The Chieftains are coming to Ames, and if front man Paddy Maloney has anything to do with it, they’re going to tear the roof off Stephens Auditorium with truly old-school style.

The band plans to take the Celtic reels, jigs and airs they’ve been perfecting on the road for the last four decades to turn our big, old concert hall into an intimate gathering of friends.

Since 1963, in one form or another, The Chieftains have taken the traditional sounds of Ireland and broadcast them to the modern world. Far from old-fashioned, they have managed to show listeners of all ages that the music of the past is relevant to today’s audiences — perhaps more so.

In an era of high tech musicianship, The Chieftains rely mainly on wind, fingers and feet to create a high energy show that can pump up an audience as fast as any louder-than-hell techno band.

The driving force behind the band’s sound is the whaling of Paddy Maloney’s pipes. One can barely think “Irish Music” without that plaintive, old-world sound that brings tears to the eyes and joy to the heart with only a few notes.

You won’t hear anything on one of their CDs that the band cannot perform live either.

“The proof of the pudding is the public performance,” Maloney says, phoning from his Houston hotel room, hiding out from the sweltering Texas heat. “Is it gonna work on stage? I never do anything on the CD unless I can do it on the stage afterwards, and this has been just an amazing tour so far. We’re gonna give you the same show.”

In four decades, The Chieftains have not let one year pass without putting out an album, appearing on a soundtrack or working with any number of artists who line up for the chance to play with the band.

The Chieftains are so busy these days they even had to pass up a chance to play for President Clinton because of a prior commitment — to their fans.

“We were asked to go to the White House on Tuesday, [President Clinton’s] daughter has been to one of our shows at her university,” Maloney says. “But that was out of the question because of our show at Carnegie Hall.”

In his one day off in Houston, which Maloney says amounts to what he gets for a vacation these days, he speaks about the band’s unyielding schedule and the possibility of a break.

“We spoke about taking time off a year ago,” Maloney explains. “We’re only just home and then we’re going to South America and then to Italy and Van Morrison wants us to do another album with him and it just never stops.”

But Paddy Maloney wouldn’t have it any other way. While many musicians get pushed over the edge by hectic touring schedules and endless hours in the recording studio, The Chieftains thrive by keeping busy.

“I just love the whole profession,” he says. “It’s going so well for us at the moment and we’re playing better than ever. There is a spark there that’s even better than 20 years ago.”

Freshness is always a concern when performing traditional music. One of the ways the band keeps things fresh is by routinely working with a variety of artists eager to take their turn at Irish folk music.

The band’s latest album, “Tears of Stone” is a compilation of performances featuring female vocalists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt and Sinead O’Connor. Blending the modern with the traditional, The Chieftains show how all traditional forms of music have not disappeared but merely blended and evolved to become the popular forms of the day.

Another homespun touch The Chieftains plan to employ in Ames will be the inclusion of local musicians and dancers.

“If you have traditional dancers or musicians, we’d love to have them come down a couple hours before the show,” Maloney says. “We like to have people join in at the end of the show.”

It is this intimacy that makes even the biggest venues feel like a local pub show for The Chieftains.

“You have to see us live to see the real thing,” Maloney says. “We were playing in the Hamptons in a parochial hall of 600 people and that was fantastic, people were sitting in our laps, but even in the big orchestra halls we create that, people are coming up and it’s really magical.”

Still, there are some venues that leave Maloney cold.

“We played in a basketball arena in Pittsburgh, that was not one of my favorite places,” Maloney says. “Before we were big we would play these corporate gigs where people were drinking and they weren’t there to see us, it was absolutely horrible. I prefer it when people pay to come see us, that way we know what they’re there for.”

Other than sterile sports arenas and yuppie functions, the magic of the group’s live performance sweeps across national and ethnic boundaries speaking to something imbedded deeply in the hearts of people of all countries.

“About 20 years ago we were playing in Italy for the first time and they didn’t understand a word of the garbage I was saying until we started to play, and they were away with us,” he says, speaking of the places where the language of music is more important than words. “And Spain, we’re massive in Spain, we could be touring six months a year in Spain.”

Every show is different and the Ames concert will be no exception. Molly Fahy is a virtuoso fiddle player, dancer and singer currently on tour with The Chieftains. Until recently, she had been a guest performer in Riverdance.

“We have a very special guest fiddler player with us who has been guesting with the Riverdance show, and it’s my turn to take back some of what they took away from me,” Maloney says.

Anyone going to see the Chieftains can expect a night of Celtic magic with local talent and internationally famous virtuosos. The combined effect will undoubtedly leave you with a song in your heart and a memory that will last a lifetime.