Sharon Shannon: Artist of the Week, last of the series
December 26, 2024
Colin Randall writes: there was no special reason why Sharon Shannon should be not only the last Salut! Live Artist of the Week of 2024 but also the last of the series. No anniversary I am aware of falls just now but she has been a very special part of Irish music throughout her long career and that’s reason enough.
Read more about her mighty contributions to music in this site's treasure-filled archive. This link takes you much of what we’ve published:
But in particular, take a look a this interview, albeit from 15 years ago
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I first encountered Shannon in the late 1980s during her brief period in Arcady, a multi-talented Irish band. Even then the trademark was that wide grin as she contributed to the lush overall sound without ever uttering a word on stage. I remember a broader grin that we see here but it's a great clip ...
There was a spell with the Waterboys but it was in her solo career that Shannon flourished, leading to some great collaborations with such people as Bono, Nigel Kennedy, Steve Earle, Sinead O’Connor, Kirsty MacColl and many more.
None better than this, with Steve on his song (not the Ed Sheeran one), Galway Girl ....
As for the series, it’s occupied the three of us - Andrew Curry, Bill Taylor and I - for the best part of 2024. And we’ve only scratched the surface. There are so many more artists who deserved a slot. Maybe their time will still come: in our own refinement of shrinkflation, we’re replacing Artist of the Week with Artist of the Month, starting right away in January.
Also each month we’ll choose an album. So something resembling the original series will still appear every two weeks.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I suspect it was a stunt by the local tourist board, but I’ve always loved the huge open-air performance of Galway Girl in the streets of Galway. https://youtu.be/SNs0vKDvs0g?feature=shared
Posted by: Andrew Curry | December 27, 2024 at 12:11 PM
It was in the very first Cover Story, which wasn’t a Cover Story at all but just introduced the series
https://www.salutlive.com/2017/06/cover-story-1-ed-sheerans-galway-girl-vs-steve-earle-with-sharon-shannon.html
Posted by: Colin Randall | December 27, 2024 at 05:50 PM