Chieftains Build on Evergreen Appeal

The Chieftains have been a world-music staple for nearly four decades, and they play the Southland with great regularity. Given all that exposure, yet another concert by the Irish ensemble might easily trigger a been-there, done-that reaction. Yet their shows are consistently sold out to enthusiastic crowds.

Why such a spirited response? The reasons were obvious in the first of a pair of concerts Sunday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

There was, first of all, the leprechaun-like presence and witty commentary of piper and spokesman Paddy Moloney. Then there was the large body of music the Chieftains have at their beck and call. In this case, it was material from their latest album, “Water From the Well,” the Grammy-winning “The Long Black Veil,” and their fascinating Galician collection “Santiago,” as well as an array of classic traditional tunes.

For many groups, that would be more than enough. But Moloney always top-loads his programs with attention-getting guests--in this case, singer-songwriter Joan Osborne and Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster. Osborne’s appropriately velvety voice sounded superb on “Raglan Road,” “Foggy Dew” and a single, sardonic chorus of the blues. (Her 1995 hit, “One of Us,” did not make the set list, to the disappointment of some in the crowd.) The only flaw in the program was the failure to give more space to the vivacious fiddling and step dancing of MacMaster. One number simply wasn’t sufficient.

But the Chieftains, filling every nook and cranny in the program, needed space to bring on several pairs of traditional dancers, concluding, as they often do, with the appearance of several colorfully garbed, step-dancing youngsters. It was an appropriate climax to a typical Chieftains bill--one with a little something for everyone.