New year, new release (and a few ‘buy it now’ last chances) from The Tape Project

Posted on by Dave Denyer

If you’re subscribed to The Tape Project’s newsletter then you’ll be up to speed on this already. If not, read on.

New tape release: The Chieftains’ The Foxhunt, Live in San Francisco

Bear’s Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973 from The Tape Project

A new title from The Tape Project is always an exciting event, and this one just happens to be a recording of what is (or was) a very cool event indeed.

It’s Bear’s Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973, recorded live at the Boarding House in San Francisco on 1st October of that year.

The Chieftains, who formed in 1962, were just about to break big when this live album was recorded. This was their first ever US tour and the gig in question was an unscheduled one, following an invitation by Jerry Garcia to open for his bluegrass band Old & In the Way.

From this point forward, The Chieftains went on to become the best known proponents of traditional Irish folk music worldwide – so much so that in 1989 the Irish government awarded them the honorary title of ‘Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors’! The band blended tradition with modernity and added a contemporary and international twist to create their own distinctive sound, releasing more then 40 albums and winning six Grammy Awards along the way.

In February 2019, The Chieftains embarked on an extensive ‘Irish Goodbye’ farewell tour covering Europe, Canada and the USA, but it was sadly interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even more sadly, in October 2021 the band’s co-founder and leader Paddy Moloney suddenly died at age 83 after a short illness. His daughter Aedin said that he had died of a broken heart because he couldn’t perform during the pandemic and had never recovered from the sense of isolation.

Rewinding back to happier times in October 1973, Owsley Stanley was set to record Garcia’s set, and fortuitously he recorded The Chieftains’ set too. The Garcia recording was released shortly afterwards to great acclaim – by all account it was a terrific recording that captured that full-throttle energy of a brilliant live performance in a great venue. The Chieftains’ recording was released as an album on vinyl, CD and digital download in 2022 to celebrate the band’s 60 years.

The Tape Project says, “This recording doesn’t resemble some audiophile recordings, which have each instrument carefully sculpted and occupying its own space. This recording is much more about putting you right in the middle of the room with a band and an audience who are having a rollicking good time. In short, there’s a party in your listening room, and you’re invited. Just cue up Reel One, grab a Guinness, and hit play.”

You can join the party for $500, just head over to  https://tapeproject.com/product/the-chieftains-the-foxhunt/to grab your ‘ticket’.

A bunch of last chances

The folks at The Tape Project have also announced that they’ll be letting some of their older titles go out of print when current stocks run out, so if any of these are on your want list, order them now:

The company says that it will keep making a few of its other older titles, but will do so in response to demand i.e. they’ll do short runs when they have enough requests.

The Tape Project says that these changes are designed to let them focus more on new projects, and the newsletter offers this little teaser: “We have decided to focus our company more on what we can do best. This refers to new titles of course, but we also have some other ideas which we’ll be able to talk about when we launch them.”

Sounds exciting – I’ll be watching this space!