emmylou Harris, Chet Atkins, Willie Nelson, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder and The Rolling Stones.
The band was formed in Dublin, in 1963 by Paddy Moloney. Originally consisting of Moloney, Seán Potts (tin whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), David Fallon (bodhrán), Mick Tubridy (flute) and Seán Ó Riada (drums).
