Solas on BBC - Radio 2
October 16th, 2008Solas will appear on BBC’s The Mike Harding Show on Oct. 22nd. Click here for airtimes or to listen on the web.
A Prairie Home Companion
October 10th, 2008Solas will appear on A Prairie Home Companion, Saturday, Oct. 11th. Click here to check local listings and airtimes in your area.
Daniel Pearl World Music Days
October 3rd, 2008We’re honored to announce our participation in The Daniel Pearl World Music Days. As many of you will recall, Daniel, a journalist and musician, was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002. After his death, his family formed the Daniel Pearl Foundation to commemorate his life and to promote the ideals of tolerance, friendship, and our shared humanity. Through the power of music it reminds us that we are a lot more alike than we are different. For the month of October, we are dedicating all of our shows to World Music Days. To learn more about the Daniel Pearl Foundation and World Music Days click here.
“I Will Remember You” in “The Lucky One’s”
September 27th, 2008“I Will Remember You”, which Seamus co-wrote with Sarah McLachlan can be heard in the new film, The Lucky One’s, starring Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams. The song was originally written for the Sundance award winning film, The Brother’s McMullen and later went on to be a hit single for Sarah. We recorded a version of it on our album, The Hour Before Dawn.
Live performance on KBCS Bellevue, WA, Sept. 30th
September 27th, 2008We’ll be at KBCS studio for a live performance and interview on Tuesday the 30th at 2pm. So, tune in if you have the time. Later that night we’re playing at the Triple Door in downtown Seattle. Hope to see you there!
Solas on Echo’s
September 26th, 2008A living room concert with Solas will appear on the Echoes Radio program on Monday, September 29th, 2008, playing music from their new release, For Love and Laughter.
Echoes is a daily two-hour music soundscape, distributed by 
Public Radio International and broadcast on 130 radio stations from Maine to California. With host John Diliberto, a writer for Billboard, Pulse and other magazines, Echoes brings together a wide array of styles, from acoustic to electronic, jazz to space music, the avant-garde to rock. Echoes is a sound that is cross-cultural and trans-millennial, merging cultures and forms, technology and tradition, the ancient past and the possible future.
To find a station that broadcasts the Echo show near you, please click here.
Check out John’s blog about the Solas performance.
Solas Returns with “For Love and Laughter”
August 25th, 2008 |
| Nashville, TN (August 25 2008) - In a manner befitting their name (a Gaelic word meaning “light”), Solas burst onto a largely dormant Irish music scene and almost instantly became a beacon - an incandescent ensemble that found contemporary relevance in timeless traditions without ever stooping to crossover clichés. Now, as Mairead Phelan, an exciting young singer from Kilkenny, steps up to lend her exquisite vocals to the existing line up of Seamus Egan (flute, tenor banjo, mandolin, whistle, guitar and bodhran), Winifred Horan (fiddle), Mick McAuley (accordion and concertina) and Eamon McElholm (guitar and keyboards), the band heads into their second decade of playing tight, fiery Irish music.
For Love and Laughter breaks fresh ground in duets with Canada’s folk phenoms The Dukhs and an inspired rendition of Rickie Lee Jones’s “Sailor Song”,while it offers the imaginative reinterpretations of traditional material that Solas has been playing to the delight of their fans worldwide.
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Summer/ Fall Tour Dates
Aug 15 - 17 / Milwaukee Irish Fest / Milwaukee
Aug 29 - 30 / Planet Arlington / Arlington, VA
Sept 6 - 7 / Virginia Irish Fest / Leesburg, VA
Sept 10 / Tupelo Music Hall / Londonderry, NH
Sept 13 - 14 / ICONS Festival / Boston
Sept 15 / Space / Hemden, CT
Sept 16 / Higher Ground Showcase Lounge / S. Burlington, VT
Sept 17 / Iron Horse Music Hall / North Hampton, MA
Sept 18 / The Egg / Albany, NY
Sept 19 / Towne Crier / Pawling, NY
Sept 20 / Sullivan Hall / NYC
Sept 21 / World Cafe Live / Philadelphia
Sept 23 / Anthology Lounge / San Diego
Sept 24 / El Rey Theater / Los Angeles
Sept 27 / KVMR Celtic Festival / Grass Valley, CA
Sept 28 / Crescent Elk Auditorium / Crescent City, CA
Sept 30 / Triple Door / Seattle
Oct 1 / Aladdin Theatre / Portland
Oct 5 / Abbey Pub / Chicago
Oct 7 / The Ark / Ann Arbor
Oct 9 / St. Brendan’s Inn / Green Bay, WI
Oct 10 / Cedar Cultural Center / Minneapolis
Oct 25 / Perthshire Amber Festival / Perthshire, Scotland UK
Nov 1 / Liverpool Irish Festival / Liverpool, UK
Press & Promotion: Stephanie Fields
stephanie@compassrecords.com
www.compassrecords.com
www.myspace.com/compassrecords
For Love and Laughter to be released in US on August 26th
August 25th, 2008
We’re pleased to announce that our new cd For Love and Laughter will be released Tuesday, August 26th. It’s our first studio album in 4 years as well as our first album with a great new singer, Mairead Phelan. Check out what Siobhan Long, of the Irish Times, had to say about it this past weekend.
SOLAS For Love and Laughter Compass Records ****
Sometimes we’re so preoccupied with trad musicians overstepping boundaries that we miss their leap into the blue yonder. Solas’s Irish-American roots are the very things that seem to free them from the perils of navel-gazing. First, there’s an urbane cosmopolitanism in the multi-instrumentalism of Seamus Egan. Then there are the compositional contributions from four of the five band members. Solas relish that primal flux of influences from zydeco to klezmer, jazz and bluegrass that bathed the likes of Michael Coleman and James Morrison before them. Amid a raft of busy arrangements and collaboration with The Duhks, newcomer vocalist Mairead Phelan excels on Mollaí Na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin , and Winifred Horan’s sublime My Dream of You lingers long after the final note has sounded.
SIOBHÁN LONG
We hope you like it!!
Check out full length tracks on MySpace
August 24th, 2008We have posted 5 tracks from For Love and Laughter on our MySpace page. To check it out, just click on the MySpace link above.
Fall Tour Confirmed
August 24th, 2008We are hitting the road for the next few weeks in support of our new album. Check out the tour dates page to see when we’re playing near you. Hope to see you out there!