FEATURE ARTICLE
Irish band Solas testing the limits of tradition
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 7, 1997) -- Trends and fads in music may come and go, but in folk, the popular lure of traditional Irish music never seems to wane. And with Altan and Solas, world-class ensembles comprised of young musicians keeping the flame alive while expanding the music's boundaries and taking it to new audiences, the future for Irish dance music and ballads looks secure well into the next century.
"It has joy and it has sorrow. It makes people dance and it makes people cry," said Seamus Egan of Irish music. The co-founder of Solas and one of the most critically-acclaimed Irish players in the world, Egan said that Irish music's lasting appeal is due to the music's accessibility. "You don't have to be Irish or have any connection to Ireland to get something from it," said Egan in a phone interview from his New York apartment, "nor do you have to know music to appreciate the fundamental elements of it or get it on an emotional level."
Egan and his bandmates in Solas will perform at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown tonight at 8 in the second concert of the Clark's "Four Fridays of Folk" series. Doors open at 7; tickets are general admission. For more information call 458-2303 x. 505.
Just two years old, Solas is already considered one of the world's top Irish bands. Its mix of Irish natives and Irish-American players, drawn from such groundbreaking groups as Chanting House, Cherish the Ladies, the Sharon Shannon Band, Green Fields of America and Atlantic Bridge, has earned it the sobriquet of "supergroup." Each member is a virtuoso in his own right; together, Solas is to Irish music what some of Miles Davis's groups were to jazz in the 1960s and '70s.
"Group situations are always a delicate balancing act between egos and what's good for the group," said Egan, who more than pulls his own weight in the group on flute, tin whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, bodhran and uilleann pipes. "One of the things that helps us is that we all do have other outlets for what we're doing creatively. So whatever we can't do in Solas we can do somewhere else."
Egan's outside ventures, for example, include his latest solo album, "When Juniper Sleeps" (Shanachie), which though based in Irish melodies, takes off in much more jazzy, experimental directions than anything heard on Solas's eponymous recording, also on Shanachie. The 27-year-old's other credits include music for films ("The Brothers McMullen," "Dead Man Walking") and guest stints on recordings by rock guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour, folksingers Peter, Paul and Mary, and bluegrass banjoist Alison Brown.
Though born in the U.S., Egan and his family moved back to his parents' native Ireland when he was still a toddler. It was there that he was exposed to Irish music, and he and his sister began playing in earnest. By the time he was 15, he had won the prestigious All-Ireland Championship on four separate instruments -- flute, tin whistle, banjo and mandolin -- something no one else has ever done.
Egan and his family moved back to Philadelphia when he was a teen-ager, and it was then that he hooked up with Mick Moloney and began performing with the loose assemblage of musicians in Green Fields of America. After a brief stint at Boston College, he joined Chanting House with Eileen Ivers, John Doyle and Susan McKeown. Ivers has since gone on to a thriving career fronting her own band, and McKeown continues to lead Chanting House as her own band.
Solas grew from the core of Doyle, who plays guitar, and Egan. The other members are fiddler Winifred Horan, John Williams, who plays concertina and button accordion, and vocalist Karan Casey, whose brand-new solo album, "Songlines" (Shanachie), was produced by Egan and showcases her jazz-influenced vocal training.
Solas is putting the finishing touches on its second album, which is due out later this spring. "We used slightly different instrumentation this time," said Egan, "more banjo and mandolin, and a fair bit of percussion. We wanted to have more depth to the sound."
Egan said that while Solas is seen as a tradition-oriented ensemble, there are really no ideological limits to what the group might do. "We would like it to be musically fresh and exciting and something that we would listen to ourselves," he said. "There's five people with five very different backgrounds coming together to make the sound of the group. There's plenty of approaches to take that we'll probably try, and I'm sure as time goes on we'll be doing more and more experimenting."
How far out might that experimentation go?
"I'd say probably to an extent that might horrify people," laughed Egan. "I think within the group the whole notion of what's traditional and what's not and if we're straying from it, we more or less look at the whole thing as not something that we're going to be bound by.
"More than anything, if something is musically interesting and has some validity, we're probably going to try it. It's more the music than the tradition that's dictating to us. It takes a while for a group to jell, particularly to find the voice and see how far that voice can stretch. I think we're getting to the stage where we're finding that voice, and beginning to stretch. I'd certainly say that in the months to come we'll be stretching further. I hope to, anyway."
[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 7, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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