The Chieftains have lived out a paradox over their nearly thirty-year history. Though the group was originally formed to keep alive a centuries-old musical heritage, its members continually find new ways to prove how much Irish music has in common with other traditions. This assimilating power is very much in evidence on An Irish Evening, which documents a live show from Belfast with cameo vocal appearances by Nanci Griffith and Roger Daltrey.

The record captures the irresistible spirit of a Chieftains concert, opening with the slow, delicate sound of Derek Bell's harp backed by the whispering drone of Paddy Moloney's uilleann pipes. But when the bodhrán marches in, the mood quickly turns upbeat, wheeling through double-time passages into a reeling, jigging dance of fiddles, pipes and flute. Kevin Conneff sings the emigrant ballad "North Americay"; "Lilly Bolero" and "The White Cockade" are combined into a spirited instrumental; then Griffith joins in to sing her own "Little Love Affairs" and the traditional "Red Is the Rose" in her idiosyncratic country voice.

Matt Molloy plays a virtuoso flute solo to kick off "The Mason's Apron," which gives way to a rollicking version of "The Stone." A wild account of a trip to the races ("The Galway Races") turns up the heat for Daltrey, whose facility with high notes is put to the test on the haunting ballad "Raglan Road."

But nothing could prepare the listener for this evening's version of "Behind Blue Eyes." The band's arrangement is the greatest example of its musical adaptability. Daltrey sings it straight, with Billy Nichols adding Pete Townshend's harmonies, but instead of crashing guitars there's a florid interlace of pipes, fiddles and harp strummings, with the stirring bodhrán punctuating dramatically in the kind of dynamic flux that was central to the Who's sound.

Daltrey jokes on the record about people with antique guitars someday playing Who songs, but the Chieftains prove affectingly that every music stays alive as long as the players believe in it. (RS 625)

JOHN SWENSON