That’s What Friends Are For?

Strange bedfellows are always the best, don’t you think? Their chemistry defies the chemists, their logic eludes philosophers. They work because they break the rules, often unknown even to themselves. If Fay Wray and King Kong could forge a twosome (of sorts), why not Lenny Henry and Dawn French? Van Morrison and Michelle Rocca? Paddy Moloney and Roger Daltrey, even?

Being the chiefest Chieftain Paddy Moloney gets to have his picture taken with all the big names. And they with him. Since defying all statistical predictions last year at the Grammy Awards where they had the audacity to walk off with not one, but two glittery statuettes, for not one, but two different albums (Best Traditional Folk Album, for An Irish Evening Live At The Grand Opera House, Belfast, and Best Contemporary Folk Album for Another Country), this ‘overnight success’ ensemble has just been limbering up for the past three decades. The main feature is just about to begin and Paddy Moloney, all 5 foot 4 inches or so of him, starts to roll.

And in keeping with the times when paths collide and music merges with more fluidity then ever before, The Chieftains aren’t averse to sharing their popcorn with a decidedly kaleidoscopic bunch of fellow buffs.

On the eve of his departure for New York, where he’ll be airing the pipes at the request of one Roger Daltrey and Friends (a.k.a. The Who), Paddy Moloney is in customary fluent form, albeit harbouring a touch of laryngitis after a day-long media blitz. Carnegie Hall is a second home to The Chieftains with March 17th permanently booked to cater for the insatiable appetites of their Hudson-bound following. Its rarefied environs are as familiar to him as my bicycle saddle is to me, and its acoustics are to echo the pipes and strings of Paddy and co. on three nights within the next month.

“Roger Daltrey came to Belfast,” Paddy begins, explaining the latest unlikely Chieftain liaison, “and we did the concert and album which went on to win a Grammy last year. Now, Roger has a lovely voice and he wanted to get together again so this opportunity presented itself and we’re thrilled to be involved with it.”

Paddy’s not content to let their current offering, Celtic Harp, again a nominee in this year’s Grammython, sit for too long unaccompanied on the record shelves, and The Chieftains and Friends is already well on it way towards delivery.

All Star Line-Up

“Our record company, BMG, have been at me for a long time to make this album. We went to our friends, The Rolling Stones for a kick-off. Mick Jagger did a ballad with us one day and the following day the entire band came down, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, and we did ‘The Rocky Road To Dublin’ — stone by stone! There’s a photo of meself and Keith with his arm around me and he says to me, dragging away on a fag, ‘you know, Paddy, music is music and musicians are musicians. That’s it, isn’t it?’. Tee hee! And this at about four o’clock in the morning!”

Another old ally who joined the ranks is Van Morrison, who insisted on a revamped reworked version of ‘Have I Told You Lately?’ for the occasion. Just last week saw a session with Marianne Faithfull, while plans are afoot to hijack Ry Cooder next month when they’re touring the States. After that it’s showtime with Sinead O’Connor, Jerry Garcia, Tom Jones and Mark Knopfler, among others. Will The Chieftains find any room for themselves in this all star line-up? Will they find a studio big enough for them all?

“I’m beginning to wonder,” he smiles wryly. “We’ll have to plan it all very carefully.”

Have the band noticed a tremendous change in their audience figures since the bequeathing of the twin Grammies last year?

“Not an enormous amount, no,” he says, as surprised as anyone else at the lack of instant payback following the massive world-wide media blitz. “We’d already built up a tremendous following and the Grammies didn’t make a huge difference, partly perhaps because we were just in the middle of finishing up one contract and starting another one with our record company. Some newspapers have us down as having sold a million, or something, but we didn’t!

“The awful thing is, how do you explain that to the tax man, or to these thugs who go around looking for ransom? Still, we do keep a very high profile through touring and that’s how our involvement with Roger and The Who has been rekindled.”

Meanwhile the much talked about solo album has had to be shelved — yet again.

“I’ve been planning that one for the past 17 years,” Paddy sighs, “but I’m so wrapped up in this (the tour and new album) that I don’t have a minute. If I was to do a solo album I’d have to go away for a month to get my pipes in order!”

Another project-in-hand is a Galician album, again Paddy’s baby, which has been gestating for the past six years and is moving rapidly towards the delivery suite.

“I have people like Placido Domingo interested in singing a traditional Galician song, and hopefully Jerry Garcia will be in on that one too, and Carlow Numex, a brilliant Galician piper.”

And what of the risk of strangulation by the demands of business and finance? Can he squeeze the music in between the ledgers still?

“It’s certainly keeping me down an awful lot,” he admits mournfully. “spending so much time on the administration. There are managers of course, but you have to manage the managers. And of course the fact that our manager is based in Vancouver doesn’t help either! But our business is in North America so it pays to have a North American management.”

Endless Slog

The endless slog on the road is one that Moloney wouldn’t mind curtailing to some extent either.

“We’re 31 years on the road now and we’re away from our families more than 6 months of every year. The Chieftains are no longer a band, they’re an institution at this stage.”

But do Paddy Moloney and Co. want to live in an institution?

“Well, we have 29 mouths to feed,” he responds pragmatically, “and I have to say that since the Grammies we sell out completely in America, at a time when many well-known American bands and performers aren’t managing to fill the halls. So it’s worthwhile!”

Past comments on how they had to travel across the water to make a name for themselves before they got due recognition at home are still legal tender according to Moloney though he acknowledges that part of the reason for their enforced and repeated departures to the States was and is the tiny population base at home which couldn’t hope to sustain the sextet indefinitely.

“I think Irish people had a hang-up about their own music,” he says, “although more recently it has got better. But definitely we didn’t get the recognition. We had to go away in order to prove a point. After we had filled the Albert Hall people at home began to say ‘God, there’s something here after all’. But I will admit that’s it’s great to walk around town now and to be stopped at every corner. I’ll get worried when that stops.”

And is he impressed with the level of expertise he hears in the music these days?

“There are a load of young fiddle players and pipe players and flute players, soloists in their own right coming up with the highest standard of performance. I won four All-Ireland medals in my younger days but I wouldn’t like to have to compete with them now! It’s frightening,” he chuckles.

Two weeks later and the tour is in full swing, but Paddy Moloney manages to squeeze in a phonecall from Hot Press at the unfriendly hour of 8am, Houston time. The reason for our intrusion? Well, The Chieftains have triumphed again, scooping this year’s Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy with Celtic Harp.

“It was a huge surprise,” Moloney admits happily. “Just about an hour before we went on to do our concert in Savannah, my publicist Charlie rang up and said ‘You’ve got it, you’ve done it, you won!’ and I just said, ‘You must be joking Charlie!’ It took me totally by surprise. One can’t be too greedy after all.”

Because of the Savannah concert, The Chieftains were unable to attend the Grammy ceremony itself, but did take time off for a star-studded pre-awards party in the New York Metropolitan Museum the night before.

“It was a great party, and a fantastic setting. We met up with all kinds of people – Liza Minelli, Clint Black, and Nanci Griffith, who I was delighted to see won a Grammy this year.

“A while ago, before the awards were announced, I spoke with someone from the record company, who said don’t really expect too much, but then the announcement came through and the band were delighted. We’ll have three to put on our mantelpiece now!”

The way things are going, it looks like the Moloney mantelpiece is going to need an extension before too long. . .