San Patricio

  
I recently listened to an interview of Paddy Moloney, leader of the famous Irish band, The Chieftans.

The Chieftans have a long and heralded history, and their music is often the first thing that comes to mind when one speaks of traditional Irish folk music. Their most recent project, however, took them outside of Ireland to a much warmer and seemingly different country.

The Chieftans recently released an album called "San Patricio," which is an international collaboration that combines Irish folk music with traditional Mexican music. Although the two styles would appear to have nothing in common at first glance, The Chieftans successfully blend the two musical traditions together to tell the tale of the San Patricio battallion from the Mexican-American War in the 1840s. These soldiers were disaffected Irish-Americans who decided to fight with the Mexicans after feeling convicted that they had more in common with the Catholic Mexican soldiers they were fighting against than the Americans from whom they had received brutal treatment and discrimination. Their fight for what they saw as social justice came to an end in grim defeat, but The Chieftans hope to continue their story through the blending of Irish and Mexican music.

As an American with an Irish ancestry, and as a former San Antonio citizen who spent a significant amount of time in a city with a considerable Mexican cultural influence, I am intrigued about the Chieftans' latest project and interested to hear how the two styles blend together. The brief sound clips that I heard proved to be enjoyable and very unique, and I'll look forward to hearing more about the project.