The Chieftains - Long Black Veil
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.99 You Save: $0.99 (8%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $0.60 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Long Black Veil
Free Music Review: Great Renditions of Classic Songs
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of the Chieftains for many years. I saw them play live in Millstreet, County Cork, and the band was simply phenomenal. They truly deserve the kudos they have received over the years for their musicianship and down to earth friendliness.
The Long Black Veil is a bit of a departure for them - the band serves as a background for many modern, popular artists. You might think that Sting, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, Sinead O'Connor, Van Morrison and others might overpower this group of folk players. But actually, the opposite happens. Sting's lilting voice fades seamlessly into the background as the gorgeous melodies intertwine. The songs are memorable not because a "famous name" is attached to the title, but because the classic tune is handled deftly by the Chieftains, and a well trained voice happens to supply the vocals.
It's fascinating in a way to see this diverse group of artists all singing traditional songs - songs that you might not otherwise ever hear them take on. But the real joy here is to hear your favorite classics done with such care and love. These artists all chose songs that had great meaning to them, and the Chieftains put their souls into the richness of the underlying tune. Each song here is a favorite for me for a different reasons.
Some Irish CDs are meant to be played in the background while people chug beer and talk in loud voices. Other CDs are put on for wild dancing and cheering the night through. This CD shines when you sit back, a glass in your hand, and you really listen to the nuances. You can hear the peat crackling softly on the fire, the wind whistling across the foggy meadows, and the textures of Ireland's past whispering through the beats. I've owned this for many years, and it's a CD I always come back to.
Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Typical Chieftans
Hit: 5 Stars
One of those albums where every track is a good track. It just keeps growing on you.Free Music Review: Various pop rockers try their hand at olde-time Gaelic
Hit: 3 Stars
Having heard this album again for the first time in several years, I was struck by the fact that it's a relatively schmaltzy collection of decent and not-so-decent tracks, featuring a rogues gallery of Anglosphere pop names: Sting, Sinead O'Connor, Van Morrison, Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler, Tom Jones, the usual suspects are all here. Each artist reaches (sometimes painfully) for a degree of Old Country authenticity, backed by the signature Celtic pub bawdiness that has come to typify the Chieftains and their nostalgic Irish sound.
All I can say is, I enjoyed the instrumental tracks far more than the ones with singing, as the pop artists often seem to be trying too hard.
Perhaps I am just weary of the overall cultural rush to embrace and commercialize all things Gaelic/Celtic. I don't know what it's like in the UK, but here in the States, it seems as if every swinging Richard is putting on the Green, or swaggering in a kilt, no matter how attenuated their blood connection to the Isles.
So lift a pint to this mediocre work, burn the instrumental tracks for safekeeping, and pawn it off at your local buy/trade shop for something a tad more interesting.
Free Music Review: THE CHIEFTANS "A-CHIEF" THE BEST
Hit: 4 Stars
This is the best that the Chieftans have to offer; a great mix of musical genres and great voices to accompany them. Say what you will about her politics, but Sinead O'Connor's voice has never been as haunting as on "He Moved Through the Fair". Sting's voice seems to blend seamlessly with the Celtic instruments and melodies. And, are there ever two words more happily seen on any album than "Ry Cooder"?? The Chieftans took "folk" music, included folks from other cultures, but somehow made it all their own.Free Music Review: An essential addition to any good CD collection. Buy It.
Hit: 5 Stars
`The Long Black Veil' by the Irish musical group, the Chieftains is a demonstration of the power of a guest appearance by Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones on the album of a well established group of a different genre.
I recall this album being previewed on our local NPR station on a Tuesday and when I went to my local Borders in the same radio market, the CD was completely sold out within a day of the airplay of the title cut on which the Mick does the vocal solo.
And, to make the mix even more interesting, this particular album has quite a large mix of guest stars, far beyond the previous Chieftains hosting a single guest, as they did with their album with Van Morrison. The other guests are Sting, Sninead O'Connor on two tracks, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder on two cuts, Marianee Faithfull, and Tom Jones. Even Frank Zappa makes a ghostly appearance as the host of the recording session with Tom Jones on the `Tennessee Waltz'.
The combination of this awesome collection of talent plus the great instrumental work by the Chieftans themselves makes each and every track on this album an evocation which survives relistening over the years.
One Irish music weakness this album escapes is the feeling that there is really only one `Irish song', done in many different styles with many different combinations of lyrics and instruments. While I never totally subscribed to this theory, there is a sense in which there is a great sameness to the melodies of many Irish songs. This is probably what is meant by the `lilt' of Irish melodies. Oddly, I think it is probably harder to identify the nature of this `lilt' than it is to exactly define what distinguishes a blues song, which must be an iambic pentameter, exactly the same meter as Shakespeare's verses.
My most important message to non-Irish music fans is that you will like this album even if you have no taste for traditional Irish music. You will probably like it even if you don't like the Rolling Stones. Jagger's vocals on the title tune indicates how well he would do with other traditional material. I also have to say that Sinead O'Connor's performances on this album prompted me to get some of her albums, and I find her work alone is simply not quite as good as her two selections on this album.
Very highly recommended.