Customer Reviews

Fire in the Kitchen

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Chieftains' collaborations with other artists have been a mixed bag, but this album is terrific all the way through. Here they take a back seat to their guests, providing support, polish, and an occasional haunting enhancement (e.g., a vocal or flute obbligato) to the main event. The results are always good, and sometimes smashing -- I never thought that old kindergarten staple "My Bonnie" could be memorable, but Laura Smith transforms it into a moving account of loss and memory in a Cape Breton landscape you can almost reach out and touch. The selections by Mary Jane Lamond and Natalie MacMaster are outstanding, Great Big Sea and the Rankins are a kick in the pants, Ashley Mac Isaac gets back to basics, and the final track with La Bottine Souriante will have you out of your armchair and dancing.
While mainland Celtic music has suffered over the centuries from being successively suppressed, Mendelssohn-ized, Victorianized, and now New-Age-synthesized, the isolated Celtic communities in Canada have stayed in touch with the music's home-grown roots. So the young artists coming out of this tradition give the old tunes a gusto and freshness that's often lacking in the cookie-cutter performances of "trad" music -- I was reminded at times of the Bothy Band's first album. This CD does an admirable job of conveying these artists' energy and high spirits, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Chieftains are to Irish/Celtic music what the Rolling Stones are to rock 'n' roll. They both began their recording careers in the mid-sixties and are both innovators and standard-bearers.

Fire in the Kitchen--their fifth album of the 90s--is a sheer delight. As uilleann pipes master Paddy Moloney states in his liner notes, they didn't set out to record an album in Canada. "...it gives me no small amount of joy to know that the 'Kitchen Party' is still alive and well. It was in the spirit of these very same wild and unpredictable seesions, not so very removed from our own Irish 'hooleys' that this album was conceived." Fire in the Kitchen features a variety of Candaian artists and the joy of these session clearly shines throughout the entire album.

The proceedings start off fairly somber until midway through the opening medley things kick into high gear with the rollocking "Madame Bonaparte/Devli's Dream/Mason's Apron." The Rankins are featured on "An Innis Aigh" with its lovely vocal harmonies. "Lukey/Lukaloney" features Great Big Sea, a song guaranteed to set your feet to dancing.

I'd always considered "My Bonnie" to be a happy-go-lucky song, but in Laura Smith's rendition in becomes a song of yearning and heartache.

Track after track, whether covering jigs or reels or ballads, the Chieftains show why they are the leading proponent of Irish music, and the intimate sound of these recordings only adds to the traditional appeal of these songs.

If, like me, you didn't have the good fortune to be born Irish, you can do the next best thing and play this album over and over again. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Paddy Moloney & the Chieftains travelled around Canada jamming & with some of the finest traditional musicians on this side of the planet (N. America). They roamed about Halifax, Nova Scotia; stopped near Toronto, Ontario; did a hop, skip & jump to Montreal, Quebec and even visited Newfoundland, to collaborate and collect wild, raucous, party music *just* for our listening pleasure. They succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations.

Leahy burns the first set of tunes with so much fire and smoke that no one wants to put it out. "Madame Bonaprte/Devil's Dream/Mason's Apron" lights the first fire, with an unmatched medley, played on fiddles, guitar, bass, piano, mandolin and drums. They demonstrate just how they catapulted to center stage & why they will always remain there. The hauntingly beautiful voices of the Rankin sisters will melt the coldest of hearts, truly inspirational ... The clear, crisp voice of Laura Smith with her unique rendition of "My Bonnie" gives off sparks, ready to ignite anything within hearing distance. Ashley McIsaac on fiddle accompanied by guitar leaves nothing standing in her path ... Natalie MacMaster "burns the house down" playing with her inimitable style and step dancing as she does it. "A Mhairi Bhoidheach" sung by Mary Jane Lamond will bring smokey tears to anyone's eyes. "La Bottine Souriante" from Quebec, gives us the final searing finishing touch, as they play "Le Lys Vert" on trombone, accordion, fiddles, saxophone, trumpet, mandolin, and piano. This CD keeps exploding with so much fire and smoke you just don't want the music to stop! It is one of the best complilations of Canadian Celtic music that money can buy! Erika Borsos (erikab93)

I bought this CD for ONE song (the Ennis sister's 'Red is the Rose'),but the whole CD is an absolute delight!! You can just feel the smoke and the heat coming off of this wonderful group of musicians! One moment you will find yourself tapping your toes and dancing a jig in your head to 'Rattlin'Roarin'Willie' and 'Lukey/Lukaloney' , and the next you'll be carried back to the ancient land of the Celts with haunting tunes like 'An Innes Aigh' & 'A Mhairi Bhoidheach'. A wonderful collection!

In the old tradition of kitchen parties, the collaboration between the Chieftans and about nine other Celtic performing groups was conceived in a kitchen in Halifax, Canada.

What started as a jam session turned out to be a veritable stone soup with various artists contributing and making a recording clearly representative of the talent that is harboured true North strong and free.

Ranging from firey fast numbers such as Madame Bonapart/Devil's Dream/Mason's Apron opener, to An Innis Aigh, which is gorgeously beautiful in its simplicity and expressiveness, Fire in the Kitchen delivers a full-course meal of Celtic music and leaves the listener veritably stuffed at the end.

It is a delightful 53 minutes and 23 seconds, with no track to my displeasure. I look forward to more recordings of this energy and candor.

I picked this recording sort of on a lark and I am definately not sorry I did. Although I have listened to The Chieftains for quite a few years, I never really listened to any serious collaborations. It is through this medium that I first heard The Rankins and Leahy. Both groups are now a part of my CD collection.....by the way, Leahy will knock your socks off, and after hearing The Rankins; you will not forget that sound. I didn't care for The Black Veil as far as collaborations are concerned, but Tears Of Stone was a great showcase for various talent. It is through this medium that I first heard the beauty that is Lorenna McKennitt's voice....I ended up buying almost all her recordings. Perhaps, I'll check out their collaboration with Linda Rondstadt and Los Lobos.

Another of the Chieftain's brief stops on their journey to bring Celtic music round the world....or more to the point, to prove that Ireland is everywhere and in every tongue. I was a bit disappointed to find this wasn't a live recording; it looks it from the cover photo. But never mind. The guest artists couldn't be better: La Bottine Souriante, Great Big Sea, Natalie McMaster are all here, bringing us Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Quebec sounds. The Ennis sisters deliver a "Red Is the Rose" (to the tune of "Loch Lomond") so sweet that I'd bet butter wouldn't melt in your mouth if it doesn't bring a tear to your eye. And move back the chairs and get ready to dance some jigs and reels when Leahy or Ashley MacIsaac take over ("Devil's Dream" has always been a favorite tune of mine to contra dance to). Always, of course, we have Paddy Malone and the boys as the world's greatest backup band, on traditional harp, pipes, fiddle, and more.

I want to point out one special song on this collection, because it's normally the type of thing on a Chieftains CD I dislike, because it seems to distract from the traditional purpose. Laura Smith turns in a modern version of "My Bonnie" that starts out as a typical pop vocal. She plays with the original lyrics and melody in a playful rubato. The musicians back her up, in the expected manner, as she adds a verse of her own adhering to the traditional melody. The chorus returns. Then suddenly, as the musicians play the verse a bit louder, she begins a beautiful descant, with a different rythm and melody:

"Soon there will be no difference between the land and the water/
I can walk out on the ice to places I've never been/
When I can get as far as I can go I can throw my cares over my shoulder/
Along with my memory or just let it flow down the Golf Stream
and I'll walk on singing /My Bonnie...."

It brings goosebumps. But what else would you expect in the Great White North?

This really is a magnificent compilation of Canadian/Celtic music - from slow, sweet melodies to kick-up-your-heels fiddle tunes. There's not a bad song in the bunch. I highly recommend buying it - you won't be sorry.

Having had a slight ear for Irish music(being a beginning fiddler myself), I picked up this CD hoping that there might be a couple awesome tunes that would appeal to me. My ears were numb from the pleasure before the first song was even over. The pyrotechnics of the violin and its back-and-forth play with the rest of the instrumentalists were simply first rate, and the song "Fingal's Cave" had me bowing in front of my CD player declaring, "I'm not worthy!" The vocals on this album are also extremely sonorous and heart-wrenching. I was sobbing over "Red is the Rose," and mystified by the foriegn words sung in some of the other songs. If you ever thought you might like a little Celtic music, pick this CD up. I was sure glad I did!

This album may have been marketed as a Chieftains album, but seeing as they don't even have one track that is soley theirs, I really don't see how it can be listed as being a Chieftains album. Ok, so it was produced by Paddy Maloney, and The Chieftains do provide minor background instrumentals on most of the tracks, (but not with any big contribution), but really...is that enough for it to be called a Chieftains album? I think not. This is an album of terrific Canadian artists, that happen to have The Chieftains guesting on it. In fact The Chieftains aren't even mentioned on the album cover, front or back. Anyway, that asides; this is a fantastic album. The fast songs will make you want to get up and dance til you drop. Every song here is traditional celtic music, and all are either a lot of fun, or heart-touching. This is East Coast music at it's best, and really a tribute to those old settlers who arrived in Canada from Scotland or Ireland (not forgetting France either, as there is a traditional French song also on this album) hundreds of years ago.