FAYETTEVILLE — Paddy Moloney has played during a private audience for the Pope and at the Great Wall of China.
His band, the Chieftains, won an Oscar for the music in Stanley Kubrick’s film “Barry Lyndon.”
The bandmates have also been awarded six Grammys in the half a century they have been showcasing their brand of Irish music.
But Moloney, who has “touched the 70 mark,” is still as excited as ever about his career. Asked what single moment he remembers most fondly, he answers: “They’re still happening every day.”
By way of example, in January, “I picked up a gold medal (a Medal of Honor) from the National Arts Club in New York City” for lifetime achievement in music, he says in his lilting Irish brogue. But more illustrations come to his mind quickly:
◊“I found out in the ’60s that the likes of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Roger Daltrey from The Who were out there listening to the Chieftains!”
◊A performance at Royal Albert Hall in London in 1975 proved “we had made it; it had happened.”
“The show had sold out in three weeks,” he remembers.
“There was no singing, no flashing lights, no fireworks, not even any dancing, so to see that crowd dancing all around the hall was such an exciting moment.”
◊“The same year we were named by Melody Maker magazine as group of the week on the front page and got a page in Time magazine.”
◊And, back in 2011, in New York City, “they named the 27th of January as Paddy Moloney Day! I have a day! They gave me the key to the city. Therewere tributes on screen from Sting and Bono, Liam Neeson and people like that. It was a great honor!”
It wasn’t the life Moloney expected.
Although he grew up playing the tin whistle and the uilleann pipes, “I was going to be an accountant, in fact,” Moloney says. “But I never qualifiedbecause music just took over.
“This music to me was a pastime, entertainment, down at my grandmother’s house in the country. In the evening, when it was time to come in and after dinner, music would strike up. That’s what stuck with me over the years.”
But Moloney “felt it was something that deserved abetter hearing.”
“Others had brought out the great songs,” he says, “but I thought the traditional music should also get a world hearing. I wanted to bring out the color of the music and the combinations of tunes, using all the traditional instruments that Irish music had to offer but in another way.”
In 2010, the Chieftains put a new spin on their music, collaborating with Ry Cooder for an album titled “San Patricio.” The idea was born in a bar in Cuba in 1996, while Cooder was a session player with the band for “Santiago.” The latest CD pays tribute to Irish immigrants who fought for Mexico during the Mexican-American War.
“But if the San Patricios’ story is downbeat, the mix of Mexican and Irish sounds that Moloney and Cooder have cooked up is anything but,” George de Stefano wrote for PopMatters last year. “(And) fans of Paddy Moloney’s work on uilleann pipes, tin whistle and bodhrán won’t be disappointed.”
Moloney doesn’t see how fans could be disappointed about the tour in support of “San Patricio,” either.
“In 2011, The Chieftains’ performances could be better described as a ‘big show’ or a ‘spectacular’ rather than a concert,” Moloney says. “There will be upwards of 12 people on stage at all times, with additions of local musicians, special guests I’m not allowed to divulge, anywhere from six to 20 local dancers on a couple of pieces, and Scottish pipe bands performing the ‘March to Battle,’ which was narrated by Liam Neeson for ‘San Patricio.’”
“What was bred into us, the true traditional style of Irish music, is still there,” Moloney promises. “But we give it a bit of a twist.” *** FAQ
THE CHIEFTAINS WHEN - 7 p.m. Sunday WHERE - Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville COST - $46-$72 INFO - 443-5600
Whats Up, Pages 14 on 02/25/2011