The Parade

Paddy Moloney, leader of The Chieftains, plays the tin whistle and uilleann pipes, but last night, in addition to those accomplishments he played traffic cop when he basically diverted a huge portion of yesterday's New York City
St. Patrick's Day Parade onto the stage at Carnegie Hall for a thunderous finale of Irish song, dance, bagpipes and drums.  Being a bit of a wee fellow himself, when it was over he just disappeared into the crowd he had created to hopefully plan it again.

Mr. Moloney and The Chieftans have been at this type of entertainment for 50 years, but last night be might have topped anything he has done before. He created such an air of joy that it might well have been impossible to comment with regret about the audience that was Conga-lined onto the stage, with one overweight ham--in an solid orange sweater no less--thinking he was the center of attention. For some people, he might have been.

It's easy to understand how Paddy and his band have been around for so long. He does some of the work himself, but delegates well to the very accomplished, assembled musicians, singers and dancers, who last night included the core of the band, Kevin Conneff, Sean Keane and Matt Malloy, along with Jon Pilatzke, Triona Marchall, Jeff White, Deanie Richardson, Alyth McCormack, Cara Butler, Nathan Pilatzke, along with the group, The Low Anthem.

After 50 years, does one Chieftans' concert resemble another? Sure, but you'll never care.

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