"It was a great night," Paddy Moloney, the Uilleann piper and chief Chieftain, says of the icy musical performance, which included guest stars ranging from Dan Akroyd on harmonica to Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster to Art Garfunkel. The non-musical Highlight? Maloney got to clamber down from the ship to survey the frozen landscape. "We said hello to the penguins," he adds, chuckling, "then we left."

Tromping around the world and sitting down with a wide variety of musicians is pretty much routine for the Chieftains. This year will see them tour with Tuvan throat singers as well as play with the Toronto Orchestra. And Moloney recently recorded a Christmas album with his mates, augmented by the Harlem Gospel Choir, the Vatican Orchestra, Norwegian vocalist Sissel, Italian star Zucchero, and the Bulgarian Voices Angelite.

Chieftains' latest album, WATER FROM THE WELL, provides the antidote to so much hustle with a good, strong drink of Irish tradition, straight up. Moloney says it was the end of a ten-year plan for the group. "I thought I'd turn it around," he says, noting that the band's prior releases have had guests ranging from Mick Jagger to Rickie Lee Jones and incorporated music from Spain to Nashville. "It's basically a musical tour of Ireland," Moloney said. "Nothing fancy -- just good, solid stuff."

WATER FROM THE WELL returns the Chieftains to traditional Irish roots music, albeit arranged in the band's inimitable style. The result answers the prayers of Irish music fans who've pined for the day when Paddy and the boys would return to the source of their renown. Still, old habits are hard to change. The Chieftains found no shortage of local talent eager to jam, in the Irish seisun spirit. When they went to Donegal, Celtic standard-bearers Altan wanted to join in, even though singer Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh had gotten married the night before. "We just went for it," Paddy explains.

That's the thing about the Chieftains -- they always go for it. For the last ten years, they've unveiled a flurry of collaborative albums that explored other musical cultures. "Making the connection," Moloney calls it, pointing to ANOTHER COUNTRY, where the Chieftains went to Nashville to record with stars such as Chet Atkins, Nanci Griffith, and Emmylou Harris. Or 1996's SANTIAGO, where the group played with musicians from Spain's Celtic region, Galicia, and traveled to Havana, Cuba.

Ending their 20th-century odyssey at its beginning, the Chieftains re-released their first four albums, recorded on the Claddagh label, in 1999. The box set THE CLADDAGH YEARS sheds light on the origins to which the now-famous band is returning. Back in 1962, Moloney recalls, the Irish music scene was "very limited." Traditional music was pretty much the sole province of fleadhs, or local musical festivals, "where you might get only 200 people," Moloney remembers. "Now some festivals get a quarter of a million people." Traditional music was alive but not well regarded, according to Paddy. "If you were seen walking down the street with a violin or some other traditional instrument, you'd get a dreadful slagging from your mates."

In such adverse conditions, the Chieftains' traditional bent was something of an insurgency. Recording old tunes in a small-band format using only the most traditional Irish instruments, they steered clear, for the most part, of vocals (until inviting Dolores Keane to sing with them in 1976). "We had a dreadful problem with purists," Moloney adds, since they weren't a ceilidhdance band or a big orchestra. "It was very revolutionary," he says.

Like the good Irish instrumentalists they are, the Chieftains can and did let loose. And as both WATER FROM THE WELL and THE CLADDAGH YEARS amply demonstrate, they deliver fleet jigs and reels with the best of them. But early on, their musicality took a different path. As a composer, Moloney preferred to tell musical stories, re creating the energy of a foxhunt, for example, or a battle scene. These unlikely pop stars climbed the charts, hitting No.1 with "Morning Dew" in 1974.

Thirty-eight years later, the Chieftains tour nonstop, often featuring up-and-coming guest stars. They have given boosts to many performers, from Michael "Lord of the Dance" Flatley to piper Carlos Nuñez to Riverdance fiddler Eileen Ivers. "It's very encouraging," Moloney says. "We try to help as much as we can." That's the sentiment behind the Celtic kingpin's record label, Wicklow, which lends a hand to artists from all over the world. The label began when Moloney produced Nuñez's album. The Chieftains' company, BMG, "wanted to keep it in the family," Moloney says. Another early project was a jaunt to eastern Canada to record Cape Breton and Quebecois artists such as Ashley MacIsaac and La Bottine Souriante. "Of course, the lads came along," Moloney says with a laugh, recounting jam sessions for FIRE IN THE KITCHEN. Wicklow has since released albums from the Finnish four-part harmony group Värttina, Cape Breton singer Mary Jane Lamond, and Alpha Yaya Diallo of Guinea.

"It's coming at me from every which way," Moloney says of the musical requests that pour in, adding that he recently produced the soundtrack to Anjelica Huston's directorial debut, AGNES BROWNE. "I couldn't say no to her!" the chief Chieftain explains. Now, with touring and press for WATER FROM THE WELL just beginning, the question is, when will the Chieftains get to rest? "It's fairly frightening," Moloney jokes. "We can't slow up. We have to stay ahead of the pack."

Marty Lipp