The musical souls of two nations, Ireland and Mexico, are movingly brought to life in San Patricio, the latest international collaboration by six-time Grammy winners The Chieftains – the leading practitioners of Irish traditional music for the past four decades. The album features multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Ry Cooder, another multiple-Grammy winner, who co-produced with The Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney. It tells the nearly forgotten story of the brave San Patricio battalion – a downtrodden group of Irish immigrant conscripts who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side against the invading Yankees in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

The music blends Irish uilleann pipes, whistle and fiddles with Mexican guitars, banjo and trumpets, and the cast of singers ranges from Lila Downs and Linda Ronstadt to the extraordinary, passionate 90-year-old ranchero star, Chavela Vargas.

This is music of sorrow and celebration mingled, of triumph and tragedy, which makes new musical connections in the world, not unlike new synapses in the brain, that can never be undone. Recorded in studios, as noted by Moloney, from New York to Dublin to Los Angeles, this is a new chapter in world music, songs sung “in a thousand different voices, across dreams broken and begun again….” Stunning, and not to be missed.

1. La Iguana – with Lila Downs
2. La Golondrina – with Los Folkloristas
3. A la Orilla de un Palmar – with Linda Ronstadt
4. Danza de Concheros – with Los Folkloristas
5. El Chivo – with Los Cenzontles
6. San Campio – with Carlos Núñez
7. The Sands of Mexico – with Ry Cooder
8. Sailing to Mexico – with Carlos Núñez
9. El Caballo – with Los Camperos de Valles
10. March to Battle (Across the Rio Grande) – with Banda de Gaita de Batallón, Liam Neeson, Los Cenzontles and L.A. Juvenil
11. Lullaby for the Dead – with Moya Brennan
12. Luz de Luna – with Chavela Vargas
13. Persecución de Villa – with Mariachi Santa Fe de Jesus (Chuy) Guzman
14. Canción Mixteca (Intro) – with Ry Cooder
15. Canción Mixteca – with Los Tigres Del Norte
16. Ojitos Negros – with Los Cenzontles
17. El Relampago – with Lila Downs
18. El Pájaro Cu – with La Negra Graciana
19. Finale – with Los Cenzontles, Carlos Núñez, Los Folkloristas, Banda de Gaita de Batallón and L.A. Juvenil