Would you say Sharon Shannon is simply popular for all her publicity and the hype made of her rather than her actual talent?Is she a commercially and success hunger musician who does not represent real Irish traditional music?
I love her playing, I love her cheery smile (or maybe its a grimace, holding on for dear life, cleverly disguised as a smile). Don't love or even like some of the orchestration - trap drum, for example.
sharon shannon has a brilliant and very authentic, in-built sense of rhythm for the music. she's very Clare to me...personality and all...if she's not from there, she ought to be. she's the genuine article.
She plays some of the most delightful music I've heard a button-accordion make. Of course she's the genuine article, and I'm not on about how Irish she is or anything, but the nature and quality of her music. *Within* the scene it may be criticised for all I know, as is the music of Flook! and Lunasa and, really, any new act that pushes out the envelope a bit, but within the trad-house she certainly is.
I haven't been so keen on some of her guest spots and orchestration, but these are areas in which - given her commercial viability - she is free to experiment and do what she wants: one can take it or leave it. They do not reflect upon her own playing ability.
Sharon Shannon's alter ego over here (UK) might well be the Northumbrian piper / fiddler Kathryn Tickell, who has experimented a good deal, has a high public profile and has incurred the same sort of flak at times. Both are, simply, excellent traditional musicians, and also live wires.
well, I wasn't sure, and only goin' on the sound of her rhythm and the look of her personality, but it turns out she was born in Ruan, County Clare. So I'm glad I've clarified that now.
I was hoping I wouldn't even have to say that I was TOTALLY KIDDING about her grimace/smile. I love her smile, I love her playing, I love her spirit - I want to be Sharon Shannon - I just don't care for the drum kit.
For what it's worth, Sharon is a massively talented musician who was fortunate enough to be coming of age, musically, at a time when there was a burgeoning of interest in Ireland's music. The Waterboys set her on her way and she subsequently discovered a manager, John Dunford, who knew exactly how to market her.
The upshot of that was, firstly, her self-titled debut album (which featured just about everybody who was anybody at the time), but, more importantly, the 'Out of the Gap' album with the dub master Denis Bovell behind the mixing desk - Ireland meets Jamaica with generally successful results.
Then there's 'The Diamond Mountain Sessions', which predates by several years the similar 'Transatlantic Sessions' TV series. Sharon clearly had more than a little street cred to get Jackson Browne, Steve Earle and John Prine on board.
Add to that the hugely enjoyable 'Tunes' album (with Gavin, McGoldrick and Murray) and the latest one, 'Saints and Scoundrels', with the wonderful Imelda May, and I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Ireland who's matched Sharon's level of innovation over the last two decades.
Whether all that has been 'a good thing' is another matter and I, for one, certainly still feel queasy every time I hear Desi O'Halloran sing.
However, my guess is that the OP has heard virtually nothing of Sharon's recorded output. If that's the case, and if s/he doubts Sharon's ability, then a listen to either the aforementioned 'Tunes' or the 2005 album 'Upside Down' (same line-up, but with Dezi Donnelly on fiddle) would quickly dispel any qualms.
Sharon was part of a Comhaltas Tour which came to Scotland in 1985 at the age of 16. She came into the after gig-session and got down to it with all the rest of the group and the local musicians, [ plus the ones who had made the journey from Aberdeen to Motherwell for the concert.] A friend of mine got speaking to her about her music, addresses were exchanged, and lo and behold, a few weeks later a cassette tape arrived in Scotland of Sharon and her sister Mary playing a load of tunes in their kitchen. I still have that tape, I think, and it is superb Irish music, freely shared with other musicians, and entirely indicative of Sharon's musicianship and generosity. I was delighted that she got a break a few years later - her first solo CD was the first CD I ever bought, having just acquired a CD player. She's had commercial success, yes, but as far as I'm concerned, it's been based on musical talent and not hype. She maybe doesn't record as much traditional Irish music today as she used to, but I'm absolutely certain she could go and record an album of traditional Irish music as good as anyone else anytime she chose to, and I hope she does.
Does that answer your question ?
What people do for a living and what they do for sport are often very different things. I write about systems and design ways of capturing information about systems for a living - this does not mean I don't "represent traditional Irish music". Not to say that I represent Irish music, of course, but what I do for a living is not the reason.
Just saying, maybe Sharon Shannon's ability to make money playing ear-friendly traditionalish music, sugared with trap drums and bass and synthesizers and mixed with tangos and reggae and other styles, is no more representative of "pure drop" traditional music than what any of us do to pay the rent. And maybe that doesn't mean much of anything - it's pretty clear that she loves the pure drop stuff as much as the insurance salesman who comes down to the pub to play tunes with you on a Tuesday night.
I don't really think I'd go out of my way to hear her concerts, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to watch that insurance salesman sell insurance, either.
Somebody once said 'All fingers and not much music'
I love the way she surrounds herself with top musicians then gets all the credit, and I hate the term 'The Sharon Shannon Big Band' I expect to see something in the style of Glenn Miller, but all I see is a girl with a small box and a piece of sponge.
If you think "The Sharon Shannon Big Band" means you're going to see something like Glenn Miller, you need to do more homework, and if all you see "is a girl with a small box and piece of sponge", then maybe you should go to a different gig.
But what's wrong with "box and sponge"etc.... it's how she plays it and the music she gets out of it that matters.
And as for "gets all the credit",do you expect the gig poster to name every single musician who gets up on stage with her ? - it might need to be a pretty big poster. At every single Sharon Shannon gig I've ever been to, she has always introduced every musician up on stage with her. Admittedly I haven't seen the big band, but if they haven't been introduced, that would be for practical reasons rather than the egotistical reasons which you seem to be impugning.
I don't get the attacks on Sharon Shannon that surface every now and then. If you let yourself, you can just get carried away on the sheer exuberance and energy. As for involving other brilliant musicians, of course she does. Why wouldn't you, if you could?
She is a superb musician. And she plays The Music with a very clean style.
Is there an aroma of sexism here? Box playing seems to be a bit male dominated. I saw it a bit at a competition I was at last year. One young lady was a powerful, stylish player.
Several (generationally diverse)boys mumbled 'show-off'. I couldn't play the stuff she did. They probably couldn't either.
It's hard to make a career out of your musical talents these days (any days really), and she's brilliant and good luck to her. I don't possess some of her later CDs as some of her collaborations and arrangements are not to my taste, but the point is that they are not to my taste, and that's about it. Good on 'er!
She is a fabulous musician, lots of fun, who can play the pure drop, and the innovative stuff. I have lots of her records and play them often. Not everything she does fits my taste, but the musicianship is brilliant. Someday I hope to see her in person!
"Somebody needs to listen more. Exceptional whistle player too." Right. And she plays fiddle, too. Great musician altogether even if she is a bit bobble-headed.
There seem to be a lot of people here for whom her music is 'not to thier taste'. Me too, for the most part.
I think it's great to see a pro musician who so clearly loves and enjoys what's she's doing, and yes she is a really great musician (so far as I can judge). But I am still mystified as to why she felt the need to head off down so many sideroads with her music, almost none of which has, IMO, proved as musically successful as the original stuff - it all feels somehow tentative and compromised.
There's a lot of other people who also do odd things to this music (and indeed other music) 'because they want to' but who only end up getting slammed for it...
The timing is impeccable, the ornamentation just the right level. Some people might not like the idea of jazzing up trad, but there's no way you can deny the fundamental musicality of the performance.
Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon
Would you say Sharon Shannon is simply popular for all her publicity and the hype made of her rather than her actual talent?Is she a commercially and success hunger musician who does not represent real Irish traditional music?
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by honeynut
Re: Sharon Shannon
Who cares? If you like it, listen/buy. If you don't like it, don't listen/buy.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by minijackpot
Re: Sharon Shannon
I saw a clip of her playing a few reels on Come West before. She's superb...
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by FergalOH
Re: Sharon Shannon
I love her playing, I love her cheery smile (or maybe its a grimace, holding on for dear life, cleverly disguised as a smile). Don't love or even like some of the orchestration - trap drum, for example.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by sara505sings
Re: Sharon Shannon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOeAE5lm-Gk
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Bleedin' Heart
Re: Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon is a lovely player. I had the pleasure of hearing her play in a session in Galway this past July. Great stuff.
So she's actually made a career playing the accordion. Good for her.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Sharon Shannon
http://www.irishmusicreview.com/shannontunes.htm
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Ben Steen
Re: Sharon Shannon
sharon shannon has a brilliant and very authentic, in-built sense of rhythm for the music. she's very Clare to me...personality and all...if she's not from there, she ought to be. she's the genuine article.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Sharon Shannon
Aye. Anyone who is even vaguely "authentic," and has a great feel for the music *should* be from Clare. The rest of the world is obviously just pants.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Sharon Shannon
She plays some of the most delightful music I've heard a button-accordion make. Of course she's the genuine article, and I'm not on about how Irish she is or anything, but the nature and quality of her music. *Within* the scene it may be criticised for all I know, as is the music of Flook! and Lunasa and, really, any new act that pushes out the envelope a bit, but within the trad-house she certainly is.
I haven't been so keen on some of her guest spots and orchestration, but these are areas in which - given her commercial viability - she is free to experiment and do what she wants: one can take it or leave it. They do not reflect upon her own playing ability.
Sharon Shannon's alter ego over here (UK) might well be the Northumbrian piper / fiddler Kathryn Tickell, who has experimented a good deal, has a high public profile and has incurred the same sort of flak at times. Both are, simply, excellent traditional musicians, and also live wires.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by nicholas
Re: Sharon Shannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Shannon
well, I wasn't sure, and only goin' on the sound of her rhythm and the look of her personality, but it turns out she was born in Ruan, County Clare. So I'm glad I've clarified that now.
Some people are born with it. Others copy.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Sharon Shannon
I was hoping I wouldn't even have to say that I was TOTALLY KIDDING about her grimace/smile. I love her smile, I love her playing, I love her spirit - I want to be Sharon Shannon - I just don't care for the drum kit.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by sara505sings
Re: Sharon Shannon
For what it's worth, Sharon is a massively talented musician who was fortunate enough to be coming of age, musically, at a time when there was a burgeoning of interest in Ireland's music. The Waterboys set her on her way and she subsequently discovered a manager, John Dunford, who knew exactly how to market her.
The upshot of that was, firstly, her self-titled debut album (which featured just about everybody who was anybody at the time), but, more importantly, the 'Out of the Gap' album with the dub master Denis Bovell behind the mixing desk - Ireland meets Jamaica with generally successful results.
Then there's 'The Diamond Mountain Sessions', which predates by several years the similar 'Transatlantic Sessions' TV series. Sharon clearly had more than a little street cred to get Jackson Browne, Steve Earle and John Prine on board.
Add to that the hugely enjoyable 'Tunes' album (with Gavin, McGoldrick and Murray) and the latest one, 'Saints and Scoundrels', with the wonderful Imelda May, and I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Ireland who's matched Sharon's level of innovation over the last two decades.
Whether all that has been 'a good thing' is another matter and I, for one, certainly still feel queasy every time I hear Desi O'Halloran sing.
However, my guess is that the OP has heard virtually nothing of Sharon's recorded output. If that's the case, and if s/he doubts Sharon's ability, then a listen to either the aforementioned 'Tunes' or the 2005 album 'Upside Down' (same line-up, but with Dezi Donnelly on fiddle) would quickly dispel any qualms.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Sharon Shannon
@ silver spear: "The rest of the world is obviously just pants."
I dunno. If you don't like your pants, you could always ditch them. I guess.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: Sharon Shannon
Sharon was part of a Comhaltas Tour which came to Scotland in 1985 at the age of 16. She came into the after gig-session and got down to it with all the rest of the group and the local musicians, [ plus the ones who had made the journey from Aberdeen to Motherwell for the concert.] A friend of mine got speaking to her about her music, addresses were exchanged, and lo and behold, a few weeks later a cassette tape arrived in Scotland of Sharon and her sister Mary playing a load of tunes in their kitchen. I still have that tape, I think, and it is superb Irish music, freely shared with other musicians, and entirely indicative of Sharon's musicianship and generosity. I was delighted that she got a break a few years later - her first solo CD was the first CD I ever bought, having just acquired a CD player. She's had commercial success, yes, but as far as I'm concerned, it's been based on musical talent and not hype. She maybe doesn't record as much traditional Irish music today as she used to, but I'm absolutely certain she could go and record an album of traditional Irish music as good as anyone else anytime she chose to, and I hope she does.
Does that answer your question ?
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Kenny
Re: Sharon Shannon
I remember a summer's night she walked into Friel's a few years ago, with Donogh Henessy in tow.
Within a half an hour Matt Molloy and Sean Keane also walked in. Between those walk ins and those already in there, quite the night ensued.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: Sharon Shannon
What people do for a living and what they do for sport are often very different things. I write about systems and design ways of capturing information about systems for a living - this does not mean I don't "represent traditional Irish music". Not to say that I represent Irish music, of course, but what I do for a living is not the reason.
Just saying, maybe Sharon Shannon's ability to make money playing ear-friendly traditionalish music, sugared with trap drums and bass and synthesizers and mixed with tangos and reggae and other styles, is no more representative of "pure drop" traditional music than what any of us do to pay the rent. And maybe that doesn't mean much of anything - it's pretty clear that she loves the pure drop stuff as much as the insurance salesman who comes down to the pub to play tunes with you on a Tuesday night.
I don't really think I'd go out of my way to hear her concerts, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to watch that insurance salesman sell insurance, either.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Sharon Shannon
Well said, Jon.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Sharon Shannon
She's a damn fine fiddle player.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by gam
Re: Sharon Shannon
Somebody once said 'All fingers and not much music'
I love the way she surrounds herself with top musicians then gets all the credit, and I hate the term 'The Sharon Shannon Big Band' I expect to see something in the style of Glenn Miller, but all I see is a girl with a small box and a piece of sponge.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Free Reed
Re: Sharon Shannon
Somebody needs to listen more. Exceptional whistle player too.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Kenny
Re: Sharon Shannon
If you think "The Sharon Shannon Big Band" means you're going to see something like Glenn Miller, you need to do more homework, and if all you see "is a girl with a small box and piece of sponge", then maybe you should go to a different gig.
But what's wrong with "box and sponge"etc.... it's how she plays it and the music she gets out of it that matters.
And as for "gets all the credit",do you expect the gig poster to name every single musician who gets up on stage with her ? - it might need to be a pretty big poster. At every single Sharon Shannon gig I've ever been to, she has always introduced every musician up on stage with her. Admittedly I haven't seen the big band, but if they haven't been introduced, that would be for practical reasons rather than the egotistical reasons which you seem to be impugning.
# Posted on February 18th 2011 by Kenny
Re: Sharon Shannon
I don't get the attacks on Sharon Shannon that surface every now and then. If you let yourself, you can just get carried away on the sheer exuberance and energy. As for involving other brilliant musicians, of course she does. Why wouldn't you, if you could?
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Sharon Shannon
EB. I have the same quandary.
She is a superb musician. And she plays The Music with a very clean style.
Is there an aroma of sexism here? Box playing seems to be a bit male dominated. I saw it a bit at a competition I was at last year. One young lady was a powerful, stylish player.
Several (generationally diverse)boys mumbled 'show-off'. I couldn't play the stuff she did. They probably couldn't either.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by zippydw
Re: Sharon Shannon
It's hard to make a career out of your musical talents these days (any days really), and she's brilliant and good luck to her. I don't possess some of her later CDs as some of her collaborations and arrangements are not to my taste, but the point is that they are not to my taste, and that's about it. Good on 'er!
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Sharon Shannon
She is a fabulous musician, lots of fun, who can play the pure drop, and the innovative stuff. I have lots of her records and play them often. Not everything she does fits my taste, but the musicianship is brilliant. Someday I hope to see her in person!
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Sharon Shannon
MacCruiskeen knows his stuff.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by big_tab
Re: Sharon Shannon
"Somebody needs to listen more. Exceptional whistle player too." Right. And she plays fiddle, too. Great musician altogether even if she is a bit bobble-headed.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by David Levine
Re: Sharon Shannon
There seem to be a lot of people here for whom her music is 'not to thier taste'. Me too, for the most part.
I think it's great to see a pro musician who so clearly loves and enjoys what's she's doing, and yes she is a really great musician (so far as I can judge). But I am still mystified as to why she felt the need to head off down so many sideroads with her music, almost none of which has, IMO, proved as musically successful as the original stuff - it all feels somehow tentative and compromised.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by ian stock
Re: Sharon Shannon
Because she wants to.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by big_tab
Re: Sharon Shannon
There's a lot of other people who also do odd things to this music (and indeed other music) 'because they want to' but who only end up getting slammed for it...
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by ian stock
Re: Sharon Shannon
'All fingers and not much music'?
Which end of the bull did you hear that from.
That one clip above should show you there's more music in her little finger than the entire body of the gobsh*te who came up with that one.
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by bc_box_player
Re: Sharon Shannon
If I'd known that her agent or the secretary of her fan club was posting on here I'd have left out the bit about the 'sponge'
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by Free Reed
Re: Sharon Shannon
Sorry, Free Reed,
Didn't mean to sound rude, but this sort of thing gives me the sh*ts big time.
Here's another clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhyf1XqkhUA&feature=related
The timing is impeccable, the ornamentation just the right level. Some people might not like the idea of jazzing up trad, but there's no way you can deny the fundamental musicality of the performance.
:D
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by bc_box_player
Re: Sharon Shannon
Gerry O'Connor is a good fiddler as well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jzlIq5BTXM
Compared to me at any rate
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by gam
Re: Sharon Shannon
Whatever she's doing, don't knock it.
The alternative is Jedward
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by harmonic miner
Re: Sharon Shannon
She's nifty, a fine musician, easy on the eyes, and Steve Earle wrote a song about her. Whatchagonedoboutit?
# Posted on February 19th 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Sharon Shannon
Eh...Mr.Earle had another young lassie in mind with that song.
# Posted on February 20th 2011 by laguacamaya
Re: Sharon Shannon
My all-time favorite -
Nothing she cannot do on the banjo.
Simply brilliant.
# Posted on February 20th 2011 by Piece
Re: Sharon Shannon
To answer the OP's question, No ,absolutely not !
# Posted on February 22nd 2011 by peter wsll