Sharon Shannon is an Irish folk and Irish folk musician from Ruan, Ireland, born in 1968. She is best known for playing button accordion, and also uses fiddle and tin whistle in her work.

Career

Shannon begins her recording career in 1989, working with producer John Dunford and musicians including Adam Clayton, Mike Scott and Steve Wickham. Her work with Scott and Wickham leads to her joining The Waterboys, where she plays for eighteen months and contributes accordion and fiddle to the album Room to Roam. She leaves the group when the band moves towards a more rock-oriented sound.

Before her solo breakthrough, Shannon tours the United States with Disirt Tola at the age of fourteen. Her first world tour is with The Waterboys.

Solo work and collaborations

Shannon’s solo career develops from Irish folk and draws on a wide range of styles, including reggae, cajun music, Portuguese music and French Canadian music. Her self-titled 1991 album Sharon Shannon becomes the best-selling traditional Irish music album ever released in Ireland. Her music receives wider exposure after her appearance on A Woman’s Heart and a tribute on The Late Late Show, which help drive the strong sales of her debut album.

Her 2000 album The Diamond Mountain Sessions is a commercial success and is certified triple platinum. It includes vocals from a large number of guest artists. In the same year, she records with Steve Earle on “The Galway Girl”, which appears on Earle’s Transcendental Blues and on Shannon & Friends’ The Diamond Mountain Sessions. She also works with Earle on the instrumental “Dominic Street”, which appears on his 2002 album Sidetracks.

Other collaborators include Jackson Browne, Coolfin, Dónal Lunny, Moya Brennan, Kirsty MacColl, Christy Moore, Sinéad O’Connor, Liam O’Maonlai and John Prine.

Awards and later albums

Shannon wins the lifetime achievement award at the 2009 Meteor Awards. Later albums include Renegade (2007), Saints & Scoundrels (2009), Upside down (2009) and Flying Circus (2012).