There’s Winnie Horan, her face screwed up with such intensity, the bow gliding across the strings with such speed and power, you aren’t sure whether she’s going to just play the fiddle or maybe just saw straight through it.

• Listen to "Pastures of Plenty"   (Quicktime, 1.04 MB)
• Read an Interview With Seamus About the Making of the CD/DVD
• FREE Solas Outdoor Concert August 2
  

And there’s Deirdre Scanlan, standing alongside Karan Casey, and they’re singing a brand-new tune, and their voices join in soaring, heartbreaking harmonies.

Seamus Egan is off in his usual corner of the stage, playing more instruments than any human being ought to be able to play.

And there’s Eamon McElholm, Mick McAuley, John Doyle, John Williams, Donal Clancy … all the members of Solas, past and present. And this souped-up Irish traditional supergroup is charging along like a rocket sled.

If you were there at Indre Studios in Philadelphia on the night of Sept. 13, 2005, the new Solas Reunion CD/DVD will bring it all back to you. If you weren’t there, of course, you will wish with all your might that you had been. After all, how often does a band brimming with such breathtaking virtuosity come together with all of its members, past and present, to deliver the kind of performance that threatens to blow the roof off the joint?

In this case, precisely 10 years. But “Reunion—A Decade of Solas” (Compass Records, 2006) was well worth the wait.

Solas—and perhaps especially its leader Seamus Egan—is used to setting standards. This CD/DVD combination is no exception. It’s groundbreaking. All of the passion and excitement of a live Solas performance is distilled into two small plastic disks, a dazzling accomplishment. In one of the behind-the-scenes segments presented on the DVD, the band’s former button accordion player John Williams describes the concert as “the greatest gig that ever happened.”

Maybe it isn’t. But if it isn’t, you’re going to have to show me another.

Live CDs often succeed at presenting a band’s work in a new and exciting light. Obviously, an audience changes things. The stomping, clapping, yelling, cheering—it all becomes a part of the performance. But the DVD adds an entirely new dimension to the event. OK, so you weren’t there. (Hey, I missed it, too.) But the quality of this concert DVD will make up for your inability to have snagged a seat.

Of course, the true magic of the performance lies in the composition of this one-time-only version of Solas. Backed up by singer Antje Duvekot, guitarist Chico Huff, percussionists Ben Whitman and John Anthony, and keyboardist Michael Aharon, all the past and present members of Solas seem to blend seamlessly into one organic whole—and the whole in this case is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. 

Nowhere is this happy blend more evident than in one newly recorded song, “Reasonland.” This tune is on both the CD and the DVD, and it features Deirdre, Karan and Antje. Their harmonies are delicate and poignant, bringing to mind some of the work of The Rankins.

For fans who can’t decide which version of the band they prefer, no worries. Many of the earlier tunes get a bit of updating, including “Pastures of Plenty” and Nil na La,” with Karan taking the lead. A more recent tune, “Black Annis,” features Deirdre as the lead vocalist, with backup from Mick and Winnie. The two trade off performances from beginning to end.

Two slow airs showcasing Seamus Egan’s prodigious talent also are on the CD: “Le Poule Huppees (The Crested Hens)” and the touching “Lament for Frankie,” Seamus’s and Win’s tribute to the late Frankie Kennedy of Altan.

And then there are the numbers that bring the crowd to its feet, where the band threatens to break new land-speed records, such as “The Flowing Bowl” on the 17-track CD and the Big Reels set (“The Big Reel of Ballynacally,” “The High Hill” and “Flash Away the Pressing Gang”) on the 16-track DVD. (There is some overlap on both the CD and DVD, but, happily, there are a few tunes that only show up on one or the other.)

This is not one of those recordings that just grow on you. It is, instead, an instant classic, an indispensable part of any Irish traditional collection. This set captures one astonishing moment in the history of a band that is already thought to be one of the best ever. It shows not just why Solas is important, but also why this music—with its simple tunes crafted by blind country harpers, or composed in honor of some long-dead fiddler or to lament the departure of a loved one for America’s shores—remains eternally young, vibrant and essential.