Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent first CD by talented musicians
Comment: This first CD by Solas is an excellent debut album for the group featuring roaring tunes and heart-warming songs, a trend that continues onto the followup album. This album has both beautiful and foot-stomping moments.
All the musicians are at the top of their form. Karan Casey brings a unique and beautiful voice. John Williams is at the top of his game on the box and is definitely the highlight of the album. John Doyle's unique guitar style is taking shape here and it's interesting to see what a delightful style he has created (listen to "In Play" by Liz Carroll and John Doyle for some of his best work). Winifred Horan is definitely an excellent fiddler (although she doesn't stand out as much as the rest of the band) and Seamus Egan is, of course, amazing on his managerie of instruments.
If you're interested at all in Irish traditional music, definitely buy this CD. You'll be captured from start to finish!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A First CD for Solas After Wild Acceptance in Ireland!
Comment: There is some type of charm that goes with a new group and a first album. Raw,young,separate, huge talents and the joy of finding each other may be what's happening. "Nil'Na Lá" jump starts the album with an invitation to "have a roll 'round th' blankets." This started Solas on a roll through their first three albums and DVD, a new following of fans and a love affair between the band and their fans. This gave traditional Irish Music CPR for many younger fans. A great way to learn Gaelic, and the lyrics are a message of hope, for "the mornin' has not come." Accordianist John Williams was with the group through this period of time, but replaced for the DVD. Vintage Solas is renewed in recognition each time new fans discover this pioneering style of arrangement of traditional music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: flawless album
Comment: Stunning flute playing, great singing, very solid fiddling and accordion playing... John Doyle's awesome, rhythmic guitar playing renders percussion and bass unnecessary. I couldn't more highly recommend this album for anyone who even kindof likes traditional Irish music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: absolute must if you like irish/scottish traditional
Comment: No idea what "music fan" from Buffalo is talking about; those criticisms sound more like a criticism of the entire genre, from someone who doesn't know the genre enough to hear the distinctions and thus thinks it all sounds the same. (Remember your parents and "that screaming on rock music that all sounds the same"?) Solas' first two CDs--this one and Sunny Spells--were the height of Irish musicianship in the late '90s, and they were widely (and rightly) acclaimed at the time as the best Irish band outside Ireland's borders, and possibly the best in the world. I would agree that there is the occasional near-throwaway track on these first two CDs--maybe a couple of tracks per album, or in some cases, just sections of a set, not the whole set. Also, rarely, the unison is so precise it almost sounds _too_ clean, with the edges all smoothed off, almost as if it were electronically programmed and played, without the rougher quality that a traditional band usually carries with it. (My wife--a stepdance teacher--and I jokingly refer to one of those tracks as the "Dialing for Dollars" music, because it really does sound like until they get into the second piece in the set.)
But there are far more moments of exhilarating virtuosity in well-chosen pieces and well-assembled sets. During this period, Solas had an unmatched ability to update traditional music and to breathe life into it without losing its traditional character or becoming the least bit "Celtic-new-agey." To the sorrow of many musicians, that ability seems to have left them progressively in their last three efforts. But this early CD, along with Sunny Spells, should be bedrock stuff for anybody who likes Irish and Scottish trad.
Customer Rating:
Summary: BUY THIS CD
Comment: Powerful Irish group with fresh sounds that also hold to those of us who appreciate traditional sounds. A very good buy!!!
