Reverie Road

Some musicians preserve a tradition by staying close to its center. Reverie Road begins there, then follows the music wherever it wants to go.

At the heart of the quartet are Winifred Horan and John Williams, founding members of Solas, the groundbreaking Irish-American ensemble that helped reshape contemporary traditional music. They are joined by former Gaelic Storm fiddler Katie Grennan and Utsav Lal, a remarkable pianist whose musical world stretches from Indian classical raga and jazz to Irish traditional music.

Together, they make Irish music with the horizon left wide open.

A fiddle air can unfold with the spaciousness of a film score. A continental waltz can drift into the repertoire beside an Irish reel. Two fiddles intertwine over accordion while Lal's piano creates an entirely different landscape underneath them. Then the whole thing can suddenly catch fire in a rush of jigs and reels.

The musicians have the virtuosity to make those journeys possible. Horan and Grennan are both classically trained fiddlers and accomplished Irish dancers, bringing an understanding of melody and rhythm that lives as much in the body as it does in the notes. Williams and Lal are musicians who have spent their careers reimagining what accompaniment can do.

But virtuosity isn't the destination.

What makes Reverie Road compelling is the conversation between four musicians with deep musical histories and unusually open ears: Irish tradition meeting French and Shetland influences, chamber music, jazz and the expansive possibilities of the piano.

The Irish Echo calls their music “gorgeous” and “emotive,” praising a collective vision that is “virtuosic, carefully conceived and wonderfully arranged.” Boston Irish hears an album “brimming with imagination, passion, grit, and fun.”

At De la Luz Soundstage, come hear what happens when extraordinary traditional musicians know their roots well enough to wander beyond them.