Search - Solas, Seamus Egan :: Featuring Seamus Egan

Absolute must if you like irish/scottish traditional

Stephen Finley | Lubbock, Texas--a session band hacker | 01/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No idea what "music fan" from Buffalo is talking about; those criticisms sound more like a criticism of the entire genre, from someone who doesn't know the genre enough to hear the distinctions and thus thinks it all sounds the same. (Remember your parents and "that screaming on rock music that all sounds the same"?) Solas' first two CDs--this one and Sunny Spells--were the height of Irish musicianship in the late '90s, and they were widely (and rightly) acclaimed at the time as the best Irish band outside Ireland's borders, and possibly the best in the world. I would agree that there is the occasional near-throwaway track on these first two CDs--maybe a couple of tracks per album, or in some cases, just sections of a set, not the whole set. Also, rarely, the unison is so precise it almost sounds _too_ clean, with the edges all smoothed off, almost as if it were electronically programmed and played, without the rougher quality that a traditional band usually carries with it. (My wife--a stepdance teacher--and I jokingly refer to one of those tracks as the "Dialing for Dollars" music, because it really does sound like until they get into the second piece in the set.) But there are far more moments of exhilarating virtuosity in well-chosen pieces and well-assembled sets. During this period, Solas had an unmatched ability to update traditional music and to breathe life into it without losing its traditional character or becoming the least bit "Celtic-new-agey." To the sorrow of many musicians, that ability seems to have left them progressively in their last three efforts. But this early CD, along with Sunny Spells, should be bedrock stuff for anybody who likes Irish and Scottish trad."

The Best Irish Trad Since The Bothies

Stephen Finley | 11/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The amazing thing about this CD is that no supergroup should sound this good. In most popular music, an assemblage of great musicians usually portends an overwrought, discordant mess, the result of ego clashes and bad arrangements. Solas, on the other hand sounds like they've been playing together for decades. Not since the Bothy Band as there been such a fantastic group of musicans, as capable on the fastest reels as on the most heart-tugging airs (and "Lament for Frankie", written after the tragically premature death of the great flutist for Altan, Frankie Kennedy, is about as heart-tugging as they come--actually, everyone should hear Solas live, so they can be crushed by this song). Absolutely top-shelf."

BUY THIS CD

Stephen Finley | 09/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Powerful Irish group with fresh sounds that also hold to those of us who appreciate traditional sounds. A very good buy!!!"