Great St. Paddy’s Records: Van & the Chieftains' Irish Heartbeat

That time of year is upon us when it’s good and proper to mention to all your American friends that your dad’s great grandmother’s cousin came over from the homeland during the famine, and your lineage has ever since been nurtured through infancy on warm stout and brownbread.

To celebrate this season, we’ll be bringing you seven to ten (I haven’t finished the list) records which make for a great soundtrack to the month of March. They may not be the best records ever to come out of the isle (in fact, some may not have come from olde Eire at all) and they may not be the best examples of Celtic music, but we love them no less, and we hope you will too. And so, in no particular order, let’s begin the week with the golden voice that is Van Morrison and a backing band who can’t be separated from the sod their sounds embody.

Van Morrison and the Chieftains – Irish Heartbeat

First, because I’m lazy, an overview via Wikipedia:

The album consists of eight traditional Irish songs, plus re-workings of the Morrison songs “Celtic Ray” (which first appeared on 1982's Beautiful Vision) and the title track “Irish Heartbeat” (which first appeared on 1983's Inartiulate Speech of the Heart).

The tracklist gives Van a chance to spread out and show off, getting laid back and upbeat on "Marie’s Wedding," heart-wrenchingly theatric on "Raglan Road," and, of course, awesomely melodramatic on "My Laglan Love." Van aside, the Chieftains more than hold their own between those soulful verses, sounding as tight and bright as they have on any of their own records.

To me, this is one of the most successful collaborations in modern roots music, and I wholeheartedly recommend it as a great disc for St. Patrick’s Day or any day.

Download:
“Marie’s Wedding” (Mediafire link)