For Love and Laughter

Solas | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Compass Records
• ASIN: B001BWQABY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,012 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

For over a decade, Solas has been hailed as the leading Irish-American supergroup. Through line-up changes and experiments with style and technology, the band has pushed the boundaries of but never strayed too far from their Irish roots.

Now, as Máiréad Phelan, an exciting young singer from Kilkenny, steps up to lend her exquisite vocals to the existing line up of Seamus Egan (flute, tenor banjo, mandolin, whistle, guitar, and bodhran), Winifred Horan (fiddle), Mick McAuley (accordion and concertina) and Eamon McElholm (guitar and keyboards), the band heads into their second decade of playing tight, fiery Irish music with a new tour and a new CD, For Love and Laughter .

The new material breaks fresh ground in duets with Canada s folk phenoms The Duhks and an inspired rendition of Rickie Lee Jones s Sailor Song, while it offers the imaginative reinterpretations of traditional material that Solas has been playing to the delight of their fans worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary Celtic folk, in the "hardly strictly trad" mode, September 8, 2008

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: For Love and Laughter (Audio CD)

Contemporary Irish-American folk at its best, from one of the finest bands in the field... Although former members Karan Casey, John Doyle and John Williams will be missed, newcomer Mairead Phelan makes a fine lead vocalist, while the album is anchored by the top-flight musicianship of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan, fiddler Winifred Horan (the band's two remaining founding members) and dazzling accordionist Mick McAuley. The group is undeniably a powerhouse, although reactions of fans towards the modern folk style that predominates on this disc will vary, depending on the listener's devotion to (or rejection of) strictly traditional material. Fans with more modern tastes, who are looking for the genre to expand its horizons, should be quite happy with this one! (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Guide To World Music)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solas, September 30, 2008

By 

J. Best (West Milford, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: For Love and Laughter (Audio CD)

I am a BIG Solas fan. Great musicians, wonderful people.
I've followed them, now, through 3 changes in lead singers. Each time it took awhile to get used to the new "voice" in the mix.The album itself is great. It's not just another "same old, same old" next album that you find with so many other groups. Very enjoyable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fire Lives On, February 18, 2009

By 

Peter S. Corcoran (Marietta, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: For Love and Laughter (Audio CD)

I have always loved this band, since its inception. As with most Irish music groups, they can already boast of some impressive PAST members, including John Doyle, John Williams, Karan Casey, and Donal Clancy, but the current ensemble is still wonderfully talented and retains founders Seamus Egan and Winnie Horan. They have always played with a kind of gypsy flare, sort of Irish music "kicked up a notch," (as Emeril might say). The pop influence has grown even stronger with this CD, which might put off some rigid traditionalists, but I find it an irresistible confection (and I love traditional Irish music).

I loved the driving rhythms of the traditional song "Seven Curses," the wonderful song about life as a "Merry Go Round" (which could probably double as country music hit), the contemporary feel of "There is a Time," the expressive guitar and fiddle work on Sunday's Waltz/Double Oh," and the instrumental set that begins with "John Riordan's Heels." They also render a wistful, slowed down version of the classic song "Mollai na gCuach Ni Chuilleanain," which I have always heard played as an up-tempo song, but is successfully reinvented here.

Egan and Horan manage to imprint the same fiery signature that seems to transcend this band's various incarnations. Mairead Phelan from Ireland is a terrific lead singer, and the talented Mick McAuley and Eamon McElholm complete a world class quintet. If you ever liked SOLAS you will love this CD. I am tempted to say that if you love music period, you will be happy to bring home "For Love and Laughter." This one is worth five stars in my book.