Last night Melissa and I had the opportunity to see and hear an amazing concert at Jones Hall in Houston. One of Melissa’s Christmas presents this year was tickets to The Chieftains concert with the Houston Symphony.
If you don’t know, The Chieftains are pretty much the number one artists when it comes to Celtic and traditional Irish music. They have been playing together since the 60’s, and are hugely successful at it. The band currently consists of Paddy Moloney, Sean Keane, Kevin Conneff, and Matt Molloy, and has had various other members over the years. Paddy Moloney started it all as a way to push the boundaries of Irish music, it would appear that they have been successful at that, being known as Irelands musical ambassadors and the recipients of 6 Grammy awards.
Now what about last nights concert? The event was divided into two parts. The first featured the band on stage alone performing various Chieftains tunes. The were joined at various times by some on stage dancers, performing Irish jigs and step dancing, and some bag pipers. Some of the dancers were kids from a local Irish dancing program, pretty lucky for them to get a chance to perform with the superstars of Celtic music. This part of the show was great, a personal look at the band. The members, and 3 accompanying artists, sitting in chairs on this enormous stage basically jamming to some Celtic tunes. It should be noted that in addition to traditional Chieftains fare we were treated to a rendition of the Cotton Eyed Joe. Which proceeded to stick in my head for the rest of the night. The band ended the first part with a couple of reels, typically my favorite part of any Celtic bands concert.
The second part of the show managed to prove that music of any type can be played and enjoyed by anyone. A tremendously varied amount of music was played by the Chieftains and the Houston Symphony. According to the program most of the songs, or at least the arrangements, were by Paddy Moloney, and they were all amazing. The music included some show tunes as well as an arrangement based off of Mozart, perfect for a symphony. The music was loud, fast, vibrant. I say for nearly the entire concert, but my foot still hurt at the end from the nearly constant toe tapping and foot stopping going on. My program for the show is in the car, so I cannot recount the exact layout of the second half (house alarm is on and the baby is still asleep - makes noise when you turn it off). Regardless, the second half of the concert was as good as the first.
If you ever have the chance to go see these guys perform, take it. Doesn’t matter where you sit, because you really don’t need to see much (it’s just some old guys sitting around on stage playing music), but make sure you can hear. Close your eyes, tap you toe, slap your knee, and enjoy some of the best music around.
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