Chieftains bring Irish sound to New Jersey

Instead of calling it a night last week in East Lansing, Michigan, after two hours of traditional Irish folk, the Chieftains extended their concert by a half hour.

“It was our third night in a row playing a show,” Paddy Moloney said. “We had off the next day so we thought, ‘Why leave the stage?’ ”

Moloney, 77, who formed the Chieftains 53 years ago, still has plenty of energy.

“The music keeps me young,” Moloney explained while calling from Ann Arbor. “I love it. What am I going to retire to? I keep getting asked when I’m going to retire and I keep finding reasons to continue. I was asked to produce and arrange the grandchildren of the von Trapp family singers album. There’s too much to do to stop. I love being in the studio and I love performing. Every year we come to America in March and it’s the most wonderful time. Every show is different.”

In Lansing, more than 200 fans crashed the stage at the behest of Moloney.

“It was glorious,” Moloney said. “We do this when we have a big enough stage. We’ve packed the stage when we’ve played Carnegie Hall. A dancer comes out and brings people up on stage. When we perform it’s a big party.”

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However, the material can be solemn. The Chieftains, who have won six Grammy Awards and an Oscar for “Barry Lyndon” in 1975, are looking back at the 1916 rebellion in Ireland on its current tour.

“We have some songs that focus on that uprising,” Moloney said. It was devastating and it’s been 100 years since it happened. That’s Irish history. There’s the wonderful and the horrible. We’ll be doing ‘The Foggy Dew,’ which is what we recorded with Sinead O’Connor a few years ago (to mark the rebellion). We’ll be doing some spirited renditions. We’ll be doing a lot of things. We’ll be playing with some energy.”

Moloney and fellow original members, flautist Matt Molloy and drummer Kevin Conneff, continue to perform with verve.

“I get a jolt just going out there with Matt and Kevin,” Moloney said. “We love performing. We know each other so well. We have so many young dancers and musicians out with us. We get the adrenaline going from them. Performing with them is the easy part. The difficult part is coming up with a set list.”

That’s understandable. The Chieftains, which will perform tonight at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, have released 43 studio albums.

“It’s been such a pleasure spreading the word of traditional Irish music recording so much music,” Moloney said. “I grew up on Irish music during the ’50s and I just want as many people as possible to be touched by this music.”

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The well-respected Chieftains, who have played with such icons as Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson and Luciano Pavarotti, are beloved by the musical community.

“One of the highlights of my career was singing with the Chieftains,” Natalie Merchant said. “Who doesn’t love Paddy Moloney?”

Paul McCartney, who recorded with Moloney, is a big Chieftains fan.

“I had the honor of working with Paul and Stevie Wonder in 1980,” Moloney said. “Paul and Stevie were working on the b-side of ‘Ebony and Ivory,’ which was ‘Rainclouds,’ which is on his ‘Tug of War’ album. They brought me in. It was an incredible experience. The only thing was I was there in the studio when John Lennon was murdered. I’ll never forget Paul’s look of complete and total shock. What a nightmare to take somebody so brilliant from the world of entertainment.”

Not long after that experience, Moloney selected an unknown dancer from Chicago to join the Chieftains and as a result, added to the world of entertainment. That performer was Michael Flatley, who became the star and creator of “Riverdance.”

“That’s just one of the many wonderful things that came out of the Chieftains,” Moloney said. “It’s been that way for over a half-century. When I think about all that we’ve experienced, I’m just so proud. You combine that with how good I feel and I just don’t think there’s any reason for me to stop doing what I love with this group.”

THE CHIEFTAINS

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: The State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick

TICKETS: $35 to $75

INFO: 732-246-7469 or www.statetheatrenj.com