It’s more likely that you’ve heard of Bonnie Raitt, Joni
\nMitchell, Sinead O’Connor and Joan Osborne than the Chieftains, an
\nIrish band prominent in the World Music scene. All of the above
\nvocalists plus many others are featured in their new album
\nTears Of Stone<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Their aim was to create “a new voice” through synthesis, with
\nthe basis being traditional Irish music. While nothing as
\nrevolutionary happens,
\nTears Of Stone<\/i> is still an extremely good album in terms of
\nvocal concepts and arrangement. And it
\nis<\/i> amazingly cohesive.<\/p>\n
The first track, “Never Give All the Heart” is a vocal\/spoken
\nword arrangement of a poem by W. B. Yeats. Its hardened message and
\nthe ethereal beauty of its stark harmonies is an attractive
\ncontradiction, and frequently associated with ballads from that
\nregion (remember the sad-beautiful vocals in the orchestral
\n“Titanic” theme?). This is repeated in “Factory Girl” featuring the
\nrecently ordained Sinead O’Connor, and it’s a spine-chiller.<\/p>\n
But the biggest feat is with the interaction between the
\nChieftans and the non-Irish vocalists. Blues singer Diana Krall
\ncuts a clear blues track in “Danny Boy” but the backing gospel
\nchoir sings the Irish harmonies as easily as they would an American
\nspiritual. And Joni Mitchell is distinctly herself in “The
\nMagdelene Laundries” with her irony and organic vocal arrangements,
\nbut with the Chieftans in the background adding a rich, cultural
\ndimention to her usual folk intimacy. “A Stor Mo Chroi” featuring
\nBonnie Raitt blends American-midwest guitar with a traditional song
\nin a sparse and effective track, giving insight as to how far you
\ncan stretch the Irish Thing.<\/p>\n
But its amazing resilience is best shown in “Sake In A Jar”
\nfeaturing traditional Japanese vocalist Akiko Yano. This track is
\nsung in Japanese, is built over a Japanese rythm structure and
\nYano’s style is clearly not Irish. But something about its
\ninstrumental arrangement and chord structure makes it seamlessly
\nconnect with the rest of the album on a subtle level. It’s
\nunexpected but it fits.<\/p>\n
Not to say it always does. For a song that’s under four minutes,
\n“The Lowlands Of Holland” featuring Natalie Merchant drags on its
\nwordy storytelling and Merchant’s uniform delivery. “Raglan Road”
\nfeaturing Joan Osborne is sung with respect but without real
\nempathy. Eileen Ivers, a fiddler who has recently released an
\nunimpressive solo album, is among the ladies in “The Fiddling
\nLadies” which is a kind of track not too difficult to pull off in
\nany given meeting of the clans in Ireland. “Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor” by
\nthe Rankins and “I Know My Love” featuring The Corrs are light fun,
\nbut not everyone will enjoy the catchiness.<\/p>\n
But any project of this ambition has the license to make some
\nerrors in judgement and in the case of
\nTears Of Stone<\/i> they’re largely forgivable. Much of World
\nMusic involves using the past to create the future and the
\nChieftans are undeniably a force of innovation in this respect.
\nTears Of Stone<\/i>, and whatever the Chieftans may do in the
\nfuture, is worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7509],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39243","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-chieftains","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39243"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}