Sharon Shannon
Morgan Conrad
real impressed with the instrumental pieces by Sharon Shannon.
And I like her picture the best. :-)
Anyway, anybody know anything about her? I see that she has an
album, but that's about all I know. Where's she from, does
the band ever tour, etc. Does she ever sing?
Morgan Conrad Who grants absolution
Applied Biosystems for sins that never were committed?
m...@apldbio.com
415-570-6667
James McCloskey
Morgan Conrad (m...@apldbio.com) writes:
|> After listening to my recent purchase of "A Woman's Heart", I'm
|> real impressed with the instrumental pieces by Sharon Shannon.
|> And I like her picture the best. :-)
|> Anyway, anybody know anything about her? I see that she has an
|> album, but that's about all I know. Where's she from, does
|> the band ever tour, etc. Does she ever sing?
She's from Corafin in County Clare (Ireland), a tiny little town that
is just extraordinarily rich in its instrumental musical
tradition. She plays the accordion mostly, and occasionally the
fiddle. I've never heard her sing or heard of her singing. She was
half way through making her first solo recording when she met up with
Mike Scott and the Waterboys. She joined the Waterboys and toured with
them for some time. When that adventure ended, she returned and
finished work on her solo recording. She now has a regular working
band and tours (they played in the recent festival of Irish music in
San Francisco).
She's wonderful---steeped in the tradition and very knowledgable about
it, but with wide-open ears as well. A great player.
The album (CD and tape) is just called `Sharon Shannon' I think. It
was released in Ireland on Philip King's Hummingbird label; it is
distributed in the US, but I'm not sure who by. It seems to be fairly
easily available though. You'll find on it a mix of hard-core
traditional tunes, some newly composed material (from the Waterboys
days), at least one Cajun tune (`Anto's Cajun Cousins'), a Portuguese
tune .... Guest musicians include Donal Lunny, Steve Cooney (the
musician who most contributed to the sound apart from Sharon herself),
Adam Clayton (U2), Mike Scott, Liam O Maonlai and many others. I
really love it,
Jim McCloskey
Gary Martin
After listening to my recent purchase of "A Woman's Heart", I'm
real impressed with the instrumental pieces by Sharon Shannon.
And I like her picture the best. :-)
Anyway, anybody know anything about her? I see that she has an
album, but that's about all I know. Where's she from, does
the band ever tour, etc. Does she ever sing?
I don't know much more about her than what I've seen written here
or there. She's 25 years old (I think), from (hmm, am I remembering
this correctly?) Galway, plays button accordion and fiddle, and toured
with the Waterboys before forming her own band. The most recent
tour was with Gerry O'Bierne on guitar, Mary Custy on fiddle, and
Trevor Hutchinson (did I get that right?) on bass. The album is
called _Sharon Shannon_, and is available in the US on Philo. It's
a superb album - filled with virtuoso playing on tunes from a variety
of cultures (Irish, Scottish, Cajun, Portuguese, etc.). I don't
believe she sings (she didn't at either of the two concerts I've
been to, nor on the album, nor on the radio broadcast I heard that
was taped at a festival).
When I saw her at the Somerville Theater last month, from the 2nd row,
about 12 feet from the speaker, it was too loud, but I got a great
view. On all but about two or three tunes, her playing seemed almost
effortless, which was amazing, considering the virtuosity involved.
She seems rather shy, and doesn't talk much on stage - rarely doing
more than mentioning the names of the tunes and maybe who she learned
them from. And usually, while playing she just looks down at her
knee or the floor, but sometimes looks up and flashes a big grin.
Quite charming, but the music is so wonderful that this is irrelevant.
--
Gary A. Martin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, UMass Dartmouth
Mar...@cis.umassd.edu
Bob Mills
(James McCloskey) wrote:
>...at least one Cajun tune (`Anto's Cajun Cousins')
Actually, two - the second tune is the 'Happy One-Step', which I was
indirectly responsible for!
5 years ago Jan & I were touring in Ireland, and stopped in at Doolin, Co.
Clare for some sessions. Eoghan O'Neill & Mary Custy were the 'seed'
players at the sessions there, and we hit it off well, ended up spending a
few days together. When we were headed out, Mary asked me to send her a
compilation tape of oldtime music when I got back home.
I threw a couple of Cajun tunes on it, thinking 'bet she's never heard
anything like this!' Lo and behold, it shows up on Sharon's CD, credited to
Mary... small world!
A bunch of other tunes I sent her ended up on a tape she and Eoghan put out
later - with hilarious name mistakes, due to the compilation tape - things
like tunes being named after the album they were on instead of the tune
name, etc. She also did a complete cover of a tune from my first recording
with my band Tripping Up Stairs, complete with mistakes! Ahh, the folk
process...
Bob Mills
Decision Images, Inc. Phone: 1-609-683-0234
9 Charlton Street Fax: 1-609-683-4068
Princeton, NJ 08540 USA e-mail: deci...@tigger.jvnc.net