The Chieftains

Since the early ’70s, Ireland’s Chieftains been popular in the States and the band especially enjoys performing in Cleveland, a city with a huge Irish population and great respect for the country’s folk traditions. “We’re looking forward to playing with some of your own talent in Cleveland,” says band founder Paddy Moloney. “We’ll perform with some local Irish dancers and a local pipe band to do some of the music from the San Patricio album. At the very end we play this piece and we invite the audience to dance. Our own dancers go to the audience and get everyone to come on stage. That’s been a fun thing. We’ve even done it in Carnegie Hall and gotten away with it.” Now in its 50th year, the band recruited young indie rockers to play on its new album, Voice of Ages. “I was disappointed by the stuff I was hearing for the last 20 years,” says Moloney. “I was introduced to these indie bands and to hear such great ballads coming out of them reminded me of the great ballad revival of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and it opened up for me and I was able to pitch the songs that suited them.” Expect to hear songs from Voice as well as traditional numbers such as “The Long Black Veil” during tonight’s set. (Jeff Niesel)