The Chieftains

Journey with The Chieftains to the special places and people of the home counties that formed the band's musical soul. Derek Bell, Kevin Conneff, Martin Fay, Sean Keane, Matt Molloy and Paddy Moloney tell the tales of their earliest memories of Irish music. Their thoughtful and often amusing stories capture the emotion behind the scenes of every performance.

The tracks on The Best of the Chieftains are drawn from The Chieftains 7, The Chieftains 8, and Boil the Breakfast Early–three of the band's recordings from the late 1970s. This was the period when former Bothy Band and Planxty flautist Matt Molloy and vocalist/bodhran player Kevin Cunniffe joined up and finally fulfilled Paddy Maloney's vision of what the band should sound like. It also marks the last time the Chieftains recorded pure, unadulterated traditional Irish music.

Essential: a masterpiece of Folk music
The fifth album by the Chieftains was also their best, and their first one to cross over, at least in America — where it was originally issued by the Island label — to progressive rock audiences.

The debut album by the Chieftains, recorded when they were still a semi-professional outfit, is more restrained than their subsequent efforts.

Excellent addition to any celtic-folk music collection.
7 was the first Chieftains album released in the States by Columbia, though the group had been playing together and recording in some form since the early '60s. (Actually, 7 was first released in Ireland on the Claddagh label, and issued in America the subsequent year.)

This is the real stuff, the very best of the group’s early albums and the best representation of the Chieftains’ original sound.