Comprising 2/5 of the Irish American super-group Solas, Mick McAuley and Winifred Horan join forces for the first time as a duo for the release of Serenade. Accompanied by Donal Clancy (Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin), Chico Huff (Acoustic Bass) and Paul Gurney (Electric Bass), McAuley and Horan take the listener on a journey through arrangements of traditional tunes, new compositions and contemporary covers.
Mick McAuley & Winifred Horan's Serenade is a delightful record. It's no surprise that the tunes are all top drawer.
"We decided that this album did not have to be entirely original material," McAuley says of the track listing, which contains only four Horan or McAuley compositions among the twelve that make up Serenade. "While that's important to some musicians, we felt that this mix makes the album sound fresh. These songs were fresh to us - we had just learned them. Then we used the original songs to glue the album together and make it feel whole." Horan agrees, adding, "The traditional songs here are not your standard session tunes."
As a squeeing Solas fanboy, they could do whatever they wanted to with this CD and I'd still love it, but I must say... exceptional. It's very simplistic-just fiddle, guitar, accordion and whistle-but at the same time does amazing things to the music. It's simultaneously traditional and breaks all the rules.
Serenade
Comprising 2/5 of the Irish American super-group Solas, Mick McAuley and Winifred Horan join forces for the first time as a duo for the release of Serenade. Accompanied by Donal Clancy (Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin), Chico Huff (Acoustic Bass) and Paul Gurney (Electric Bass), McAuley and Horan take the listener on a journey through arrangements of traditional tunes, new compositions and contemporary covers.
Mick McAuley & Winifred Horan's Serenade is a delightful record. It's no surprise that the tunes are all top drawer.
"We decided that this album did not have to be entirely original material," McAuley says of the track listing, which contains only four Horan or McAuley compositions among the twelve that make up Serenade. "While that's important to some musicians, we felt that this mix makes the album sound fresh. These songs were fresh to us - we had just learned them. Then we used the original songs to glue the album together and make it feel whole." Horan agrees, adding, "The traditional songs here are not your standard session tunes."
# Posted on February 10th 2006 by mikk
Whoa.
As a squeeing Solas fanboy, they could do whatever they wanted to with this CD and I'd still love it, but I must say... exceptional. It's very simplistic-just fiddle, guitar, accordion and whistle-but at the same time does amazing things to the music. It's simultaneously traditional and breaks all the rules.
# Posted on March 19th 2006 by Zazzaliss