AFRO-CELTIC FUNK. Scotland. Senegal. Horns. Irresistible Grooves. And one of the most exciting bands I’ve ever seen. Brought together they are a force of nature.
Soulsha is a Boston-based band combining Scottish and West-African traditional music with funk, highlife, and afrobeat. Our name is a reference to the Scots-Gaelic word soillse, meaning a ray of light, elucidation, or “the light that happens.”
“Multi-talented and visionary, Soulsha is more than a fresh breeze blowing; it’s a tsunami of hope and high energy intercultural awareness washing onto ou
r shores just when we need it. DANCE and ACT now!”
–Alasdair Fraser, Scottish Fiddler
“…this is purely infectious stuff… It’s fresh, bold and exciting, and defies you to listen without moving and grooving to the beat; you might need to advise nearby friends, co-workers or fellow commuters in advance.”
–Sean Smith, Boston Irish Reporter
“Soulsha is truly unique. Can’t have them here often enough!”
–Ellen Sturgis, Executive Director, Amazing Things Arts Center, Framingham MA
This new 8-piece collective brings together some of the Boston area’s top musicians from backgrounds in Scottish, West African, and Funk music. Individually these musicians tour nationally and internationally. This is a sound you have never heard before. Hip shatteringly tight grooves provide an irresistible pedestal for the explosive joyfulness of Scottish dance tunes on fiddle and pipes, soulful vocals, pyrotechnical improvisation, and intricate traditional rhythms from the Wolof culture of Senegal. This band is on a mission to reveal the rhythmic, melodic, and spiritual connections between far flung cultures. It’s decolonization in action. They have brought audiences to their feet at Massachusetts festivals ranging from Glasgowlands Highland Games and Boston Celtic Music Festival, to Outside the Box and South Hadley FallsFest. No one is left unmoved, as the celebratory exuberance of these diverse cultures unites on stage, reminding us never to forget that we’re all in this together.
