The outstanding Irish-American band Solas plays a rich blend of time-honored Irish music, distinctive originals, and the occasional well-chosen cover, weaving together a tapestry of influences from folk, country, jazz, and traditional music from around the world. The Boston Herald trumpeted the quartet as “the first truly great Irish band to arise from America,” the Washington Post dubbed them one of the “world’s finest Celtic-folk ensembles,” and the Austin American-Statesman called them “the standard by which contemporary Celtic groups are judged.” Since its inception in New York City 18 years ago, the band has released 11 acclaimed albums, appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, and won the award for Best Celtic Recording from the Association for Independent Music three times.
With founding member Seamus Egan on flute, tenor banjo, mandolin, whistles, guitars, and bodhran, founding member Winifred Horan on violins and vocals, Mick McAuley on accordions, low whistle, concertina, and vocals, Eamon McElholm on guitars, keyboards, and vocals, and newest member Noriana Kennedy on lead vocals, the band arrives at the Freight in the midst of their most ambitious project to date, Shamrock City, an album and film exploring the rough and tumble world of Butte, Montana at the turn of the twentieth century, when it was known as Shamrock City because of all the Irish immigrants who sought work there. One such immigrant was Seamus’s great-great-uncle Michael Conway, who left Cobh in County Cork, sailed to Philadelphia, and made his way to Butte, where, after six years of laboring in the copper mines, he was killed at the age of 25 by a blow to the head. The band, which takes its name from the Gaelic word for light, will perform new music that illuminates not only the experience of Michael Conway, but also the larger experience of Irish workers in the American industrial revolution, as well as the situation facing immigrants in this country today. Folk Alley has called the show “a deeply thoughtful, imaginative collection of songs which grapple with the wealth of ideas and emotions inherent in the immigrant journey.”
The outstanding Irish-American band Solas plays a rich blend of time-honored Irish music, distinctive originals, and the occasional well-chosen cover, weaving together a tapestry of influences from folk, country, jazz, and traditional music from around the world. The Boston Herald trumpeted the quartet as “the first truly great Irish band to arise from America,” the Washington Post dubbed them one of the “world’s finest Celtic-folk ensembles,” and the Austin American-Statesman called them “the standard by which contemporary Celtic groups are judged.” Since its inception in New York City 18 years ago, the band has released 11 acclaimed albums, appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, and won the award for Best Celtic Recording from the Association for Independent Music three times.
Visit Solas's website
