Post by Joe on Jan 19, 2006 20:21:41 GMT -5
January 19, 2006
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM: 'The Cottars...electrified the audience with their vocal harmonies and dancing.'
Still chiefs of Celtic music
By SHIRLEY JINKINS
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- After 42 years, The Chieftains and their guest artists are still defining Celtic music with dignity and clarity in a Riverdance-crazed world. Not that there's anything wrong with a bit of step dancing.
Their Wednesday show at Bass Performance Hall, which has become a frequent stop for the popular band in traditional-music-loving Fort Worth, wasn't short on footwork. The second half of the concert was climaxed by dancers, a couple of bag-pipers and America the Beautiful.
The Chieftains' current tour is in honor of the Derek Bell, a longtime member who died in 2002, and they've managed to fill that huge void with guest artists. But then, the Dublin band has made its international reputation on its penchant for and proficiency in playing with all manner of artists from The Rolling Stones to Ry Cooder.
As always, founder Paddy Moloney's definitive style on the uillean pipes formed the backbone for most of the music, although his haunting tin whistle is almost as much a trademark. Matt Molloy's standard flute on Easter Snow and Rites of Man was inspiring as was Kevin Conneff's spirited bodhran (a goatskin drum) and ditty of a song, The Salt.
The Chieftains were almost overwhelmed by their guest band The Cottars, four Nova Scotian teens. Ciaran and Fiona MacGillivray and Roseanne and Jimmy MacKenzie are two brother-sister duos who electrified the audience with their vocal harmonies and dancing.
One of the night's most familiar guests to local audiences was country-bluegrass musician Jeff White, a regular with Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett whose recording credits also include The Chieftains' Down the Old Plank Road albums. His Country Blues offering was a highlight of the first half.
Canadian brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke combined wicked step dancing with Jon's fiddling, and harp purists in the audience enthusiastically applauded the solo turns of guest Triona Marshall.
GRADE: A
FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM: 'The Cottars...electrified the audience with their vocal harmonies and dancing.'
Still chiefs of Celtic music
By SHIRLEY JINKINS
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- After 42 years, The Chieftains and their guest artists are still defining Celtic music with dignity and clarity in a Riverdance-crazed world. Not that there's anything wrong with a bit of step dancing.
Their Wednesday show at Bass Performance Hall, which has become a frequent stop for the popular band in traditional-music-loving Fort Worth, wasn't short on footwork. The second half of the concert was climaxed by dancers, a couple of bag-pipers and America the Beautiful.
The Chieftains' current tour is in honor of the Derek Bell, a longtime member who died in 2002, and they've managed to fill that huge void with guest artists. But then, the Dublin band has made its international reputation on its penchant for and proficiency in playing with all manner of artists from The Rolling Stones to Ry Cooder.
As always, founder Paddy Moloney's definitive style on the uillean pipes formed the backbone for most of the music, although his haunting tin whistle is almost as much a trademark. Matt Molloy's standard flute on Easter Snow and Rites of Man was inspiring as was Kevin Conneff's spirited bodhran (a goatskin drum) and ditty of a song, The Salt.
The Chieftains were almost overwhelmed by their guest band The Cottars, four Nova Scotian teens. Ciaran and Fiona MacGillivray and Roseanne and Jimmy MacKenzie are two brother-sister duos who electrified the audience with their vocal harmonies and dancing.
One of the night's most familiar guests to local audiences was country-bluegrass musician Jeff White, a regular with Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett whose recording credits also include The Chieftains' Down the Old Plank Road albums. His Country Blues offering was a highlight of the first half.
Canadian brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke combined wicked step dancing with Jon's fiddling, and harp purists in the audience enthusiastically applauded the solo turns of guest Triona Marshall.
GRADE: A