{"id":17977,"date":"2020-11-29T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T16:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=17977"},"modified":"2020-11-29T12:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T16:07:47","slug":"sharon-shannon-another-national-treasure-we-should-be-proud-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=17977","title":{"rendered":"Sharon Shannon — Another National Treasure We Should Be Proud of"},"content":{"rendered":"

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[Photo: Annika Johansson]<\/p>\n

Another national treasure we should be proud of is Sharon Shannon. Born June 8th, 1968, this\u00a0 Irish musician is best known for her work with the\u00a0button accordion\u00a0and her\u00a0fiddle\u00a0technique. She also plays the\u00a0tin whistle\u00a0and\u00a0melodeon. In 1991,\u00a0 Shannon released her self-titled debut LP,\u00a0 which was the best-selling album of traditional\u00a0Irish music\u00a0ever released there.<\/p>\n

Beginning with Irish folk music, her work demonstrates a wide-ranging number of musical influences. Shannon was born in\u00a0Ruan, County Clare. At eight years old, she began performing with Disirt Tola, a local band, with which she toured the United States at the age of fourteen. Shannon also worked as a competitive\u00a0show jumper, but gave it up at 16 to focus on music. She similarly abandoned studying at\u00a0University College Cork.<\/p>\n

During the mid-’80s, Shannon studied the accordion with\u00a0Karen Tweed and the fiddle with\u00a0Frank Custy, and performed with the band Arcady, of which she was a founding member. Shannon began her own recording career in 1989, working with producer John Dunford and musicians such as\u00a0Adam Clayton,\u00a0Mike Scott\u00a0and\u00a0Steve Wickham. This led to Shannon’s joining their band,\u00a0The Waterboys. She was with the band for 18 months, and contributed both accordion and fiddle to their\u00a0Room to Roam\u00a0album. Her first world tour was with The Waterboys. She left the group shortly after Wickham’s departure, as the band was forced back to a more\u00a0rock and roll\u00a0sound.<\/p>\n

In 2009, she played “Galway Girl” live at the Meteor Music Awards 2009, where she also picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award and won Most Downloaded Track again for Galway Girl with Mundy.Shannon features playing accordion on\u00a0The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra\u00a0single “Bangarang”, which also features\u00a0Dawn Penn\u00a0as vocalist. It was released on 26 May 2014. In October 2018,\u00a0NUI Galway\u00a0awarded Shannon an honorary doctoral.<\/p>\n

You will hear a lot more from Sharon I am sure when this Coronavirus is over.<\/p>\n

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