The Chieftans dropped in on Music City in April and May and have emerged with Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions, a collection of fourteen tracks featuring country and bluegrass artists Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Ricky Skaggs and others, due September 17th.
Down the Old Plank Road is the Grammy-gobbling (they've won ten) Irish band's thirty-ninth recording, and its first since the Chieftans ran through seventeen traditional Irish tunes on Water From the Well with several Celtic musicians. It also marks a new milestone for the band, which is celebrating its fortieth year. In March, the Chieftans released The Wide World Over a compilation of collaborations with the likes of Sinead O'Connor, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and the Rolling Stones.
The new album isn't the Chieftans first foray into Americana. Ten years ago, the group -- Paddy Moloney (Uilleann pipes, tin whistle), Sean Keane (fiddle), Matt Molloy (flute), Derek Bell (harp, tiompan, keys) and Kevin Conneff (bodhran) -- Another Country, a collection with guests including Emmylou Harris and Chet Atkins that tapped into the common soil of traditional Irish music and its American country music counterpart. Country songs have seeped into the group's other recordings, as with 1995's The Long Black Veil, which featured Mick Jagger and the band collaborating on the title song, a cover of Danny Dill's country classic, and a take on "Tennessee Waltz."
From this side of the big pond (Vince Gill's take on Merle Travis' the classic coal miner ballad "Dark as a Dungeon") to that side (Bela Fleck leads the group through a trio of reels), the tracks recorded for Down the Old Plank Road were chosen to accentuate the common ground between bluegrass and traditional Irish music. And a handful of songs like "Sally Goodin'" -- a traditional fiddle dance tune, here driven by Earl Scruggs banjo -- that fall squarely in the middle.
"This album 'connects the dots' between our cultures by digging for the shared roots of an Irish Shamrock and a Tennessee mountain laurel," author Robert K. Oermann writes in the liner notes. "It reminds us that it is only a hop, skip and jump from jigs, reels and hornpipes to square dance melodies."
"I think that when you trace back the origins of what we now know as bluegrass -- and I think Mr. Monroe would have agreed," Skaggs said, "its real foundation came down from Ireland and Scotland."
In addition to the star guests, Down the Old Plank Road also boasts backing from some of Nashville's finest instrumentalists, including Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Jim Mills on banjo, Alison Krauss and Union Station bassist Barry Bales, and guitarist Bryan Sutton.
The Chieftans are also planning to release a second album from the sessions next year. The group will take the stage of Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium on September 30th to perform with several of the album's guests.
Track listing for Down the Old Plank Road:
"Down the Old Plank Road," with John Hiatt, Bela Fleck, Jeff White and Tim O'Brien
"Country Blues," with Buddy and Julie Miller
"Sally Goodin'," with Earl Scruggs
"Dark as a Dungeon," with Vince Gill
"Cindy," with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder
"Molly Ban," with Alison Krauss
"Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," with Lyle Lovett
"Ladies Pantalettes/Belles of Blackville/First House in Connaught," with Bela Fleck
"Whole Heap of Little Horses," with Patty Griffin
"Rain and Snow," with the Del McCoury Band
"I'll Be All Smiles Tonight," with Martina McBride
"Tennessee Studd," with Jeff White
"Katie Dear," with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
"Give the Fiddler a Dram," with various artists
ANDREW DANSBY
(August 9, 2002)