Ireland and Irish America: twenty years of Solas and music

Twenty years ago. Think back a moment to where you were and what you were doing -- and how the past two decades have unfolded. Changes will be a constant, no doubt, whatever area of life draws your attention with these thoughts.

That has been true for the band Solas, too. When flute and banjo player Seamus Egan, guitarist John Doyle, fiddle player Winifred Horan and singer Karan Casey brought their varied backgrounds of in Irish music together in New York City in the mid 1990s, they were each working on other projects. They knew they liked the sound they were creating together, though, a sound which, both lyrically and melodically, drew on their experiences in both Ireland and North America. They knew they wanted to share what they were creating with wider audiences, too -- what they did not know is that they were at the start of becoming one of the most celebrated and influential groups in working in the music of Ireland and Irish America.

They decided to call themselves Solas, which means light in Irish. That’s been a true name, one that ties into the energy with which they present their music and the discoveries they make in it and share with their listeners. Miles and miles and decades of world tours, band members coming and going, gigs in world class venues, awards, recognitions, road songs and road stories by the thousands learned and told, and it turns out they have been at sharing this music for twenty years. How to mark that milestone with a recording?

Founding members Horan and Egan, longtime cohorts Eamon McElholm on guitar and piano and Mick McAuley on accordion, and most recent member singer Moira Smiley didn’t want to do a retrospective, exactly. They did want to honor and include past band members as well as give the nod to the continuing and evolving nature of the sound they create now.

All These Years is the result. It is a sixteen track journey that moves from high energy jigs and reels to graceful slower pieces, from songs that come from the tradition to newer songs from writers including Martha Scanlon and Patty Griffin, and music written by members of the band as well.

Song and tune alike, there’s connection and creation evident between the players and the singers, and stories told as thoughtfully through tune as through song. Past members of the band were able to join in, too, adding and recalling their own distinct contributions to sound and story. Doyle and Casey are part of the project, as are former band members Donal Clancy, Johnny B. Connolly, John Williams, Mairead Phelan, Deirdre Scanlon, Noriana Kennedy, and Niamh Varian-Berry. Long time collaborators Chico Huff, Trevor Hutchinson, and John Anthony sit in too.

If you have been walking the music road with me for a time, many of those names and the music they make will be well known to you. Whether or not that is the case, what they have gathered to create with All These Years is indeed music which looks both back and forward, honoring the band’s past while standing brightly in the present and looking toward the future.

Each of the tracks is well worth your time, and well worth more than one listening. It is also a project that will benefit from being heard in the order in which the artists have designed it for you. Especially take note of Wandering Aengus, with Noriana Kennedy as the singer and a really interesting musical framework for her singing, Winifred Horan’s quiet composition, a waltz called Lost in Quimper, Moira Smiley’s take on the traditional song As I Went out Walking, Niamh Varian-Berry and Karan casey leading things on two rather different songs from the tradition, Willie Moore and Sixteen Come Next Sunday respectively, and Horan on fiddle and Egan on piano on the closer, Egan’s title track All These Years. In fact, if you’ve only time for one track, listen to that last one -- and then you will want to hear all the others, too.

At Celtic Connections in Glasgow this winter, there was a CD release concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. All the musicians on the recording got to be there, as well as several other unexpected guests. I was fortunate to be there, and that is where most of these photographs were made.

Band photograph courtesy of the artists. Performance photographs of Seamus Egan, Moira Smiley, Winifred Horan (with Moira Smiley in the background), and Karan Casey with Donal Clancy by Kerry Dexter, made at Celtic Connections with permission of the festival, the artists, and the venue involved. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Solas:Shamrock City
Exiles Return: Karan Casey and John Doyle
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unexpected Irish music, part one

If you're open to Irish music which honors tradition and is yet a bit beyond the usual, take a look back and take a listen to

Wayward Son Guitarist and singer John Doyle plays seventeenth century songs with such energy and insight that they might well have been composed yesterday.

Standout tracks: Expect the Unexpected, Wild Colonial Boy

Somewhere along the Road Cathie Ryan delves deep into Irish history and landscape, and remembers the American side of her history as well. Songs in both English and Irish, with spare production by Ryan and John McCusker, and some outstanding guitar work by (see above) John Doyle.

notable cuts: the title track is a knockout, both for the song and the singing. also Rathlin Island -- 1847, an insightful emigration song which connects to the present day, and the joyous romp Carrick--a-- rede which opens the disc.

Far From the Hills of Donegal
Oisin McAuley, fiddle player from top rated tradtional irish band Danu, makes his solo debut with a fine selection of covers and originals. McAuley grew up in those hills of Donegal, and left them to take degree in classical music in Belfast, lived in Brittany to study that music, and now is based in Boston. Though you may have heard him in the band for years, you'll certainly want to give a listen to what he has to say on his own.

outstanding cuts: Tune for Gillian, Lover's Ghost/Maud Miller, Quebec Reels

Reunion: A Decade of Solas Irish American Band Solas was Irish when Irish wasn't Riverdance. Energy, connection, fun, reflection, and all kinds of great musicians from past and current band configurations.

outstanding cuts: Pastures of Plenty, The Newry Highwayman, Lament for Frankie

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Shamrock City

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Shamrock City

It began a with an invitation about eight years ago...and it began with a journey a bit more than a hundred years ago.

The Irish American band Solas was invited to play a festival in Butte, Montana. Seamus Egan, one of the founders of the band, had a connection with the town: he knew his grand uncle, Michael Conway, had come there from County Mayo in 1910, but little else was known about him. As Egan began to look into Conway’s life. the band members became intrigued with what life was like in Butte at the height of its copper mining boom town times. Rough and tumble still at the turn of the golden age, a western American town that saw hard working folks and mine owners facing off over wages, people raising their families and making their livings in the midst of all these things, and a town that was at one time the most Irish town in America, a place where emigrants from Ireland, often unwelcome elsewhere, could find a job in the mines -- a town that came to be known as Shamrock City.

Shamrock City is the name Solas chose for the album which came from this. With original music and tunes from the Irish tradition, the members of Solas have created music which gives a unique and original portrait of what the Butte Montana that Michael Conway might have known was like. It’s no surprise that they could do this: ever since Solas came on the music scene, they been known for highly original interpretations of the music of Ireland and Irish America which respect tradition while carrying it forward. Current members Egan, Winifred Horan, Mick McAuley, Eamon McElholm, and Niamh Varian-Barry are joined by a fine crew of guests as they explore this history, and yet it is the vigor and focus of the band members’ musicianship which anchors the music.

Far Americay finds Varian-Barry treating a haunting song of emigration and immigrants which understated grace in her singing. Winifred Horan does the same with her fiddle playing a tune she composed called Welcome to the Unknown. Tell God and the Devil calls in the sprits of hardworking miners and the boom town energy that work required, while Lay Your Money Down (with guest vocalist Rhiannon Giddens) gives a picture of how that energy played out elsewhere in the town. at times there’s tasteful use of sound which helps set the scene, including the singing of A stor mo chroí in Irish, a distant voices from Ireland which lead into Far Americay, to the clank of metal upon metal heading up the mining songs to the sound of children at play which lead into a song from the point of view of a miner’s child. These are short, subtle bits which bridge the music and move the stories along. reminding that real people lived through these times.

That’s a point also made in the three songs which bring Shamrock City to a close. Dick Gaughan guests to sing Labour Song, a piece which, though the details and amounts of money have changed, could find a place today as well. Am I Born to Die? is a reflective treatment of a spiritual with an eternal question about finding a way through hard times. No Forgotten Man, which was written by McAuley and Egan, draws together the threads of history and life in Shamrock City, the stories told shading into what comes next and what lives on today. Shamrock City is a place you’ll not forget.

I was fortunate to be present as Solas performed the music of Shamrock City live at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, at the Old Fruitmarket. That's where these photographs were made. They were made with the kind permission of the festival, the artists, and the venue, and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting the copyright.

This video was also made at that concert in Glasgow, filmed for a program on BBC Alba

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Road Trip Music visits Pennsylvania

From Lake Erie to the Poconos, from the Alleghenies to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is filled with variety and change. That’s part of what songwriter Anne Hills gets at on a song she calls, reasonably enough, Pennsylvania. It’s on her latest album, Points of View, which includes a dozen more songs filled with description and insight, some arising from Hills’ concern with social justice (she’s a social worker as well as a musician) and others from the lighter side of life.

You’ve met Matt Heaton along the music road before. A guitarist, singer, and songwriter, he plays contemporary and traditional Irish music in a duo with his wife, Shannon. He’s based in Massachusetts these days, but is originally from Pennsylvania, and got his start in music there.

Irene Kelley has moved away from her native Pennsylvania, too. She headed for Nashville, where she’s recorded several well respected albums which mix country and folk, and has seen her songs recorded by bluegrass award winner Claire Lynch and top country star Alan Jackson, among others. Her most recent album is called Thunderbird.



Then there’s Solas. That band is credited with bringing fresh energy and new ideas into Irish music when they started off in 1996. They’ve recorded almost all their albums in Philadelphia. One recording which gives a full flavor of the exciting music they make is Reunion: A Decade of Solas which also includes a dvd of a reunion concert they gave, in Philadelphia. They have a new release out, also, called Turning Tide.

This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I originally partnered up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’d find there. The Library is closed now, but I think you will still find the journeys through music interesting.

For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins


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Music Road: Long Time Courting: road trip visits New Hampshire

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now playing: Karan Casey: Ships in the Forest

On her new solo album, Ships in the Forest, Karan Casey offers songs of love, song of politics, songs of Irish history, and songs which touch on all of that together.

Irish music is marked by a select handful of very distinct female voices, Dolores Keane, Mary Black, Maura O’Connell, Susan McKeown, and Cathie Ryan among them. Casey stands in their company. Both her singing and her song choices on this project show a growing maturity and thoughtfulness added to what was already a strong set of musical choices, choices informed by her insights at moving back to her native Ireland after living in America for some time, and by watching her children explore the world as they grow. She takes on several of the big songs of the tradition, including Black is the Color, I Once Loved a Lass, and Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, and adds her own colors to them. She also takes on Robert Burns with Ae Fond Kiss, and in what may be the heart of the album, reinvents Joni Mitchell’s The Fiddle and the Drum as a song which encompasses both the sweep if Irish history and the uncertainties of contemporary political and moral choices. It’s a set of songs. Casey says, which she feels all her other work has been getting her ready to take on. “It is by no means for the faint hearted but I think it’s worth a long listen,” she adds. It is.


Casey was lead vocalist with the seminal Irish American band Solas


She also appeared on the dvd and CD of Christmas Celtic Sojourn Live

You may also wish to see
Exiles Return, duo album from John Doyle and Karan Casey
A bouquet of Irish albums for spring, among them Exiles Return
Refelctions on Connections: part of a series about Celtic Connections online 20220

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