So thoroughly identified are they with Irish music, that even when the Chieftains depart from the tradition--to collaborate with Chinese, country or pop musicians, for example--they lose not a drop of credibility in the process. On Tears of Stone, the group accompanies a bevy of internationally acclaimed female vocalists on traditional tunes with inventive new arrangements by Paddy Moloney. Sinead O'Connor and the Corrs remain close to their roots, while Bonnie Raitt, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Loreena McKennitt and Joan Osborne all sound more than convincingly Celtic. The best performances, however, are by those artists least attached to the tradition. Moloney's take on Joni Mitchell's "The Magdalene Laundries" outdoes the original; "Sake in the Jar", composed for Japanese pop star Akiko Yano, sounds like a new form of music altogether; and Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall's "Danny Boy" doesn't so much tug at the heartstrings as rip them out by the roots. --Richard Gehr