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'A Conversation With The Chieftains' featured as the Free Lunch on Tues., Nov 5

'A Conversation With The Chieftains' will be featured as the Free Lunch on Tuesday, November 5th at Noon.WUTC will feature 'A Conversation With The Chieftains' as the Free Lunch on Tuesday, November 5th at Noon.

This radio special will be hosted by The Chieftains founder Paddy Moloney. Paddy will be featuring music from The Chieftains new album, Down The Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions.
The Nashville Sessions album features The Chieftains playing alongside bluegrass and Americana greats such as John Hiatt, Bela Fleck, Buddy and Julie Miller, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett, Del McCoury and Gillian Welch. Paddy Moloney will trace the roots of Americana music back to its celtic origin.

Free Lunch is way for NPR Music 88 to give our listeners an opportunity to judge an album for themselves. WUTC airs an album in its entirety every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:05PM.

Here's what All Music Guide had to say about the new album:

In the wake of the success of O Brother Where Art Thou?, this collaboration between Irish supergroup the Chieftains and some of country's best known neo-traditionalists was almost inevitable. Luckily for all involved, the idea actually makes a lot of sense too. Most of the ballads and worksongs that were born in the Appalachian hills have deep roots in the traditional music of Scotland, England and Ireland, and crying fiddles, ringing banjos and tales of drunkenness, outlaws and loss are woven deeply into both cultures musical heritage. Through most of the tracks, the instrumentals work better than the vocal tracks, but the droning "Katie Dear" (performed by the impeccable Gillian Welch and David Rawlings) and Alison Krauss' mournful "Molly B?n" are both heartwrenching and beautiful no matter what continent they came from. Other highlights include Bela Fleck's firey banjo rolls on a trio of reels, and the underrated Patty Griffin's turn on the traditional "Whole Heap of Little Horses." While the interpretations on Down the Old Plank Road turn out to be successes, the sum of these collaborations aren't as good as the Chieftains doing what they do best: traditional Irish music with subtle contemporary flourishes. Still, anyone who enjoys the music of any of the guests on this release will be pleased with the entire package; sweet and mournful, historic and unprescedented, fun and engaging all rolled into one. ~ Zac Johnson, All Music Guide