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Sleeve Notes
It's an album so nice they made it twice.
The critically acclaimed and Grammy® Award nominated Down the Old Flank Road was one of the major events in roots-music circles last year. The record paired the world's most famous traditional Irish band with some of the greatest pickers, troubadours, country stars and Americana favorites in Nashville. The Chieftains were out to demonstrate the musical bedrock that Ireland and America share. Sometimes the songs were native to one side of the Atlantic and sometimes they came from the other. It made no difference. Whatever the song's origin, the collaborations on Down the Old Plank Road worked brilliantly.
In addition to that 2002 album, there wa a Down the Old Plank Road television special shot in the fabled Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville and a popular DVD. These projects included several performances that did not appear on the album, suggesting that The Chieftains had more Plank Road "in the can." The album you hold in your hands is the proof of that.
If you saw the TV show or DVD, you have been doubtless yearning to hear again the peerless EmmyLou Harris performance of "Lambs in the Greenfield," a traditional Ulster ballad that The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney taught her. Similarly, Irish-American singer-songwriter Tim O'Brien's spirited performance of "Shady Grove" was seen but not heard on the original album. The folk song is one that is shared by both cultures, for it is closely related to the ballads "Fair Margaret" and "Sweet William." The Irish melody of the song which accompanies it is almost the same.
For an example of how well a native American tune could translate into Celtic terms, you need look no further than the 1850s minstrel tune "Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel." John Hiatt's delightful romp through this number was, again, seen on TV and DVD, but unheard on record until now.
That brings us to the new revelations on Further Down the Old Plank Road. The cast of Chieftains collaborators here is easily the equal of the first collection. John Prine applies his warm drawl to the sweet/sad old-time tune "The Girl I Left Behind." It first surfaced in country music via Charlie Poole's 1925 recording, but the song's origin is in Tin Pan Alley, 1899, as written by Harry Braisted and Stanley Carter.
Continuing with the American half of this record's repertoire, Ricky Skaggs aches on the gospel chestnut "Talk About Suffering," while The Chieftains echo him on flute and harp. This traditional tune's haunting, minor-key melody suggests that its origins might lie in the Southern "shape-note" religious singing tradition.
Allison Moorer provides a soulful, mournful rendition of the lovely "Hick's Farewell." The "Hicks" of the title is said to have been an evangelist in Tennessee who sent the poem home to his wife in South Carolina. William Walker provided the tune in 1835 and introduced it in the hymnal Southern Harmony. The musical bridge by Paddy gives new life to the song and is evidently closely related.
The voice which introduces this tune is none other than the legendary great Chet Atkins. Chet picks guitar alongside The Chieftains on "Chief O'Neill's Hornpipe." The tune was supposedly the favorite of Francis O'Neill, a Chicago Chief of Police of the 1890s. This collaboration was originally recorded for the 1992 Chieftains project Another Country, and fits splendidly on Further Down the Old Plank Road.
Doc Watson provides this album with its most dazzling instrumental display. His fleet-lingered guitar work on "Fisherman's Hornpipe" sets a pace that has The Chieftains scampering along in time. This famous tune seems to have appeared around the turn of the last century in both Ireland and the U.S.
The merry Nitty Gritty Dirt Band collaboration here is "The Squid Jiggin' Ground," a ditty that apparently originated in Newfoundland, Canada to the tune of the Irish jig "Larry O'Gaff." The newest song on Further Down the Old Plank Road is Carlene Carter's sprightly "Bandit of Love" It appeared initially on her visionary 1980 LP Musical Shapes. The Chieftains pair her performance with their own "The Cheatin' Waltz."
At the other end of the spectrum are songs that are practically as old as Ireland herself. The mountain wail of Patty Loveless conveys the anguish of "Three Little Babes." Sung throughout the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains in America, it is a variant of the ancient British/Irish song "The Wife of Usher's Well," known in folklore circles as Child Ballad #79. The song assigned Child Ballad #200 by folk scholars is sung in Ireland as "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy." Dating from at least 1720, it is also known variously as "Gypsy Laddie"and "Gypsy Rover," as well as by other titles. Few renditions are as moving as the one Nickel Creek presents here.
Country baritone Don Williams gives a gentle, deliberate reading of the pretty "Wild Mountain Thyme." A staple in the folk repertoire of Ireland and Scotland, this enduring favorite was written by Scotsman Robert Tannahill around 1742. Dobro master Jerry Douglas blends seamlessly with The Chieftains on the Irish instrumental "Rose Catha Na Mumhain." The result sounds like nothing so much as an "Irish hoedown."
Joe Ely has the perfect voice of "a rambler and a gambler." He totally inhabits the character of "The Moonshiner," a breed we find on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite the mention of "a shilling" in these Chieftains-backed lyrics, it's easy to hear how closely related "The Moonshiner" is to cowboy Tex Ritter's "Rye Whiskey" country hit of 1948.
In "The Lily of the West" an Irishman murders his rival for the beautiful Flora's love. She betrays him, and although he is sentenced to die, he loves her still. The flowing energy in Rosanne Cash's performance of this song with The Chieftains is one of this collection's many high points.
Whether it's a murder ballad or a hornpipe, this is music that unites our cultures in a profound way. And whether in a studio in Nashville or on a stage in Dublin, The Chieftains communicate in a universal language.
Robert K. Oermann
Nashville, TN
