Word: conneff
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Chieftains have played traditional Irish music--half a millennium's worth of jigs and reels--on such contraptions as the tiompan, the uilleann pipes, the bodhran and the tin whistle. The only instrument they lacked was a charismatic human voice. It's true that one band member, Kevin Conneff, was given to "singing the odd song now and again, when we let him," as the Chieftains' chief, Paddy Moloney, said in 1991 on their Grammy-winning album An Irish Evening. Still, these gifted sidemen knew they could use a strong lead singer...
...Chieftains owe their existence to Guinness: in 1963 an heir to the company financed the band's first record. For years Moloney, an accountant, and the others kept their day jobs; some dropped out. Of the original five, only Moloney and fiddler Martin Fay remain; the others are Conneff (percussion), Sean Keane (second fiddle), Matt Molloy (flute) and Derek Bell (harp and keyboards), whose dour banker's visage is uncapped onstage to reveal a wily mischiefmaker. "We keep the humor going," says Moloney. "I grew up in an atmosphere where music was about happiness and song." But the group...