User:Pdebee/Sources for current article on Solas

New prose
Interview by Earle Hitchner on June 20, 1996.

Solas: America's Own Irish-Music Band By Earle Hitchner Updated June 20, 1996 12:01 a.m. ET

Vienna, Va.

Forming a patchwork of parkas, slickers and umbrellas, the capacity crowd sat and stood in a pelting chill rain to watch Solas, one of the most exciting Irish traditional bands to emerge in many years, perform in an open-air theater on the spacious grounds of Wolf Trap Farm Park. This brilliant acoustic quintet was the headlining act here at the 20th annual Irish Folk Festival.

The concert by Solas (Gaelic for "light") was so rousing that the audience cheered and clapped for more in the merciless downpour at the end. This surprised no one, for in the year and a half it has been together, Solas has electrified crowds everywhere it's performed. Combining virtuosity and versatility, it already seems poised to join the elite of Irish traditional bands active today, including the Chieftains and Altan.

But unlike those groups, which both originated in Ireland, Solas came together in the U.S. and features three Irish Americans: button accordion-concertina player John Williams, fiddler Winifred Horan and multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan. The other two members, vocalist Karan Casey and guitarist John Doyle, are both Irish transplants to New York City.

Recently released by Shanachie Records, the self-titled debut album by this homegrown group confirms the promise of its stage performances. Its imaginatively arranged medleys of Irish dance tunes are tight, polished and propulsive, while the singing of lead vocalist Karan Casey, blessed with a two-and-a-half-octave range, is as clear and beautiful as the famous hand-cut crystal from her home county of Waterford.

Even without the media entree of this stunning first recording, Solas has already appeared on two very popular Public Radio International programs, "Mountain Stage" and Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." It will also be performing in the evening at the American Roots Fourth of July festival that will be broadcast live over National Public Radio from Washington's National Mall. Remarkably, all these bookings for Solas came strictly from word of mouth.

"I've waited a long time for a band like this to come along," said John Williams, a five-time All-Ireland champion living near Chicago, where his father emigrated 39 years ago from the tiny fishing village of Doolin, West Clare. In 1989, Williams became the only American ever to win the coveted All-Ireland senior concertina title. "All of us, I think, were looking for a way to express what we've learned in the Irish tradition and put our own collective stamp on it. John Doyle's guitar, for example, gives us a big bottom end without veering into a rock-and-roll idiom. It's something we can build on, and I often play rhythm on the accordion to flesh out what he does."

From Dublin, Doyle came to New York City at the beginning of the decade, playing first in Chanting House, an Irish duo that for a time expanded into a quartet featuring Seamus Egan. Since then, Doyle and Egan have often performed and recorded together, including on Egan's latest Shanachie solo release, "When Juniper Sleeps." Doyle's hard-driving style of guitar picking in Solas is counterbalanced by a more lyrical side of his talent, evident in the acoustic-guitar "effects" he so nimbly plucks and sustains to accompany slow airs and many of Casey's traditional songs.

Irish traditional singing was not always the primary pursuit of Karan Casey, who in the late 1980s began as a music major at University College Dublin and also studied classical piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. "At the end of my first year at UCD," she recalled, "there was a concert at which I sang a jazz song. I was told afterward by the head of the music department that that wasn't music. It was one of the reasons I left the music department: They were too narrow-minded."

The strong-willed Casey still loves jazz and formally studied it after she emigrated to New York in May 1993. "I used to sing jazz at a friend's house on Friday nights," she said, "but then I started to go to traditional sessions [informal jams of Irish music] around the city because I was really lonely. That's how I got back into traditional singing again. I think jazz musicians have the same kind of history as Irish traditional musicians in a way--this incredible skill that too often is overlooked or dismissed by the public."

Winifred Horan has performance skills just as impressive as Casey's. One of the most accomplished Irish stepdancers New York City has ever produced, with nine North American titles to her credit, Horan took early lessons in Irish fiddling and won an All-Ireland junior championship at age 11. Then she switched to classical music. For 15 years she devoted herself to it, winning scholarships to the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan and later the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There she performed with a number of string quartets and orchestras, including the Boston Pops.

But Horan returned to her first love, Irish traditional music and dance, not long after she returned to New York in 1990. For four years she performed with the Irish-American ensemble Cherish the Ladies, then left to form Solas, and now also plays with the band headed by button accordionist Sharon Shannon out of Ireland.

"When I got back into Irish traditional music," explained Horan, "I was completely amazed at how big the repertoire is, even bigger than in classical music. I feel I've missed 15 years of sessions, but by the same token I wouldn't turn back time and change the way I learned or the approach I took. Classical music has given me the training, the tools, the discipline, while Irish music has rekindled the sheer love of playing again. I want to bring all of that to Solas."

What Seamus Egan brings to Solas is no fewer than eight instruments: flute, tin whistle, low whistle, nylon-string guitar, four-string banjo, mandolin, bodhran (a hand-held frame drum) and uilleann pipes. Also in demand for movie soundtracks--his playing can be heard in both "The Brothers McMullen" and "Dead Man Walking"--Egan alone offers a versatility that ensures Solas's sound will be varied, spirited and refreshingly risk-taking. "He's an unbelievably quick learner with impeccable instincts," affirms Limerick-born musician and ethnomusicologist Mick Moloney, his mentor, friend and frequent playing partner. "I think it took hundreds of years of Irish music in America to produce somebody like Seamus Egan."

The same might be said of Solas. Made in America, it's an Irish traditional band bearing all the marks of greatness.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB83522948943390000

New prose
Interview by Rosemary Pratka on July 11, 1997.

SOLAS TAKING `SUPER-GROUP' STATUS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT: [FIFTH Edition] PRATKA, ROSEMARY. Morning Call; Allentown, Pa. [Allentown, Pa]11 July 1997: D.06.

Full text Details

Hide highlighting

Translate [unavailable for this document]

0:00 /0:00

Rosemary Pratka is a free-lance writer.

The Irish have always had a penchant for exaggeration. However, in the caseof the Celtic-American band Solas (which means "light" in Gaelic), the highpraise is coming from all quarters, not only the confines of Irish traditionalmusic. Hailed as a "super-group" by the media, a term usually reserved forrock musicians, the quintet's talented multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan, 28,has taken it all in with a grain of salt.

"It's a bit surprising. It's not something we set out to do. The whole ideaof having a group at all was haphazard," says Egan from his home in M anhattanduring a telephone interview last week.

"It's obviously nice to have a positive reaction to what you're doing, butthe whole notion of a super-group, sometimes things get a bit over the top! Imean there are so many great musicians out there, I think we can keep it allin perspective. We're lucky things are going so well for us right now, that wecan play and tour."

For the next six months, Solas will be touring to promote its second album,the recently released "Sunny Spell s And Scattered Showers" (Shanachie),covering America, Ireland and Europe. The band will make a stop Wednesdaynight at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem for shows at 7 and 9 p.m.

Egan's modest attitude during the conversation revealed he is much morecomfortable playing and writing music than speaking about it. But it alsobelies his numerous accomplishments.

Born in Philadelphia, Egan moved with his family to Ireland at the age of3, returning to the Philadelphia area in 1980. By that time he h ad wonAll-Ireland championships on four different instruments, something unheard of.At 16 he released his first solo album and was playing professionally andoccasionally touring.

Although he is proficient on 10 instruments, Egan concentrates mostly onflute and whistles. Besides his work with Solas, Egan has released three soloalbums and was recently named the Irish Echoe's 1996 "Traditionalist of theYear," the youngest ever to hold that title. He has also contributed toseveral film soundt racks. He played bouzouki behind Qawwali chanting by NusratFateh Ali Khan for the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack. For the PBS documentary"Out of Ireland," Egan played flute or tin whistle on 10 of the 13 tracks.And, most notably, for "The Brothers McMullen," Egan provided practically theentire score, performing, arranging or co-producing 11 of the 12 tracks. Themovie's end title song, "I Will Remember You," sung by Sarah McLachlan, wasbased on Egan's original melody "Weep Not For The Memories."

But "super-group" implies more than one outstanding performer, and the fourother members of Solas have had their share of achievements. Fiddler WinifredHoran was in the ground-breaking women's ensemble Cherish The Ladies, andguitarist John Doyle helped found the New York City band The Chanting House(Egan also was a member). Accordion player John Williams has five All-Irelandtitles to his credit and singer Karan Casey studied classical music at theRoyal Irish Academy of Music, as well as jazz at Long Island University.

The group first came together about two years ago when Egan was asked toput something together for an Irish Festival in Massachusetts.

"I had been playing with John Doyle in Chanting House, and we got totalking that we'd like to try something with people we haven't done much with.We thought of John Williams out in Chicago and of Winifred Horan. Although Winand I live together, we really hadn't the chance to work much together,"explained Egan.

The festival performance came off well and the foursome occasionally playedtogether as schedules would permit.

"We eventually were at a stage where we wanted to do this (have a group),and thought it would be nice to find a singer. As it turned out, Karan livedon the same block as Win and myself here in Manhattan. With her in the band,everything took off," says Egan.

Solas has been compared to Irish stalwarts The Chieftains as well as newertraditional Celtic bands like Altan. However Solas is the fir st traditionalband of such caliber to originate in the United States and not Ireland.

American's present fascination with all things Celtic, as witnessed by thepopularity of the musical "Riverdance," as well as films such as "Braveheart"and "Rob Roy," has only contributed to Solas' wide appeal.

Asked if he thought the fervor of "Celtic-mania" would eventually die down,Egan commented, "I think it's going to continue, but maybe not at such afeverish pitch. I mean, I don't think it's a fad, because to a large degree,what mainstream audiences are getting turned on to now has existed for awhile.Bands have been playing concert series, festivals and coffeehouses for yearsand audiences have always been there. But now major labels are gettinginvolved, and that's helped a lot. If the major labels pulled out though, thewhole thing wouldn't go away. It existed before they were involved and it willexist afterward."

"Sunny Spells And Scattered Showers," produced by former Silly Wizard fiddler Johnny Cunningham, highlights the band's individual virtuosity as wellas its unified and exciting ensemble playing. Karan Casey sings traditionalsongs such as "the Unquiet Grave" and "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" withtender emotion and an impressive vocal range of several octaves, while theinstrumental tracks are often played with energy that is more in keeping withrock music, despite their traditional sound.

Although Egan can play 10 instruments capably, don't expect to see him p layall of them at Godfrey's. "I'll play more of them as time goes on, but right now it's mainly flute, whistles and banjo. I might try bringing the mandolinout, but you know it's hard to carry all those instruments on tour."

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/392893514/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/31?accountid=10226

New prose
Article by Kevin McKeough on June 20, 1999.

Back to results

(previous record) Document 14 of 12,187 (next record)

SOLAS SWINGS TO AN IRISH BEAT: [CHICAGOLAND FINAL Edition] Kevin McKeough. Special to the Tribune. Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]21 Feb 1999: 10.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate [unavailable for this document]

Introducing an instrumental medley at the Irish American Heritage Center on Friday night, Solas leader Seamus Egan jokingly called the one tune he couldn't name "extra-traditional."

The term could be applied to Solas as well. The young Irish- American band has been widely heralded for its virtuosity and its fresh approach to Irish folk music, both of which Solas amply displayed Friday during the course of two sets.

Fortunately, there was no downtown attitude to Solas' music. The band's name is Gaelic for "light," and as both adjective and noun, the word fits their music. Solas performed traditional songs and instrumental reels and jigs with a soft touch that often suggested drawing-room courtliness more than late-night pub revelry.

Full Text

Translate [unavailable for this document]

0:00 /0:00

Music review.

Introducing an instrumental medley at the Irish American Heritage Center on Friday night, Solas leader Seamus Egan jokingly called the one tune he couldn't name "extra-traditional."

The term could be applied to Solas as well. The young Irish- American band has been widely heralded for its virtuosity and its fresh approach to Irish folk music, both of which Solas amply displayed Friday during the course of two sets.

There's certainly no stuffy reverence in the band's demeanor. Fiddler Winifred Horan took the stage dressed in art-school-student black; singer Karan Casey wore bright red, tie-dyed pants; and Egan, acoustic guitarist John Doyle and accordionist Mick McAuley sported funky hairdos and earrings.

Fortunately, there was no downtown attitude to Solas' music. The band's name is Gaelic for "light," and as both adjective and noun, the word fits their music. Solas performed traditional songs and instrumental reels and jigs with a soft touch that often suggested drawing-room courtliness more than late-night pub revelry.

Doyle was the band's backbone, anchoring each song with propulsive strumming and adding deft musical flourishes. Leaning toward him, Horan favored buoyant, gliding lines rather than the staccato attack favored by other fiddlers.

Displaying the virtuosity that has won him multiple all-Ireland championships, Egan rotated among several instruments, and his whippoorwill flute runs were particularly fine. McAuley's chords surged and swelled, and he drew one of the evening's biggest hands when he and Horan locked into a ecstatic duet.

Casey's trilling voice emphasized each song's reflective qualities over wailing-banshee passion. Her singing on "Roger the Miller" was as soft as it was pretty, as the band, lead by Egan on mandolin, pirouetted around her.

The music's ambience was more that of the warm glow of a fireplace than the brilliant mid-day sun on the heath, but at times it felt constrained. Mining the same connection between Irish and Spanish music that the Chieftains first explored, Solas tiptoed through "La Bruja," painstakingly articulating each sustained note.

If the band's occasionally formal renditions reflected their musical seriousness, they also hinted at the New Age mush that's been the bane of Irish folk since "Riverdance." Fortunately, Solas' performance avoided the cloudy backing vocals and glossy guitar effects that have begun to creep into their recorded music.

The band's own ideas about expanding the boundaries of Irish folk are more appealing. Egan's use of banjo and mandolin emphasized the connection between Celtic music and American country and bluegrass, and Casey's song selections linked Irish rebel songs with the progressive politics of the U.S. folk movement.

With its tale of an outlaw who "never robbed a poor man yet," "The Newry Highwayman" was a clear ancestor to Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd." Solas performed Guthrie's own migrant worker anthem "Pastures of Plenty" as well, and Casey introduced her haunting, a capella rendition of "Vanished Like the Snow" as being "about how women are written out of history."

For all of Horan's vocal purity or the dazzling intricacy of the overlapping instrumental lines, Solas' best moments were more pretty than passionate. Repeatedly, the band brought the crowd to a foot- stomping fervor, only to let manic energy give way to more cerebral musicality.

This pendulum swung furthest during their finale, when Solas was joined by former member and Chicagoan John Williams, himself an all- Ireland champion. The music began as a slow, still reverie that bordered on elevator music, then Williams' fingers began to fly, and the band joined him in a tumultuous medley. As they ended in a blazing exchange of solos, Solas finally generated heat as well as light. Illustration

PHOTO; Caption: PHOTO: Solas--John Doyle (from left), Mick McAuley, Karan Casey, Seamus Egan and Winifred Horan--brought its "extra-traditional" music to the Irish American Heritage Center on Friday. Word count: 657

(Copyright 1999 by the Chicago Tribune)

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/418806779/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/14?accountid=10226

New prose
Article by Don Meade on September 19, 2000.

ON THE Fiddle: Solas Pulls a Swap Meade, Don. Irish Voice; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]19 Sep 2000: 26. Publisher logo. Links to publisher website, opened in a new window.

THE Irish-American supergroup Solas has a new Shanachie record due out next month and are on a tour that includes a gig at New York's Bottom Line on Saturday, September 16. Seamus Egan & Co. will, however, be touring without their founding guitarist, John Doyle. In the sort of trade that normally takes place in the sports world, Solas and the Eileen Ivers Band seem to have swapped guitarists.

Doyle will now perform with the Bronx-born fiddle star, while ex-Ivers Band guitarist Donal Clancy takes over with Solas. The change is more profound for Solas, as Doyle's unique, percussive and bass-heavy style was a key component of that band's trademark sound. Clancy will not have to do all the backing himself, however, as Solas will also be adding bass and drums to their tour lineup. If you miss the Bottom Line gig, Solas will be back in New York again on Thursday, November 9 at Symphony Space.

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/368193949/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/11?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by Scott Alarik on February 10, 2002.

SOLAS'S NEW SOUND IS FAR FROM TRADITIONAL: [THIRD Edition] Alarik, Scott. Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. [Boston, Mass]10 Feb 2002: J.8.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate Abstract

Solas may be the best band in Celtic music; it is certainly the most adventurous. After losing singer Karan Casey and guitarist John Doyle, who left to pursue solo careers, many wondered if remaining members Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan, and Mick McAuley could continue the band. But with new singer Deirdre Scanlon and guitarist Donal Clancy, Solas's new Shanachie CD, "The Edge of Silence," is by far its most provocative and brilliantly played recording. Solas will appear at Sanders Theatre March 15.

Egan and Horan worry that this CD may be too modern for some of their fans. [Brian O'Donovan] predicts that, while some diehards may turn away from the band now, many more new fans will come to their music, and through Solas, be invited into the vast, wild, and ancient dance that is Celtic music.

Full Text

Translate Full text Turn on search term navigation

0:00 /0:00

Folk/ World

Solas may be the best band in Celtic music; it is certainly the most adventurous. After losing singer Karan Casey and guitarist John Doyle, who left to pursue solo careers, many wondered if remaining members Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan, and Mick McAuley could continue the band. But with new singer Deirdre Scanlon and guitarist Donal Clancy, Solas's new Shanachie CD, "The Edge of Silence," is by far its most provocative and brilliantly played recording. Solas will appear at Sanders Theatre March 15.

With its orchestral complexity, techno-pop sound scapes, bitingly topical songs, and alt-rock power, the CD is bound to be a hot topic throughout the acoustic music world: Has Solas finally gone too far?

"I think it will be too contemporary for some Celtic fans," says Brian O'Donovan, host of WGBH-FM's popular Saturday show "A Celtic Sojourn." "This is largely an alternative rock album; it has a lot of those elements. People who are looking for the ways traditional music was treated in previous Solas albums are not going to get it. But this is a growth I would have expected from following Seamus's music for years; and I'll go on rec ord saying I love it, absolutely love it."

Egan plays flute, whistle, banjo, nylon-string and electric guitars, and coproduced the disc with techno-pop wizard Neil Dorfsman, who has produced Sting, Paul McCartney, Bruce Hornsby, and Mark Knopfler.

Egan has always layered his tracks with sophisticated blankets of sound, and when he met classically trained fiddler Winifred Horan, with her equally urbane arrangement ideas, Solas was born. More than ever, this is their band, and the arrangements themselves are the stars of the show.

"With all the lineup changes," says Egan, "we decided there was no point in trying to have the new people be clones of the old members. We wanted to look at this as an opportunity to try new things. We wanted to still be Solas, in the sense that we're trying to bring a new approach to things, but apply it to material that's outside of what we've done in the past."

There is nothing traditional on the CD, though Egan's and Horan's instrumentals display their mastery of the dance-tune and slow-air forms that dominate Cel tic music. But they feel like wordless songs, with a lyrical sense of emotional purpose.

"I'm a firm believer that you have to treat instrumentals as you treat songs, because you are saying something," says Horan. "It's more difficult to get an instrumental across; there are no words, so the listener has to hang on to something else."

Casey is among the finest vocalists in Irish music, but Deirdre Scanlon is, in many ways, a better ensemble singer, with a pure, straight-ahead style that invites harmonies, and has encouraged accordionist Mick McAuley to make his fine soft tenor a larger part of the Solas sound.

Donal Clancy, son of Irish superstar Liam Clancy, is a more intricate, delicate guitarist than Doyle; and the pres ence of bassist Chico Huffman and percussionist Ben Wittman frees him to serve the melody with brisk splashes of color and mood.

Egan and Horan worry that this CD may be too modern for some of their fans. O'Donovan predicts that, while some diehards may turn away from the band now, many more new fans will come to their music, and through Solas, be invited into the vast, wild, and ancient dance that is Celtic music.

"For what it's worth," says Egan, "it's not like there's a Britney Spears song on the rec ord. It's different material for us, but it's not Top 40. We are traditional musicians, but at the end of the day, we're still musicians, and you get excited about pushing yourself. Whether we will continue down this path, I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if we did." Illustration

Caption: Solas: "At the end of the day, we're still musicians." Word count: 685

Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Feb 10, 2002

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/405448360/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/36?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by Richard Harrington on March 2, 2002.

Jigs, Reels and Bob Dylan Too; Pop Music: The Irish American band Solas broadens its traditional approach with more contemporary repertoire.: [Home Edition] Harrington, Richard. Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]02 Mar 2002: F.16. Publisher logo. Links to publisher website, opened in a new window.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate [unavailable for this document]

"Without question, it was something we gave thought to," says Seamus Egan, Solas' founder and multi-instrument virtuoso (flute, tin whistle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, bodhran and percussion). "For fans who've enjoyed the more traditional elements on our previous albums, I think on first listen, this record might seem quite different.

Solas reconfigures the seldom-heard [Bob Dylan] song "Dignity," Young's "Darkness, Darkness" (in a manner reminiscent of Fairport Convention) and [Nick Drake]'s "Clothes of Sand" (featuring the decidedly Drake-ish lead vocal debut of button accordionist Mick McAuley). They also offer two haunting ballads by Philadelphia neighbor Antje Duvekot.

As Egan points out, Solas has gradually introduced new elements into its albums, such as percussionist Steve Holloway and bassist Chico Huff, who appeared on 1998's "Words That Remain," and soon after started touring with the band.

More Full Text

Translate [unavailable for this document]

0:00 /0:00

The Wall Street Journal once called the superb Irish American ensemble Solas "spirited and refreshingly risk-taking," but it's unlikely many Wall Street analysts would encourage the kind of dramatic change evident on their new album, "Edge of Silence."

After all, when you're an internationally acclaimed supergroup known for championing a traditional Irish repertoire fired by jigs and reels and graced by aching ballads, it might appear risky to suddenly start interpreting tunes by Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Jesse Colin Young and Nick Drake, not to mention adding electric guitar and drum loops to the mix.

On the other hand, hearing Solas' brooding "Georgia Lee," you'd think it was an ancient murder ballad, which could go a long way to ameliorating relations with fans of Irish music, including the genre's hard-core traditionalists.

"Without question, it was something we gave thought to," says Seamus Egan, Solas' founder and multi-instrument virtuoso (flute, tin whistle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, bodhran and percussion). "For fans who've enjoyed the more traditional elements on our previous albums, I think on first listen, this record might seem quite different.

"We felt we wanted, and needed, to make this step, but we didn't want to completely abandon where we come from," Egan adds. "I think that as much as possible we tried to keep intact the bits of Solas that have allowed us to be what we have been in the past and hopefully broaden that out a little bit and retain that feel."

Certainly, old-line Solas fans will thrill to lively instrumentals like "Legless" and "Charmy Chaplin."

"When people hear Irish music, they think it's stomping their foot to a jig or hearing the plaintive ballad," Egan says. "The thing is, it doesn't have to be just that. There's a way that you approach music as a traditional Irish musician that can be placed on more contemporary material."

Solas reconfigures the seldom-heard Dylan song "Dignity," Young's "Darkness, Darkness" (in a manner reminiscent of Fairport Convention) and Nick Drake's "Clothes of Sand" (featuring the decidedly Drake-ish lead vocal debut of button accordionist Mick McAuley). They also offer two haunting ballads by Philadelphia neighbor Antje Duvekot.

As Egan points out, Solas has gradually introduced new elements into its albums, such as percussionist Steve Holloway and bassist Chico Huff, who appeared on 1998's "Words That Remain," and soon after started touring with the band.

"We actually wanted to bring bass and drums out for the live shows much sooner than we did," Egan says. "We were a bit apprehensive what the reaction would be.... We knew that we felt better playing with them--it allowed us to open up the arrangements and audience reaction seemed to be appreciative, though I'm sure there were some grumblings here and there."

Now, he says, the surprise of seeing bass and drums on stage won't be an issue. "One of the new additions on this tour is the electric guitar--it's the first time we've had it on record, too."

This tour, Solas may finally do a concert version of its greatest hit.

"It's the only one," Egan chortles, referring to "I Will Remember You," from the soundtrack to the 1995 film "The Brothers McMullen." Sarah McLachlan's version eventually went Top 10 and earned her a Grammy.

"Folks have been onto us about playing it but it just never felt like it had a comfortable spot in our show. But with the broader approach to material on this record, now it fits."

Credit: WASHINGTON POST Word count: 602

(Copyright (c) 2002 Los Angeles Times) https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/421840416/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/8?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by Lynn Cline on October 18, 2002.

IRISH BAND SOLAS BRANCHES OUT MUSICALLY Cline, Lynn. The Santa Fe New Mexican; Santa Fe, N.M. [Santa Fe, N.M]18 Oct 2002: P-38.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate [unavailable for this document]

The Boston Herald has hailed Solas as "the best Irish traditional band in the world," and Grammy-winning producer Neil Dorfsman (who produced Sting, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Hornsby and Paul McCartney) seems to agree. He produced the band's newest recording, The Edge of Silence (Shanachie).

[Seamus Egan] plays flute, tin whistle, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, banjo and piano. Fiddler Winifred Horan, who sings backup; accordionist Mick McAuley, who plays whistle and sings; guitarist Donal Clancy and singer Deirdre Scanlan join him.

"Our roots are in Irish music," Horan said by phone from her home in Philadelphia, where the band is based. "We grew up with it, whether we grew up in America or in Ireland. But with Solas, we don't let ourselves be boxed into any category that makes us feel limited. We'd rather not have our musical choices dictated to us by the mainstream industry, which likes to categorize and market things in certain ways. You have to stand up for what you truly believe in, musically and artistically."

More Full Text

Translate [unavailable for this document]

0:00 /0:00

Members grew up living and breathing traditional sounds

Traditional Irish bands are a dime a dozen these days, what with the successes of Riverdance and the popularity of the

Chieftains, Altan, Lunasa and other groups devoted to reels, jigs and baleful ballads.

But Solas has set itself apart from the pack.

The Boston Herald has hailed Solas as "the best Irish traditional band in the world," and Grammy-winning producer Neil Dorfsman (who produced Sting, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Hornsby and Paul McCartney) seems to agree. He produced the band's newest recording, The Edge of Silence (Shanachie).

The quintet, led by founder Seamus Egan, has toured Ireland, England, France, Denmark, Belgium, Spain and Japan, gathering legions of fans along the way.

Egan plays flute, tin whistle, guitar, mandolin, bodhran, banjo and piano. Fiddler Winifred Horan, who sings backup; accordionist Mick McAuley, who plays whistle and sings; guitarist Donal Clancy and singer Deirdre Scanlan join him.

"Our roots are in Irish music," Horan said by phone from her home in Philadelphia, where the band is based. "We grew up with it, whether we grew up in America or in Ireland. But with Solas, we don't let ourselves be boxed into any category that makes us feel limited. We'd rather not have our musical choices dictated to us by the mainstream industry, which likes to categorize and market things in certain ways. You have to stand up for what you truly believe in, musically and artistically."

Solas swings into Santa Fe for a concert at 7:30 p.m. today, Oct. 18, at the James A. Little Theater.

The group joined forces in 1995, when Egan and Horan met in New York City.

"We were playing with other ensembles when we met, and it just so happened that we ended up leaving our other ensembles at the same time, so we decided to start a new band," Horan said.

Whether the musicians of Solas came from

Ireland or the Irish diaspora in the United States, all of them grew up living and breathing traditional Irish music.

Horan grew up in New York, the daughter of Irish parents. Her father is a musician who plays piano and trumpet in jazz bands.

"As kids in my family, we started out playing piano," Horan said. "I think I may have expressed an interest in violin. My parents gave in to any requests that we had musically. They went out and bought me a violin."

Horan also took lessons in Irish step dancing. She went on to study violin at the New England Conservatory of Music, but her love of Irish music turned her into a serious fiddler.

"I love many instruments," Horan said. "Sometimes I wish I were a competent pianist. Sometimes I wish I were a vocalist. But for some reason I feel comfortable with the fiddle. I think I can say what I need to say."

Solas, which takes its name from a Gaelic word meaning "light," released its first album in 1996. The eponymous debut drew rave reviews for its acrobatic reels and jigs and sorrowful ballads.

The band's popularity soared in the United States and in Europe after three additional albums and a series of electrifying concerts.

Egan's music reached a wider audience when he composed the score for the film The Brothers McMullen, including "I Will Remember You," a song that became a hit when Sarah McLachlan recorded it.

With The Edge of Silence, the group's fifth album, the band has branched out musically, recording a haunting rendition of Jesse Colin Young's lament "Darkness, Darkness," as well as a radical reworking of Bob Dylan's obscure "Dignity," an innovative version of Nick Drake's "Clothes of Sand," and a cover of Tom Waits' "Georgia Lee," which sounds remarkably like a murder ballad, a traditional American composition derived from Celtic music.

But Solas' transition from Irish traditional music to contemporary American music isn't as big a stretch as it may initially seem.

"It's pretty well known that Bob Dylan and Tom Waits were a big part of the folk music revival and played and participated in many festivals that crossed over into bluegrass, old-time R&B and other world music," Horan said. "When we're looking for songs, obviously the songs need to be strong in their lyric content, and we need to be able to adapt it to what we do.

The musical choices that we make are purely musical choices. Everything has to stand up musically at the end. I don't think we would cover a song just for the sake of doing it or because it was a cool thing to do. We have to be able to translate it into what we do, and it has to have strong music, both musically and lyrically." URL:

New prose
Interview by Kristen Andresen on August 27, 2004.

Irish Solas fiddles on edge of tradition: [All Edition] Andresen, Kristen; OF THE NEWS STAFF. Bangor Daily News; Bangor, Me. [Bangor, Me]27 Aug 2004: 8.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate Abstract

The group became Solas, Celtic for "light," and released its first album in 1996 to popular and critical acclaim. The Boston Herald declared Solas "not merely America's best Irish traditional band but maybe the world's." Solas will perform this Saturday at the 66th National Folk Festival in Bangor.

[Deirdre Scanlan] joined the band in 1999, shortly after her solo debut garnered widespread praise in her native Ireland. Scanlan's fellow countryman [Eamon McElholm] is Solas' newest member. While studying in Manchester, England, McElholm won the Performing Rights Society John Lennon Songwriters Award, and he later worked with the popular Irish band Stockton's Wing. Mick McAuley is regarded as one of Ireland's finest accordionists, and he recently released his first solo album.

The same can be said of Solas' recent releases, which have been met with mixed reviews. Some critics were left scratching their heads, while others extolled the band's fearlessness. A Billboard reviewer wrote of "Another Day," "Solas manages to be contemporary without being overtly modern."

More Full Text

Translate Full text Turn on search term navigation

0:00 /0:00

It all started at the National Folk Festival. Ten years ago, Joe Wilson, the director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, asked Seamus Egan to gather some friends together to play traditional Irish music in Lowell, Mass. So Egan, who is hailed as a multi-instrumental virtuoso, recruited a few all-stars in the genre: fiddler Winifred Horan, concertina and accordion player John Williams, guitarist John Doyle and vocalist Karan Casey.

It was impromptu - they didn't even rehearse - but as they played together on stage, things just clicked. The musicians had a ball, and the audience enjoyed it even more.

"We thought, 'Maybe this is something we should pursue a little further,'" Egan said by phone from Philadelphia, where he and Horan live.

The group became Solas, Celtic for "light," and released its first album in 1996 to popular and critical acclaim. The Boston Herald declared Solas "not merely America's best Irish traditional band but maybe the world's." Solas will perform this Saturday at the 66th National Folk Festival in Bangor.

Though the band's lineup has changed several times in the years that have passed - Solas now includes Egan and Horan, as well as Mick McCauley on accordion, vocalist Deirdre Scanlan, and Eamon McElholm, a keyboardist and backup vocalist - it hasn't distilled their sound.

"I think any time you have any kind of change in a band it's a challenge, but we've been fortunate," Egan said in a soft brogue - though he was born in Pennsylvania, the family moved to Ireland when he was 4. "The whole idea of Solas all along is everybody in the band being themselves and bringing what they have into the collective."

Most bring a pedigree. Egan has released three solo albums, he collaborated with Sarah McLachlan on "I Will Remember You," he wrote the soundtrack to the movie "The Brothers McMullen," and his music also can be heard on the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack. Horan, a New York native, was a fiddler for Cherish the Ladies. In addition to two solo albums, she also has recorded with the likes of Patty Larkin and Eileen Ivers. She's also a nine-time Irish step-dancing champion, and she'll treat visitors to this year's festival to a step or two.

Scanlan joined the band in 1999, shortly after her solo debut garnered widespread praise in her native Ireland. Scanlan's fellow countryman McElholm is Solas' newest member. While studying in Manchester, England, McElholm won the Performing Rights Society John Lennon Songwriters Award, and he later worked with the popular Irish band Stockton's Wing. Mick McAuley is regarded as one of Ireland's finest accordionists, and he recently released his first solo album.

As the band's membership has evolved, so has its music.

"We've gotten a little more advanced in our choice of material, particularly songs," Egan said. Solas' last album, "The Edge of Silence," included covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Tom Waits. "We're expanding instrumentation on our albums and availing ourselves to some of the technology, as well."

Though the band's earliest music fell well within the realm of traditional Irish music, they were always open to new ideas. It's a fine line to walk, however. When people go out to hear Irish music, they expect to hear a jig. When they don't, some go home unhappy.

The same can be said of Solas' recent releases, which have been met with mixed reviews. Some critics were left scratching their heads, while others extolled the band's fearlessness. A Billboard reviewer wrote of "Another Day," "Solas manages to be contemporary without being overtly modern."

"Even from the beginning, we never said, 'OK, this is what we're going to be,'" Egan said. "We don't want to get complacent. I think it's important, even if people get annoyed, it's important to keep pushing. It doesn't always make things easiest, but it seems to work for us."

It's been working since that first folk festival, nearly a decade ago. In retrospect, it was the perfect place for a band like Solas, which embraces diversity and musical experimentation, to get its start.

"One of the things I think is just fantastic is it brings together such a wide range of artists, who even at the most adventurous festivals, never get together," Egan said. "The wide range of different types of music and art is just extraordinary."

Solas takes to the stage at 4:30 p.m. Saturday on the Penobscot Stage and 9:30 p.m. on the Railroad Stage, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, on the Penobscot Stage and 5 p.m. on the Railroad Stage. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net. Word count: 799

(Copyright 2004 Bangor Daily News)

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/414286244/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/5?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by David Steinberg on April 2, 2006.

Band records live session for its 10th anniversary DAVID STEINBERG Journal Staff Writer. Albuquerque Journal; Albuquerque, N.M. [Albuquerque, N.M]02 Apr 2006: F3.

Solas, one of today's premier bands playing Irish music, wanted something special for its 10th anniversary.

So the band went into a recording studio ... to do a live CD/DVD recording.

Solas chose the Indre Studio in Philadelphia, which was large enough to accommodate the 200-plus people who attended the recording session/concert.

"We wanted to do a live thing but we also wanted it to be somewhat intimate. And for a myriad of technical reasons we wanted to have a certain amount of control," Seamus Egan, a founding member of Solas, said in a phone interview.

Invited to the three-hour session/concert were the musicians who had come and gone as members of Solas over the last decade.

"It was a reunion and for everyone it was a bit emotional," Egan said.

"At times it was amazing how the various lineups fell back into working together very easily. ... Everything meshed together."

The CD and DVD are expected to be released soon.

One of the exciting moments for Egan during the session/concert was that Solas recorded a new song titled "Reasonland" led by Deidre Scanlan, the current lead vocalist, and Karan Casey, her predecessor.

Egan said the voice of a band's lead singer is integral to its sound.

"So when Karan left it was 'Take a deep breath and see what goes from there,' '' he said. "You really want the new person to be their own person and fix the sound around what their strengths are. For the most part that's what we tried to do."

Though Solas performs Irish music it is basically a band whose members are Irish-Americans.

Egan was born in Hatboro, Pa., and for a time was reared in County Mayo, Ireland.

As with most of Solas' musicians, he is a multiinstrumentalist, playing flute, banjo, mandolin, whistles, guitars and the Irish drum known as a bodhran.

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/324368359/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/37?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by John Grant Emeigh on September 26, 2011.

Irish band 'Solas' making album and DVD in Butte John Grant Emeigh. McClatchy - Tribune Business News; Washington [Washington]26 Sep 2011. Publisher logo. Links to publisher website, opened in a new window.

Full text Abstract/Details

Hide highlighting Abstract Translate Abstract

The band plans to call the album and film "Shamrock City," which is one of Butte's monikers for its strong Irish roots.

Full Text

Translate Full text Turn on search term navigation

0:00 /0:00

Sept. 26--The Mining City gave the band Solas more than just memories of applause and hospitality when it first played here six years ago.

Butte also gave them inspiration.

The renowned Celtic quintet is working on an album and DVD that features Butte as the canvas for its latest musical venture. Solas founder Seamus Egan told The Montana Standard in a phone interview from Scotland this concept album has been in the works for some time.

"It's something that's been in our minds for the past few years," Egan said.

The band plans to call the album and film "Shamrock City," which is one of Butte's monikers for its strong Irish roots.

Solas first came to Butte in 2005 when it played at the An Ri Ra Irish Festival.

Egan said the concept comes from a story that's been in his family for years about a distant relative, Michael Conway. He came to America from Ireland about 1910 and eventually moved to the Mining City. The story goes Conway was murdered in Butte at age 25 in 1916.

COLORFUL HISTORY

Egan would stop in Butte whenever the band was on tour in the area and research Conway's story in the Butte Archives.

"It turned out he was beaten to death by a group of policemen," Egan said.

In his research, Egan said he also learned much about Butte's colorful history. He found the history of Butte relevant to issues this country still faces with immigration, unions and workers' rights.

"You could change the dates and some of the names and (Butte's history) is no different from today," he said.

Egan said he plans to scout locations and film parts of the city for the DVD this month. The entire band will be in Butte by mid-October to film themselves playing in various spots around the city.

"We're in the process right now of writing, recording and doing research for the project," Egan said.

Solas is celebrating its 15th anniversary as a band and is widely regarded as one of the most popular and influential Celtic bands working today.

SELF-PRODUCTION

The band, whose members live in Philadelphia and Ireland, is self-producing the "Shamrock City" project through Kickstarter.

Egan said this is the first time the band has self-produced an album in this fashion.

Through the Kickstarter, the band is asking its fans to donate money to help fund the production of the album. Their goal is to reach $25,000 by Oct. 10. As of Friday, the Solas has received nearly $3,500 in pledges from 64 backers.

Butte resident and An Ri Ra organizer Brendan McDonough is helping the band coordinate the project. McDonough said it's a great honor for the city to have a world-class talent like Solas do a record about Butte.

"This is a great cultural event and a huge story for Butte," he said.

-- Reporter John Grant Emeigh may be reached via email at john.emeigh@lee.net.

Credit: The Montana Standard, Butte Word count: 503

_(c)2011 The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.) Visit The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.) at www.mtstandard.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/894041159/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/16?accountid=10226

New prose
Interview by Sean Smith on February 1, 2017.

Solas says it's time to say 'goodbye for a while' Smith, Sean. The Boston Irish Reporter; Dorchester, Mass. [Dorchester, Mass]01 Feb 2017: 8,11.

Having marked their 20th anniversary this past year in grand style - with the release of the crowd-funded album "All These Years," which included appearances from all its former members - the groundbreaking Irish-American band Solas is about to head back out on the road, with a stop at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly on Feb., 18 at 8 p.m. (Go to thecabot.org for tickets and other details.)

But after that, don't count on seeing them again anytime soon.

Recently, the band announced on its Facebook page that it will take a sabbatical for an undetermined interval after this tour - which kicks off on Feb. 9 and concludes on March 19. "It is time to hit the reset button and rest, write, teach, be with family and loved ones, and just breathe. This isn't goodbye forever, necessarily, but it is goodbye for a while."

Fiddler Winifred (Win) Horan - who is one of the two remaining original members of Solas, along with Seamus Egan - affirmed the decision last month in a telephone interview from New York City.

"Doing the album was a pretty big undertaking, what with having so many people involved: We had to record in a few different locations, based on people's availability, and we never actually got everyone in the same place all at once," she said. "When it was all done, I think it just hit us - especially Seamus and me - what a milestone this was for the band. And it was a reminder of all the effort, dedication and, yes, sacrifices we made to keep Solas going - it was all worth it, of course, because we saw the world, and played in places I'd never imagined.

"But through all that, as a band we never took a break, even though we have other projects and other important parts of our lives -1 love the teaching I do at the Lincoln Conservatory, and I just don't feel right not being there for my students. So, we don't know yet how long this sabbatical will last, just that for a variety of reasons we need it."

The birth of Solas in the mid1990s represented a convergence of several trends, notably the arrival of a new generation of performers in the Irish/Celtic music revival that had taken hold by the late 1960s/early '70s, as well as an increasing interest in exploring commonalities across musical genres. Add in the undeniable buzz that "Riverdance"-which debuted at around the same time - created for Irish music and dance, and it was a propitious time for a group of young Irish and IrishAmerican musicians to put a new gloss on the revival.

And that they did. Irish music aficionados and casual listeners were struck by Solas's power and drive, its ambitious, forward-thinking arrangements, and most of all the sheer excellence of its members: from the enchanting, expressive voice of Karan Casey to the pulsating guitar presence of John Doyle to the melodic heft of Horan, Egan and his multiple instruments, and accordionist John Williams. Over time, the roster changed: Casey, Doyle and Williams departed; Donal Clancy and Mick McAuley arrived, with Eamon McElholm coming on board after Clancy left, Johnny B. Connolly after McAuley; and Casey's role as lead vocalist was taken on in succession by Deirdre Scanlan, Mairead Phelan, Niamh VarianBarry, Noriana Kennedy, and most recently, Moira Smiley. But Solas's high-level ability and vision never faltered.

It's not unreasonable to see the band's growth and development as a microcosm of the Irish music revival itself. Starting from a largely traditional Irish repertoire, Solas reached into the American folk songbook ("Pastures of Plenty") and the works of contemporary songwriters like Jesse Colin Young ("Darkness, Darkness") and Sarah McLachlan ("I Will Remember You"), and increasingly revealed their own talents for composing tunes and songs. In doing so, Solas established an identity as not simply an Irish band, but an Irish-American one - its members native-born Irish or American-born of Irish immigrants - threading together styles and influences of both traditions.

Theirs was, and remains, a truly original sound perched comfortably between traditional and modern - one that is quite evident on "All These Years." In some ways, it's a retrospective, because not only are current and past members included, but other musicians who have sat in on various occasions: bassists Chico Huff and Trevor Hutchinson and percussionists Ben Wittman and John Anthony. Yet with the exception of "Darkness, Darkness," all the material is new.

Egan's command of various instruments - banjo, mandolin, flute, whistle, nylon string guitar - and Horan's guts-and-glory lead and backing lines anchor the instrumental sets such as "Roarie Bummlers," "Mr. and Mrs. Walsh" and "Lucy Locket's/The Quiet Pint/ The Sleepy Sailors," with characteristic tight ensemble playing and shifting time signatures and rhythms from beyond the Irish and American traditions. The Francoesque waltz "Lost in Quimper" shows the band's cosmopolitan side, with accordion, fiddle and mandolin teasing out the tune's melodramatic disposition. And Solas even has a go at a classic session tune, "New Rigged Ship," enhanced by a solid bass and percussion accompaniment.

The songs on "All These Years," including the aforementioned revisit of "Darkness, Darkness" (led by Smiley), are equally impressive. Casey leads on two of them, the traditional "Sixteen Come Sunday" (sung with Doyle) that recalls but does not imitate the renowned Bothy Band version, and Patty Griffin's tragic yet consoling "You Are Not Alone." Lesser-known songwriters also get attention: Montanan Martha Scanlon's "Little Bird of Heaven," and Cork native Ger Wolfe's "Lay Me Down," given exquisite treatment by Smiley. Kennedy, accompanied by her five-string banjo, gives an Appalachian flavor to a setting of Yeats' "Song of the Wandering Aengus," and Barry's rendition of Southern mountain ballad "Willie Moore" is in similar Irish-American territory, while Scanlan essays the sorrowful Irish nationalist lament of old, "Padraig Og Mo Chroi."

"We didn't want a repeat of what we did for the 10th anniversary, a live show with old material," said Horan. "We wanted to look forward, not backward. This was a way of celebrating what we accomplished, with all the people who over the years brought their own unique gifts and energy to Solas; we thought it was better to put all these qualities to work on crafting something new. And I think the result shows how musically cohesive Solas has always been, regardless of who's been in the line-up.

"To this day, I believe that with Solas it didn't matter what your background was. None of us ever felt pressure, or an obligation, to fill a niche. What spoke to us from the beginning was the power of the music, the beauty in its simplicity, or its complexity. The music always came first."

Aband is a reflection of the time and circumstances in which it's created, Horan said, and of how these intersect with the interests of the band's individual members. "With Solas, you had five people who, although each had a foundation in Irish music, had eclectic tastes. John was into rock-and-roll, Karan was interested in jazz, and Seamus - though he grew up playing in the AllIreland competitions - was a self-taught renaissance man who had an ear for arrangement and composing. I'd played Irish fiddle as a kid but also went to conservatory, and I grew up in New York City, exposed to a melting pot of sounds.

"Then you consider the 1990s, and what was going on, whether it was grunge rock, or groups like Afro-Celt Sound System blending Irish and world music, and of course ?Riverdance' with all the diverse influences in Bill Whelan's musical score. Plus you had the Internet, though it was still kind of new, and you could get your ears on practically anything."

So while early on the band might have adhered to a more trad Irish repertoire, Horan said, they felt no hesitation in broadening the scope of either form or content. "We always embraced that eclectic side of ourselves. We felt right doing it, and it was something that audiences clearly wanted to hear. So we just didn't set any limits: If it was musical, and if it felt right, we'd do it."

But doing it in the recording studio was never enough, she adds.

"Solas, from the get-go, was a touring band at the heart. Regardless of the technology you use, the training or the gear you have, if you can't play and deliver live, if you can't connect with an audience it doesn't mean anything. That's why I'm glad we're touring for ?All These Years' - it's very special to get a response from our fans who've supported us for so long."

Appropriately enough, "All These Years" concludes with the title track, a hushed, reflective Egan composition played as a duet by Horan and Egan (this time on piano, which likely pushes his instrument count well into double figures).

"Putting it at the end just seemed the right thing to do, where it's just Seamus and me," said Horan. "It gets back to what I said about the simplicity of the music: Solas can have a ?big sound' with all kinds of things going on, but then we can have just two people playing something that's quiet and mellow, and the energy and passion are still there."

If "All These Years" - the album and the tune - isn't a coda for Solas, exactly, it does herald a significant pause in the proceedings, according to Horan. At a time when the US and much of the world seems unsettled, socially, politically and even emotionally, Horan feels that the forthcoming hiatus is a much-needed opportunity to "look at what's going on around us, not as a musician, but as a person."

Still, she added, there's ample reason to believe Solas can and will reconvene at some point in the near future and pick up where they left off.

"I just hope this time off lets us breathe, individually and collectively," she said, "and helps catalyze our creativity." Sidebar

"We wanted to look forward, not backward," says Horan of Solas' recent album, "All These Years." "This was a way ofcelebratingwhat we accomplished, with all the people who over the years brought their own unique gifts and energy to Solas." AuthorAffiliation

BY SEAN SMITH

SPECIAL TO THE BIR Word count: 1727

Copyright Boston Neighborhood News Inc. Feb 2017

https://search.proquest.com/news/docview/1868897795/8DFDEDAD6C0F4F5CPQ/41?accountid=10226