Solas

by John O'Regan

For such a new brand, the talents that make up Solas have seen many parts of the musical world. From Dublin and Waterford via Mayo, Clare Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia to their focus point of New York. They have been around far longer individually than the combination of their talents. For Solas' 18 months of activity so far, names like Seamus Egan, John Williams, Winifred Horan and John Doyle have been part of the Irish music vocabulary Stateside. Now with singer Karen Casey they have formed a group of which the intrigue factor is as high as the critical plaudits are plentiful. Earl Hitchner wrote in 'The Irish Echo': "Solas is the rarest of all Irish bands - able to play traditional music with the best of them and also perform original music with exceptional style and imagination. Solas has to be ranked among one of the most exciting Irish bands anywhere in the World."

John Doyle, Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan and John Williams have all played together before, but Karan Casey is something of a new face to all this. Her clear, pure voice is a revelation and marks her out as an exciting new prospect. Seamus Egan takes up the story concerning their foundation: "I guess it pretty much just naturally evolved through getting calls to get a group together for a couple of festivals a couple of summers ago. I'd been playing with John Doyle on and off for years in different line ups (including a 1992 version of The Chanting House with both Susan McKeown and Eileen Ivers which toured Ireland) and Win at the time was with Cherish the Ladies. For this one festival Win, myself, John Doyle and John Williams went up and played with one another and there was a decent enough response. So over the next few months Karen, who lives on the same street that Win and myself are on, we met up and hang out and decided to have a go."

Winfried Horan also plays with Sharon Shannon's band of late in place of Mary Custy. I asked her how that came about: "The thing with Sharon came up last fall and I did a few tours with them and whenever they need me and whenever I can, I go over, but Solas is happening at home."

With all the musicians bar one being in New York and pursuing the lives of professional status, was it difficult to get time to get together and rehearse? Winfried again: "Its not too difficult at all as regards practices, we do a lot of playing over the phone to John Williams in Chicago, but whenever we get the chance to go out for gigs or on tour we try to make the best of it."

John Williams' Chicago-style box and concertina playing adds a welcome dash to a predominantly Boston-New York mix - especially Seamus, Win and John Doyle's playing. The Chicago style is quite different to that of New York, a theory John Doyle agrees with.

"It's a different ballgame to New York music, New York music is like urban chaos (laughs) while Chicago is a bit less of that. It has a different rhythm, different time and a different way of approaching the tune. Martin Hayes lived there for a bit and he's defined his music as partly from Chicago and partly from Clare, and John Williams has played with Martin a fair bit and John's playing is definitely a mixture of the two."

Though all have different lives musically outside the band, Solas is a serious project for all concerned. They are planning to cut their second album in December and are currently working on the material for it. They are also tentatively planning some live work here for early in the new year and that, should it happen, would be a mouth-watering prospect.