Search - Chieftains :: Irish Evening

During the early '90s, the Chieftains embarked upon a series of multigenre crossover recordings. Major pop stars were brought in as guest artists and a few had the goods, but others came across as wannabes or well-meaning if clueless PR victims. This Grammy-winning live album from 1992 features the Who's Roger Daltrey and American singer Nanci Griffith. Sadly, Griffith's husky, thin-textured voice is inadequate to the demands of Irish vocal ornamentation and phrasing. Daltrey, meanwhile, sounds raucous, unidiomatic, and amateurish; plus his presence with a traditional Irish music ensemble in the middle of British-occupied Belfast seems a bit much. In any case, courting comparison with the Chieftains' own singer, Kevin Conneff, is a risky business at best. The instrumentals are typically accomplished and future Riverdance diva Jean Butler provides charmingly percussive footwork, but the trap drummer on the last tune is glaringly out of place. --Christina Roden