The Chieftains I through IV on CD

[Lallans]

Listening to these discs brings home what a pool of talent the Chieftains represented, centred around piper Paddy Maloney but with other geniuses of tradition instruments such as Derek Bell on the Irish harp. I fear their like will never be seen again and pray Claddagh Records will hold on to and preserve those master tapes.

I used to slightly annoy a young Irish woman of my acquaintance by saying that the Chieftains' early recordings were a musical preservation of the Celtic bronze age, a statement that wasn't completely accurate and yet somehow completely true as well.