Solas

Led by Seamus Egan, this Irish folk supergroup has invigorated the Irish traditional music scene by incorporating non-traditional instruments. The group's members make use of instruments like guitar, banjo and bouzouki to add a modern spice to their sound, which is heavily rooted in Irish reels, jigs and other folk song forms. A teen prodigy, Egan recorded his first album at age 16 and toured with Peter, Paul and Mary and Ralph Stanley. He later formed Solas with Winifred Horan, John Williams, John Doyle and vocalist Karan Casey. Though the group had no aspirations to tour and record, they soon gained a recording contract with Shanachie and in 1996 released their eponymous debut. Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers followed in 1997, with Words That Remain coming in 1998. Casey departed the following year to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Deirdre Scanlan, resulting in 2000's decidedly mellow Hour Before Dawn. While Scanlon's vocal style was similar to Casey's, it wasn't until the group took a more contemporary and stylistic approach to their sound on 2002's Edge of Silence that she began to develop into a true force of nature. By the time Another Day rolled around in 2003, the group had gelled into a truly cohesive unit, spending as much time on covers by the likes of Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Tom Waits and Dan Fogelberg as they did on traditional pieces. 2005 saw a return to their early days with the instrumental-heavy Waiting for an Echo. Egan and Williams have all recorded solo albums apart from the group.