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.

Summer 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 16 / Higher Ground Showcase Lounge / S. Burlington, VT
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

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!!

We have posted 5 tracks from For Love and Laughter on our MySpace page. To check it out, just click on the MySpace link above.

We 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!

We’re happy to launch our new site today. Thanks for your patience while we made some changes that will allow us to better keep you up to date with all the comings and goings in the world of Solas. You will notice that we added a place for you to leave your email address and postal code. If you want to get on our mailing list to find out when we will be in your part of the world, just leave your info and we’ll be in touch. Hope you like it!

We’re delighted to announce that Mairead Phelan has joined the band as our new singer. She’s a fantastic young talent with a beautiful voice from Co.Kilkenny in Ireland. She has had a busy last couple of months having just finished her first tour with us of England, Scotland, and Wales and recording tracks for our new cd. We couldn’t be happier to have her on board.

We have just completed work on our new cd, For Love and Laughter. Recorded in Philadelphia, Louisianna, and Ireland over the past year and a half, it is scheduled for release by Compass Records this August. Joining us on this recording are some very special guests. The Duhks, the wonderful band from Canada, the fantastic Natalie Haas on cello, the multi talented Mr. Dirk Powell on bass, who also recorded some tracks for us at his studio in Breaux Bridge, LA, our ever present secret weapon, Chico Huff on bass, and our dear friend, John Anthony, who not only recorded most of the album, he mixed it and also played percussion. If you want hear what we’ve been up to, we’ve posted some audio clips here on the site. Just go to the media page and have a listen. We’re really excited about it. Hope you like it!

We just finished a successful 2 week tour of England, Scotland, and Wales. It was our first tour there in over 10 years! We had a great time, meeting up with some old friends and making new ones. A big thank you to all the lovely folks who came out to the shows. And we’ll be back before the year is out! We’re playing a couple of festivals in Scotland and England. You can check our tour dates page for details. 

More european dates have been confirmed for the summer. Dates and countries are correct and will post venues asap. We will be in Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, and Switzerland……more to follow….

After starting our St. Patricks Day run with some gigs in Colorado we flew to Europe…..

We played the most amazing venue and gig in the beautiful city of Paris on the 15th of March. The capacity croud of 17,000 people was an absolutely amazing experience. We shared the bill with the wonderful Alan Stivell and many more….It was truly a gig to remember. Broadcast live on French television and radio. We then flew back to the states to finish our run and played to a sold out crowd at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live. Awesome night!!!! The few gigs after were wonderful as well. North carolina and we finished at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Beautiful Venue, awesome croud and great crew. Thank you to everyone for coming out, and to all the lovely people we met at the concerts!!!