The Chieftains
March 6, 1998
A Magical Evening of Celtic Music and Dance
By Jim Michael

Reprinted with permission from The Harp, monthly newsletter of the The Celtic Cultural Society of Central California.

Yesterday, May first, I had the great good fortune to spend the evening at UCLA's Royce Hall where The Chieftains were performing. The building, since 1929 the site of many rare and wonderful evenings, has just recently reopened after four years of seismic renovations following the Northridge earthquake. It provided a beautiful setting for one of the finest evenings of music and dance I've ever had the pleasure to spend.

Before the concert began at 8:00, we wandered the halls admiring the fabulous brickwork, beautiful stained glass and wonderful painted ceilings. We attended a Center Stage Lecture at 7:00 where Roz and Howard Larman of KPFK radio presented Paulette Gershen. Ms. Gershen, an ethnomusicologist, briefly shared the story of Irish traditional music and the special place The Chieftains occupy in that tradition. Look for a brief synopsis of that lecture also in this month's Harp.

After the lecture the hall opened its doors and we were ushered to our seats. The house lights dimmed, the Chieftains took the stage and the magic began. The show began with the steady beat of Kevin Conneff's bodhran as the band launched into a spirited reel that was followed by a lovely tune on the harp by Derek Bell and then Boil the Breakfast Early. It was during this last tune that we got our first chance to enjoy the dancers for the evening and we were happy to see that they were Cara Butler and Donny Golden! Those of you who were fortunate enough to attend the Celtic Fire concert last November will doubtless remember what a treat it was for us to have these two fine dancers in Fresno for that show. They were in fine form again, as we would see throughout the evening.

The evening continued with a shimmering rendition of O'Carolan's Planxty Fanny Power and Kevin's offering of The Dark Eyed Gypsies. Then it was Cara and Donny's turn to thrill the crowd as the danced some amazing steps to The Independent Hornpipe. Just when we thought things were moving at a rapid pace indeed, Sean Keane put the bow to his fiddle and played two jigs that made you wonder if perhaps he had more than five fingers on his left hand. He ended his set of tunes with Ferny Hill and was joined by the rest of the band for this number.

Then Martin Fay played a really lovely ballad on the fiddle. I only wish I knew the title of this piece, as I'd love to see if one of our talented local fiddlers knows it. He followed this with the jig The Wandering Minstrel and was joined by the entire band. Then they gave us The Foxhunt and it was a real tour-de-force winding up with The Foxhunters Reel.

The first half of the show was concluded with a medley of music from 'The Long Journey Home' (recently seen on PBS). The medley began with orchestrations of some of the music Paddy arranged for the series followed by Paddy's Lamentation, sung by Kevin, and then we were treated to the UCLA Chamber Choir singing Shenandoah. After this the tempo picked up again with Donny and Cara coming out to dance to The Night That Larry Was Stretched. Then Kevin gave us An Raibh Tú Ag an gCarraig? (Were You at the Rock?) and the medley closed with the choir joining in again on the anthem from 'The Long Journy Home'.

There was an intermission of about twenty minutes and we joined other members of the audience on the lovely terrace behind the hall to take some fresh air and admire the light streaming out through the stained glass windows. Then the chimes called us back into the hall for another hour of wonderful music.

The second half of the show began with another lively reel and then Matt Molloy's truly amazing version of The Mason's Apron. When I first heard this on The Chieftain's album, 'An Irish Evening', I was stunned by his ability to play the piece faster and faster while playing so expressively and still crisply hitting every note. Believe me, it was even more amazing in person! The rest of the band joined him to finish the piece and then Paddy introduced Heitor Pereira, a fine young guitarist from Brazil.

Heitor played a beautiful piece he wrote that was inspired by the time he spent in the Wicklow hills. I especially enjoyed listening as I remembered one of my favorite landscapes in the world. He then played a number of Galician tunes with an Irish double jig thrown in for good measure. It was great to watch the interplay of the musicians and to see the way that the Chieftains reach out to find the common ties between music from different Celtic regions.

After Heitor left the stage they played a selection of tunes from 'The Long Black Veil', beginning with Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, moving on into a reel and then to Rocky Road to Dublin with quotes from the Rolling Stones Satisfaction. Donny and Cara were out to dance again during this set.

Then Paddy introduced their other special guest for the evening, Mary Jane Lamond from Nova Scotia. She recorded tracks with The Chieftains last October for their next album 'Fire in the Kitchen' which will feature music from Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. She sang two lovely songs in Scot's Gaelic and then Paddy brought everyone back on for a jam session to close the show. Everyone had a chance to shine again and a highlight was Derek's classical and ragtime piano interlude. Three young dancers from a local dance school joined Donny and Cara and they put on a great show.

After the band left the stage it was clear the audience was not ready to go home. The sustained applause brought the band out for an encore that began with O'Carolan's Tabhair Dom Do Lamh and then went on through a set of reels with all the dancers back out once more.

It was an evening I'll always remember. If you get the chance to spend an evening with The Chieftains... by all means GO!