Solas w/Bearfoot co-presented by Celtic Events and Twist & Shout
Celtic Events and Twist & Shout present KUNC 91.5 FM picks KGNU 85.5 FM | 1390 AM picks KRFC 88.9 FM picks
**Take advantage of advance ticket prices, as they go up the day of the show!** ADV: $25/$23 MEM; DOS: $27/$25 MEM
“One of the most exciting bands anywhere in the world” (Irish Echo), Solas stepped out onto the world stage in 1996, when Irish music was poised at the brink of a new era of innovation and popularity.
The five young musicians who made up the band at the time had no idea that they were to be a galvanizing element in the Irish music scene – a lightening rod of talent and inspiration that set new standards for musicianship, repertoire and intensity. “We thought we were doing a one-off project,” says multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan with a smile, 10 years after the fact. Egan and fiddler Winifred Horan have remained with the band through a decade that has encompassed seven albums and endless international touring and critical acclaim.
Inspired by an off-hand comment that 2006 marked ten years as a band, Solas reached out to past members (including John Doyle, John Williams and Karan Casey) to join them in a celebration concert in Philadelphia. After the almost impossible task of coordinating the schedules of touring musicians, the show went off without a hitch and the result became the CD/DVD Reunion: A Decade of Solas, one of the most highly praised Irish music outputs of 2006.
In 2008 vocalist Deirdre Scanlan made the difficult decision to step away from the road and Solas. With tours still on the books, Solas was joined by a myriad of the best folk and Irish vocalists on the scene today, including Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still) to handle lead vocals until a final decision was made to add Kilkenny vocalist Mairead Phelan. Phelan is an All-Ireland champion on flute and whistle and has studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. Beautifully filling the role carved out by founding vocalist Karan Casey, Phelan brings to Solas an enlivened sense of purpose and a new shine to Solas’ entire vocal repertoire.
Their latest record, For Love and Laughter, was released in September of 2008 and features groundbreaking new material, featuring duets with Canada’s folk phenoms, The Dukhs, and an inspired rendition of Rickie Lee Jones’ "Sailor Song." It also offers the imaginative reinterpretations of traditional material that Solas has been playing to the delight of their fans worldwide.
Opening the show is Alaskan bluegrass band, Bearfoot, who has been nominated for the Emerging Artist of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and was named one of the Top 5 Must-See Bands of Merlefest by Kim Ruehl (news editor for NoDepression.com and folk music editor for About.com).
