Irish Musicians
Winifred Horan, Fiddle.
“We’re all a bit road-weary today. Sorry it’s taking us so long to get it together,” Win said during sound check at the Wayne Theater, in a New-York inflected voice reminiscent of a starlet in an old Woody Allen film. I told her it was absolutely fine, that I was working around their schedule, but she continued to apologize. “Why don’t I get dressed and you can start with me?”
Ten minutes later she came up to our makeshift studio space wrapped in a gold floral dress, and we got started. In less than a minute we had captured this photo, and I knew at that point that we were home free.
We were there to photograph the members of Solas, a band that Horan has been the heart and soul of since its inception, on their 30th anniversary tour. For all those years, she has been an integral part of the secret sauce that has kept the group at the forefront of modern Irish music for so many years. Through many personnel changes and stylistic explorations, Win has stayed front-and-center as the band’s longest-serving member and only fiddle player.
Although she learned Irish fiddle as a child, Win’s background is largely classical. As a teenager she won a scholarship to study violin at Mannes College of Music Preparatory School, where she studied for five years, and then attended the New England Conservatory of Music. She performed with the Boston Pops and numerous other quartets and orchestras before finding her way back to Irish music. But she had kept a foot (so to speak) in the tradition as a step-dancer, winning nine national championships. So, you could say, the rhythms of Irish music ran through her body while she studied concertos and sonatas. Before joining Solas, Win played and toured with the highly acclaimed all-female Irish group Cherish the Ladies, and also as a member of the Sharon Shannon Band.
Even though she has the technique and precision of a classical violinist, Win's playing exudes a rawness that is always captivating. You can feel the bow against the strings, the pressure, the friction. Her tone is thick and muscular. Near the end of a particularly energetic set, she’ll have multiple stray bow-hairs dancing off the end of her bow. She moves about the stage like a rock musician, leaning in, swaying, lifting the fiddle higher and then crouching down and forward. She can blow your hair back with a breakneck set of reels and then have you crying to an aching slow air.
In addition to her long run with Solas, Win has recorded three award-winning solo albums, a duet album with fellow Solas alum Mick McAuley, and a slew of other side-project albums. She is also in high demand as a recording session musician, as well as a teacher. Her current project, the excellent Reverie Road, has had her touring extensively over the last couple of years, and winning more awards.
After the show, while the rest of the band were meeting-and-greeting in the lobby (an event which apparently turned into an impromptu flute session), Win was curled up on the couch in the green room, headphones on, laptop out, as I bade my goodbyes. She’d given it all away onstage, as she does every night. The next day they had an early show in Williamsburg, and after that a flight out to the West Coast. Days after finishing the Solas run, she would be going back on tour with Reverie Road. She’d earned a bit of downtime.
The great Séamus Egan, flute, tenor banjo, whistles, mandolin, guitar, pipes, piano, and just about anything else that can be blown, plucked, or otherwise cajoled into making music.
I’ve read that Séamus doesn’t like being introduced as the guy who won four All-Ireland championship in four different instruments by the age of 14, so forget I said that. Child prodigies come and go, and he has far outgrown that moniker in the last 40 years, but it does speak to something essential: he has flawless, seemingly effortless technique, and that is something that takes thousands of hours of dedicated woodshedding, even for someone blessed with natural talent. And yet, there has always been something more to his playing. An energy, an expressiveness, a boldness. Additionally, he has taken each of the instruments he has mastered and created his own particular relationship with them, making the most of their specific qualities. From the fluidity, overtones, and octave slurs of the wooden flute to the percussive nature of the banjo, to the soft round notes of what is perhaps his secret weapon, the nylon-stringed guitar, Egan has forged a musical style that pays homage to traditional mentors like Mick Moloney and Matt Molloy but which uses that foundation as a launch pad for his own musical explorations.
Egan has built an illustrious career as a composer, bandleader, and recording artist that continues to push boundaries and produce new and exciting music. As the driving force behind Solas, he assembled an all-star cast of hot young trad musicians and upped the ante for what could be done with a traditional combo. As the band evolved over the ensuing years, Egan and the crew explored new territory, dipping into pop and Americana, composing more original tunes and songs, and bringing in a variety of singers and instrumentalists to expand their vision. After 20 years of being at the forefront of the folk music world, Solas recorded the excellent “All These Years” album, bringing together band members past and present, took a brief anniversary tour, and then announced that they were going on a hiatus.
Not one to sit still, Egan assembled the Séamus Egan Project, teaming up with a loose confederation of younger acoustic instrumentalists, and in 2020 produced the hypnotic “Early Bright”, followed by 2022’s evocative “Good Winter”. Just in time for a 30th anniversary tour, Solas re-formed and are now considering recording a new album. While keeping all these plates spinning, Séamus is an avid runner, and still gives the occasional master class for aspiring musicians, something he has done throughout his career. We can all look forward to more great music from Séamus in the future, while savoring his incredible back catalog and appreciating the huge influence he has had keeping Irish music fresh and relevant over the decades.