Karan Casey

Karan Casey

Karan Casey is an Irish folk singer and jazz singer from Ballyduff Lower, County Waterford. She is a former member of Solas and records as a solo artist as well as appearing on other projects and film soundtracks. Her records are released by Shanachie Records in the United States and Vertical Records in Europe.

Early life and training

Born in 1969, Casey grows up in Ireland in a family that encourages her to sing at home, in church choir and at school. She studies piano at Waterford Regional Technical College before moving on to music at University College Dublin in 1987. She also studies classical music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

While still a student, she performs several nights a week in a Dublin bistro and develops an interest in jazz singing through Ella Fitzgerald’s scat style. At the Royal Irish Academy of Music she sings in a jazz band, then a folk-ballad band, and then another jazz band. She is also influenced by Dublin folk singer Frank Harte.

New York and Solas

Casey forms her own band, Dorothy, and moves to New York City in 1993. There she studies jazz at Long Island University. After encountering Irish traditional music sessions in New York, she returns to singing Irish traditional music and mostly performs in bars and local venues.

For most of 1994 she sings with Atlantic Bridge. At the end of that year she joins Seamus Egan and others in Solas. She sings five songs on the band’s first album in 1996, and later appears on Solas Live. Her Solas recordings include Solas (1996), Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers (1997), The Words That Remain (1998), and Reunion: A Decade of Solas (2006, CD and DVD).

Solo work and collaborations

In 1997 Casey records her first solo album, Songlines, which is inspired by Bruce Chatwin’s novel of the same name. It is produced by Seamus Egan and includes several Solas members, with a mix of traditional songs and contemporary folk material.

In 2000 she collaborates with several other singers on Seal Maiden - A Celtic Musical, a musical version of the film The Secret of Roan Inish made for children and centred on the selkie legend. She then releases three further solo albums in 2001, 2003 and 2005: The Winds Begin To Sing, Distant Shore and Chasing The Sun. The last of these includes several songs she writes herself, and some tracks on her later records are sung in Irish. Her 2005 recordings reflect her Celtic roots.

Other recordings and current life

Casey also works as a session musician on the film soundtracks Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) and Waking Ned Devine (1999), and on Paul Winter’s “Celtic Solstice”. She lives in County Cork and is married to Niall Vallely, a composer and player of traditional Irish music.