An unusually versatile performer, Seamus Egan has won four All Irelands (whistle, flute, mandolin, banjo). Yet despite people’s expectations of flashy performances, he prefers to blend into the overall Solas sound rather than impress with showy solo runs.
Born in 1969 in Hatboro, Philadelphia, of Irish parents, the family returned to Foxford, Co Mayo, when he was five. With sister Siobhan (Cherish the Ladies) he got his first lessons in Irish music from Martin Donoghue of Ballindine. He started on the flute and favoured the Sligo style of playing. It was listening to Matt Molloy on the radio that fired his enthusiasm for excellence. In a short space of time he mastered the tin whistle, mandolin, banjo and uilleann pipes.
He won his four All Ireland titles and released his first album Traditional Music of Ireland at the age of 16.
He is also an innovator who likes to experiment with jazz and other influences. His second album A Week In January was the basis of several tracks for the soundtrack of The Brothers McMullen, the 1995 award-winning Sundance Sleeper Hit movie. Has can also be heard on the soundtrack of Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking movie.
With Susan McKeown, Eileen Ivers and John Doyle he played in the New York band The Chanting House in the early 1990s. With Doyle he also played for a while in a band called The Seamus Egan-Eileen Ivers Band. In 1996 issued his third solo album When Juniper Sleeps.
But it was as a banjo player that Seamus first made his name on the Irish-American music circuit. The first Irish banjo he heard was on a recording by Mick Moloney. After returning with his family to Philadelphia from Mayo, he met up with Moloney. “He taught me an awful lot. I’d only started playing the banjo when I met up with him. He’d tell me what I was doing wrong and ways I could do things better. He also gave me loads of tunes and tapes to learn.” Another influence was accordionist Billy McComiskey And the piping of Paddy Keenan. “Pipes was always an instrument I wanted to end up playing. But when I realised what goes into it, I was far too lazy,” he told one interviewer. Other influences were Eugene O’Donnell, a Derry fiddler based in Philadelphia, and Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll.
He became part of the group The Green Fields of America which Moloney had put together and began touring the States. It then included Moloney, Robbie O’Connell, Jimmy Keane from Chicago on piano accordion and Eileen Ivers. After that himself and Eileen Ivers began playing in and around New York.
Seamus Egan further developed his own banjo style through touring in the States with other players. On one of those tours, put on by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, there was Ralph Stanley, one of the founding fathers of bluegrass music, and old timeys from the South playing various styles of five string banjo.
Next, in February 1995, he formed the group Solas with Doyle, fiddler Winnie Horan who had been playing with Cherish the Ladies, box player John Williams and singer Karan Casey who had recently come to New York from Ireland. By January of 1996 they were in the studio working on the first record. With Solas his playing shifted to a large degree from the banjo to the flute. That he is the driving force behind the group is acknowledged by Karan Casey in an interview with Paul Dromey: “He looks after the business end and is basically our manager.”
His talents extend further: I Will Remember You earned a Grammy Award for Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan with whom he co-wrote the song. Also he contributed over 20 pieces of music to Dancing on Dangerous Ground, the Riverdance follow-up of Jean Butler and Colin Dunne. And he has produced CDs for Gerry O’Sullivan, Liz Carroll, Cathie Ryan and Karan Casey. ? Ronan Nolan, 2000-08

Discography
Solo work
When Juniper Sleeps, Seamus Egan, 1996
A Week in January, Seamus Egan, 1995
Traditional Music of Ireland, Seamus Egan, 1986

With Solas
A Decade of Solas, 2006 Compass Records 4431
Waiting for an Echo, Shanachie CD 78060.
Another Day (2004) SH 78056 
The Words that Remain, Solas, 1998
Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers, Solas, 1997
Solas, Solas, 1996