By Joshua Le Suer

Celtic band Solas will be playing in the Rockwell Hall auditorium on March 14 and according to Jeff Marsha, the director of operations for the Performing Arts Center, it will be "a perfect, swinging-back-and-forth, beer-drinking, good ole time."

Marsha isn't the only one lavishing superlatives on Solas. The band has been lauded in The New York Times by pop music critic Jon Pareles as "an Irish-American and Irish band that applies Celtic-style virtuosity to material well outside typical jigs and reels."

Other reviewers who have praised the band include, according to the press release, The Boston Herald and The Los Angeles Times, the latter of which described Solas as possessing "startling instrumental and vocal firepower."

Solas is an acoustical band. Which, Marsha explains, means it does not use electronic instruments.

"When they perform live, they don't even have a drummer," says Marsha. "It's just 2 guitars, a violin, an accordion and one of their guitarists, [Seamus Egan], plays a lot of other string instruments.”

According to the press release:

• Band member Winifred Horan is a native of New York City who plays the fiddle and performs backing vocals. She is "a graduate of the New England Convervatory, as well as former core member of Cherish the Ladies and The Sharon Shannon Band."
• Mick Auley became a part of the band in 1997, "after touring and recording with Niamh Parsons and Ron Kavana. He plays the accordion, the whistle and performs vocals.
• Deirdre Scanlan is a native of Nenagh, County Tipperary. Her claim to fame in Ireland is her solo album, "Speak Softly," a highly praised work.
• Donal Clancy is "the highly talented son of Liam Clancy, of The Clancy Brothers." Clancy came to Solas "after a 2-year stint in The Eileen Ivers Band."

The band, in all its golden-voiced glory, will be performing in the Performing Arts Center, in Rockwell Hall, on March 14, at 8 p.m. The concert is a part of the 2002-03 Great Performer series, and is presented by M&T Bank.

Tickets, which range in price from $15 to $25, can be purchased at the Rockwell Hall box office, or by calling (716) 878-3005. Box office hours are Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information on the Solas concert and the band itself can be found at http://www.buffalostate.edu/pac/
season/solas.asp.

Students "are surprised by how entertaining and energetic the shows are," Marsha states. "I think the students go in and they don't know what to expect. And some buy CDs, or some don't. Or some buy a couple CDs, or they download it off the Internet.”

If people "love folk or acoustic music, that would be one reason to come," Marsha continues. "It's St. Pattie's Day weekend, so it's a good way to kick off St. Patrick's Day, which everyone likes to participate in. Our history, our basis of presenting good shows, could give people enough of a reason to check it out if they were on the fence."

It is important to note that though Solas is a Celtic band, the band is American, with most of the members born in the United States.

Marsha states that, in regards to how people from Ireland relate to an American band of Irish-Americans, who play traditionally Irish music, as an attitude of "general acceptance."

“So many Irish folk have immigrated to the States," Marsha says. "You know, the old melting pot of America. The Irish have so many American descendants that it's pretty much accepted."