Artist: The Chieftains Featuring Ry Cooder

Album: San Patricio

Grade: A

Label: Fantasy/Concord

As if Ireland's Chieftains aren't historic enough, having been passionate purveyors of traditional Irish music since 1962, they present a compelling history lesson in the form of 19 songs, together running just over an hour on their new CD.

San Patricio, brought to audible life with the help of fellow musical historian Ry Cooder, tells the true story of a group of Irishmen settled in the United States who dared to follow their convictions and fight alongside Mexico's troops during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. So the disc brilliantly pairs the Chieftains, led by the tireless Paddy Moloney, with a slew of Mexican artists such as Lila Downs, Los Tigres del Norte, Los Cenzontles, Los Folkloristas, among others, and even Linda Ronstadt, who is of Mexican-American descent.

The beauty of San Patricio is how seamlessly, authentically the Irish instrumentation blends with the Mexican musicianship. Uilleann pipes mingle with mariachi violins, then tin whistle with accordion, for example. They all share microphones with the same harmony that Moloney, Cooder and company hope bonded the Irishmen and the Mexicans centuries ago.

San Patricio shows that diverse nationalities, languages and musical genres share common ground.

Gary Allan, Get Off on the Pain (MCA Nashville) – Honky-tonk country deftly meets rock grit once again with sobering results on Allan's eighth studio album.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beat the Devil's Tattoo (Vagrant) – Shoe-gaze fuzz mingles with back-porch country on the band's fifth effort.

Miguel Bosé, Cardio (Warner Music Latina) – A dozen new tunes from one of Latin music's most refreshingly talented and enigmatically poetic singer-songwriters.

Gorillaz, Plastic Beach (Virgin) – England's big-selling virtual band returns with its third studio disc, which features guests such as Lou Reed, Bobby Womack and Snoop Dogg.

Jimi Hendrix, Valleys of Neptune (Sony Legacy) – Billed as the late guitar legend's sought-after unreleased CD, it includes 10 previously unavailable songs recorded in early 1969.

Ludacris, Battle of the Sexes (DTP/Def Jam) – More than a year in the making, the Atlanta rapper's guest-filled seventh studio project finally arrives.

Former Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky gathered a banquet hall full of musicians, including four of his Beulah buddies, for his ambitious solo debut, The Desert of Shallow Effects (Majordomo). Kurosky effortlessly blends electric guitars and timpani, banjos and French horns, synthesizers and flutes, to name a few. It's an intriguing disc that's at once moody, spacey, rocking, poppy and eclectic.

Patti Austin sings jazz, R&B, pop and the proverbial phonebook, too. She's a superb song stylist. The Irving Symphony Orchestra presents her in concert Saturday at the Irving Arts Center.