Solas

The Irish-American group, Solas, gave a superlative performance at the 2013 Beartrap Summer Festival. The impassioned group told many tales through their songs giving insight to times that have come and gone, and issues of today. Solas gives much heart and soul the world of Celtic music today.

Gaelic for “light” – Solas was a shining beacon on the stage of the 2013 Beartrap Summer Festival. The Irish-American quintet gave one of the most passionate performances of the weekend. The folks in Beartrap Meadow received a healthy dose of Celtic influence this Sunday afternoon, and they couldn't be more happy about it.

Celtic music can be an arcane realm with a vocabulary of its own. Where else can a band's list of instruments alone run to more than a dozen items, distinguishing between a "tin whistle" and a "low whistle" and including a device known as a "bodhran"? (Which, incidentally, is a small framed drum that looks like a cousin of the tambourine.)

Take some Irish-Americans from Philly, shake them up with a healthy dose of Irish traditional music and add a couple spoonfuls of Country, and you have Solas.

Solas is the quintessential Irish-American band recording and touring in the US today. Fifteen years ago, in a manner befitting their name (Gaelic for "light”), Solas burst onto the Irish music scene and instantly became a beacon – an incandescent ensemble that found contemporary relevance in timeless traditions without ever stooping to clichés. Anc...