Solas - Another Day hits the Spot

What can I say? I told you so. You put all this good music in the hands of people who seem to know what they are doing and this is the result. Quality! The next thing you know everyone will be expecting it. We will all have to try to play well and be imaginative and maybe even sit down and practice. .

In fairness Seamus Egan and his current posse have a good head start on us with more than a few brilliant projects under their collective belts. My favorite until now has been The Hour Before Dawn which, in my opinion is up there among the great albums of the last decade and I don't just mean in the trad Irish genre.

With Another Day, Solas have done it again.

Quite simply this is a collection of 12 gems right from the first notes of Bird in the Tree a set of reels that says "ok we are going to do a few new things on this CD but let no one forget where we come from"
Then it's straight into the first of those new things. The Scarecrow's Dream kicks off with a slow soft hip-hoppy dance beat. For many bands this would sound like a gratuitous attempt to add street cred to the oul' ceili stuff. With Solas you know and feel that they put this is because it is perfect for the song. Deirdre takes the song, in fact takes all the songs on this album to all the right places with her unique and beautiful voice.

The arrangements on the album carry a lot of the weight though and I would love to sit in on a Solas rehearsal to see how they put the tracks together. The Highlands of Holland lifts the spirit while This Love will Carry moves us in a way that must make Dougie McLean proud. All that you ask Me is nostalgia that harks back to Seamus's big hit and The Wiggly Jigs, well doesn't the name alone just make you want to dance?

There are always going to be arguments among those who think themselves the arbiters of purity in traditional about what is or isn't good for the music. My two Euros worth is that I have never heard music that doesn't become stronger at the hands of those who are not afraid to let it grow. Solas and Seamus Egan are going to be a hugely important milestone on that road and future generations will look back at Solas with the same reverence that we look back on bands like The Bothy Band or Planxty. Oh you will all shout at me, albeit in a geeky email sort of way but mark my words, Solas are a great band and hopefully will keep pushing back those boundaries while letting the beauty and that all important purity shine though.

Another Day should be bought and the cover stowed neatly with the rest of the Solas collection while the disc itself stays in your CD player until I tell it's safe to remove it

American Fans will be glad to hear that Solas are touring throughout November. I will try to get to the Virginia shows so we can get an interview and some pictures for JigTime.

For more info see the band's own website at

http://www.solasmusic.com

or check out their excellent record company at

http://www.shanachie.com