by Rick Anderson
Karan Casey sings for Solas, one of the hottest young Irish folk bands of the last five years. Her solo debut is a wonderful album, a program consisting primarily of traditional material presented with minimal arrangements that show off her crystalline voice to best advantage. The instrumentation is not always strictly traditional -- that's an electric guitar providing cloudlike washes of chordal harmony on &She Is Like the Swallow& -- but the overall feel is very much in the folk idiom. Despite the intrinsic lightness of her voice, Casey manages to deliver a blistering rendition of Ewan MacColl's acerbic &Ballad of Accounting,& and she sings about the jilted &Roger the Miller& with deceptive sweetness. She also brings new energy and insight into such chestnuts as &Shamrock Shore& and &One, I Love.& Her excellent backing musicians include members of Solas, notably flutist Seamus Egan, who also provides excellent production.