It’s been seven years since Celtic band Solas has played together. That hiatus came on the heels of nonstop music for the Celtic band, as since forming in New York City, the band has either been on the road or in the studio, resulting in a global performance schedule and over a dozen proper releases.
That seven-year break will end when Solas, who are multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan on banjo, flute, whistles and guitar; Winifred Horan on fiddle; Moira Smiley on keyboards and vocals; John Williams on button accordion and concertina; and Alan Murray on guitar and vocals, hit the road next week, kicking off their 30th Anniversary Tour in Durango at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Feb. 13.
If you go
WHAT: Celtic music with Solas.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $30/$60.
MORE INFORMATION: www.durangoconcerts.com.
Their beginnings took shape in a mid-1990s New York City. At that time, the Big Apple was particularly loaded with Celtic musicians and a general interest in the genre; what started as a throw-together band ultimately turned into Solas.
“That time in New York was an incredibly vibrant time culturally in the Irish community. It was the ‘Celtic Tiger’ roaring back in Ireland, and there was an incredibly bright spotlight on all things Irish and all things Celtic,” Egan said. “I got a call to put a group together for a show in Lowell, Massachusetts; it wasn’t called Solas, and I had just finished recording a solo album that all of us had played on and it went really well at the festival. We said, ‘Let’s make an album,’ and that’s what we did. Solas came out in 1996.”
For a band that wasn’t planned, they took things seriously from the get-go, solidifying studio chops while also working on their live show. It’s that live show that they pride themselves on, so much that during the aforementioned hiatus Egan and their longtime soundman started digging into their recorded show archives. That digging will result in a new release of past live performances available to fans on this tour.
“We’ve made a ton of albums over the years, but I think we really are fundamentally a live band. You know, we’ll go into the studio and spend as much time as we can afford, and avail ourselves to all of the technology we can, but fundamentally, it’s that being together, playing a room on stage in a space, and that communion that exists in that moment,” Egan said. “Our soundman over the years had been recording some of the shows. I started listening to them and it really sort of reenergized that feeling of the band being on stage and I was really sort of, you know, I think pleasantly surprised at the recordings. So we compiled 14 or 15 tracks and we’ll have a brand new, live album available for the first time in Durango.”
Performing on stage is the band’s bread and butter, as on a stage in front of an eager audience is the place the band thrives as they push out high energy and traditional Celtic music. They’re stoked that night No. 1 after the hiatus is Durango, and they’re even more stoked to just play in front of eager audiences, which are everywhere, especially Colorado.
“The audiences in Colorado are just wonderful. When we’re up there playing, we’re feeding off that energy that comes from the audience, and Colorado has always been wonderful for that. We’ve played all over the world, there’s definitely places where the energy meter is pinged, so yeah, that live performance is such a two-way street,” Egan said. “We’re doing our thing, but we want the audience to do a thing as well, because it feeds us.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
