The Chieftains, The Wide World Over.

Chieftains, Glastonbury 1983.

It is another nice October day here. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my kitchen door is open. I have just been pottering around in my tiny garden. There are still flowers coming into bloom, which is great for the time of year. I’m not going anywhere today. I love days like this, far from the madding crowd. I am now listening to The Wide World Over by The Chieftains. It is a compilation album of 2002 celebrating 40 years of The Chieftains and features collaborations with some of the biggest names in music, such as The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Sinead O’Connor, Linda Ronstadt and many more . As you can probably guess I am playing it because of the sad passing of Paddy Moloney three days ago.

It inspired me to try and write my own little tribute to Paddy because he was a brilliant musician and played a huge part in bringing Irish traditional music to the attention of a worldwide audience. I think the Irish nation owes him a deep debt of gratitude for all he achieved in taking Irish culture to the wide world over. It was 1975 when I first became aware of the music of Paddy Moloney. I bought the album Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield and thought that Paddy’s playing on the uilleann pipes was the highlight of the whole album. Also, that same year I purchased Chieftains 5 which was a wonderful album (and incidentally, one of the very few records I played that my dad actually said he liked). I think Peter Sellers wrote the sleeve notes if I remember correctly. I later bought a cassette recording that Paddy made with another founder member of The Chieftains Sean Potts called Tin Whistles. I still have that album but haven’t heard it for years because I don’t have a cassette player anymore.

The Chieftains are on the posters for Glastonbury Festival in 1982 and 83. I don’t think they played in 82 though. The posters often bore little relation to who actually turned up in those days. They were definitely there in 83 though. The photo you see at the top of this story isn’t that great but is the only photo I ever took of The Chieftains. I can’t remember a lot about their performance that day, except that I know they were one of the few bands who got the audience on their feet and dancing with the infectious jigs and reels. The Chieftains went off my radar for a few years after that until 1988 when they collaborated with Van Morrison on the Irish Heartbeat album which was a huge success critically and commercially and remains one of my favourite albums. Several years later I met Matt Molloy the flute player of The Chieftains at his pub in Westport, County Mayo, and said that I thought they should do a volume 2.

That never happened, but Van and The Chieftains did collaborate occasionally on the album Hymns To The Silence with the songs I Can’t Stop Loving You and Be Thou My Vision. There is also the stunning version of the traditional American song Shenandoah which I am listening to at this very moment. Paddy played whistle on Van's song Celtic New Year and Van also worked with Paddy on the fabulous track Piper At The Gates Of Dawn on The Healing Game album. There is also a rare song called Celtic Spring which was included on one of Van’s singles on which Paddy plays whistle. I have been looking for that song to play. It was on Youtube but I can’t find it now. 

The last time I saw The Chieftains play live was in Liverpool three years ago when they were on the same line-up as Van at the Irish festival called The Feis. I wish now that I had paid more attention because I can’t recall much at all about their performance. I think I was too busy talking to my friends. There were only three of the band left from when I first saw them. They had guests and a choir and did a great version of Shenandoah. That is all I can remember about the last time I saw Paddy Moloney who was a legend of Irish music, and his legacy and influence in the wide world over will live on forever.

PS, Thanks to Hans Driezen for extra info.