Album Review: Bear’s Sonic Journals – The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco, 1973 & 1976

Having previously supplied LSD to The Beatles and Ken Kesey, and pioneered major sound engineering innovations with The Grateful Dead, Owsley “Bear” Stanley turned his attention to The Chieftains on the night of October 1, 1973. As was his custom, Stanley made a soundboard recording of the show at The Boarding House, San Francisco – which now sees the light of day as part of a special Claddagh Records release, alongside another live recording from the city’s Great American Music Hall in 1976.

Despite the considerable age of the recordings, you’ll find few live albums that offer an experience as immersive as this. Paddy Maloney and the band, playing at the personal invitation of Jerry Garcia, are in flying form – their playfulness and virtuosity captured side-by-side, with tunes punctuated by rowdy banter, yelps and the occasional ya-boy-ya!

This is music that always had a touch of wildness at the heart of it, and was designed to be played in a living, breathing, heaving room, rather than a still and sanitised recording studio – an outlook that’s being increasingly re-embraced by today’s folk and traditional musicians. Stunning album artwork by Conor Campbell – who has created iconic cover art for Ye Vagabonds and Junior Brother – further aligns The Foxhunt with some of the most groundbreaking progressions in Irish music today.

A thrilling entry point into The Chieftains for a whole new generation.

Available on vinyl and CD here.