Another string to their bow

The Arts: It was a big leap for classical harpist Tríona Marshall to play with the Chieftains, but once she did, she was hooked, writes Siobhán Long

'I'm playing more now than ever, I think," Matt Molloy declares merrily. "There's a well of very good musicians here in Westport so I'm never short of a session." For many fans of traditional music, the Chieftains have the appearance of having landed, fully formed, in the midst of the tradition, but each of their members enjoys a solo reputation that reaches well beyond the confines of the band's activities.

The Chieftains' flute player, Molloy had forged a formidable reputation long before joining the band in 1979. A founder member of The Bothy Band, he had been instrumental in shifting expectations of what the music was capable of. Two and a half decades on the road, and more than 40 albums haven't dulled his appetite, although Derek Bell's untimely death in 2002 left its mark on the band.

"We've been slowing it down since Derek's death," Molloy says. "It hit us all very hard, because we were all very close to him. It knocked the band out of balance, and with the shock of it, we took a hard look at ourselves and decided that it was time to pull back on the amount of touring, and just cherry-pick a bit more."

It's the sheer unpredictability of the music, and the opportunity to collaborate with the most unlikely of musicians that still puts a fire in the belly of Paddy Moloney, founder, composer, piper and Chieftains front man.

As musicians in residence with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin's Irish Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick, where they inaugurated a Chieftains scholarship programme in 2004, they relish the chance to cross swords with the Academy students who will share a stage with them in Limerick on November 13th.

"We're planning a great concert with the students and with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin," Moloney says, with the same enthusiasm he affords the band's collaborations with everyone from Mick Jagger to Seán Potts. "This is our second year as musicians in residence in the University of Limerick, so the concert will celebrate this, and we'll host a master class the following day for the students."

One of the fascinating aspects of the band, and possibly a contributing factor to their longevity, is the diverse nature of their membership, due in no small part to Paddy Moloney's lateral thinking.

Kevin Conneff, bodhrán player and singer, didn't grow up in a particularly stalwart traditional household, but he spent many years trawling the riches of Dublin's singing and music tradition before joining the band.

"I started work when I was 15, and some of the lads I worked with were into traditional music, so I started going to fleadhanna ceoil around 1962. I was just gobsmacked when I saw traditional music in the flesh. Of course I loved the music of the day too - Elvis and Little Richard would have been my heroes - but traditional music was something else."

It was the lure of Connemara and its rich singing tradition that sealed Conneff's fate. Long after that, when Paddy Moloney's phone call came in 1976, he took his leave of the printer's dark room in which he worked, with more than a pep in his step. "I remember camping in Spiddal, and hearing Máirtín Standún recite Dónal Óg while Festy Conlon played it on the whistle, by a big bonfire on the beach. You can imagine the effect that had on a jackeen. It was absolutely magical, indescribably moving. Immediately after that experience, I started learning songs - from sources such as the Comhaltas book, Abair Amhrán."

Stepping out of the shadows and into the vacuum left by Derek Bell, Laois harpist Tríona Marshall has unveiled yet another facet of the band's lateral thinking. A classical harpist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Marshall makes no bones about her musical biases prior to joining the band for their 2003 tour.

"In all my years of studying harp, I'd never really listened to Irish music," Marshall admits, "and I didn't realise how wonderful it was. And even though I initially didn't know how long the Chieftains wanted me to play with them for, once I had played with them, I knew that I wanted to play Irish music, so I resigned from the Concert Orchestra."

Marshall recalls the profound impact that listening to Seán Keane's fiddle had on her, on her very first concert with the band in Galicia.

"I remember Seán starting a solo. I had never heard anything like it before," she recalls. "I had sat in a concert orchestra, surrounded by very brilliant players, but what he could do on the violin I'd never heard before. There was a straight line to the audience. It was just so moving. And I knew then that I wanted to do this, although when I first tried to play jigs and reels, it was a very big challenge, because it was so different technically to what I had been doing on the classical harp."

Adrenaline always runs high during a concert, she says, because no two performances are ever the same. The repertoire varies, guests step in and step out again, and each member of the band is free to do whatever they feel is right to breathe life into the tunes.

"As an orchestral musician", Marshall confesses, "I remember doing shows, and after the third or fourth night, I remember thinking 'oh my God, I have to do this for another three or four weeks', but with the Chieftains, I find the music is always fresh and never predictable. It's a totally different experience."

A significant factor in the band's ability to retain an edge in the music is their continuing involvement in other projects. Matt Molloy has forged a particularly winsome musical partnership with London-born Leitrim fiddle player John Carty and guitarist Arty McGlynn, with whom he plans to record a live album within the coming weeks. Whispers of an impending solo album and a Bothy Band reunion fill the air these days, too, and he's not averse to rekindling that particular flame either.

"The truth is, I never left the well," he laughs. "I'm a traditional musician, pure and simple, no more, no less. Tunes are fermenting in the back of the brain for a solo album, so it'll happen some time soon, I think. And certainly I love the idea of getting together with musicians I've played with in the past and trying out the tunes. It's great to get a buzz out of the music. I was in the doldrums there for a few years, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the music again."

There's a wealth of fine young musicians stepping into the fray these days, but Molloy makes one observation about the differences between his own expectations, as an emerging musician, and those of players he encounters today.

"I've seen musicians who undoubtedly are extremely good players, and they expect things to happen within a year or two. They're going to split the atom. But it doesn't happen like that. There's an awful lot of hard graft that has to be done."

Kevin Conneff casts another perspective on the lure of the road. Life has a way of imposing on his musical career, he admits. "I've just come through a divorce," he says, "so I need the money! I know we're not touring as much as we used to, but I would be game to do more, from purely a financial point of view. And still, it's great to be home for long spells, too."

• The Chieftains perform in the Music Network/Eagle Star Series at the National Concert Hall, tomorrow, sold out (special guests include dancer Tara Butler, and Quebecois fiddlers and dancers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke); at the Irish Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick, Sunday (061-202917) and at the William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh, Monday (048-37511248)