ABOUT ENDA SCAHILL
Enda is the 2022 winner of the prestigious Steve Martin Banjo Award.
He has guested with The Chieftains, recorded with Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs, toured with Frankie Gavin and Stockton's Wing, was an original member for 10 years of Instrumental Band of the Decade The Brock McGuire Band and is a founding member of Billboard #1 mega band We Banjo 3
Galway born banjo player Enda Scahill is one of the most critically acclaimed banjoists in Ireland today. Enda has long established himself as one of the finest exponents of traditional Irish banjo playing and is widely recognised for his technical prowess and banjo teaching abilities.
In 2008 Enda published his first Irish Tenor Banjo Tutorial book. This was the first ever pedagogical approach to banjo teaching and it laid out in simple terms the essential foundation techniques for good banjo playing Professor Mick Moloney wrote “Enda’s tutor is masterfully conceived, the product of years of playing and thoughtful reflection”. The tutor is now the top selling Irish banjo tutorial on the market. Enda then released Volume II of his banjo tutorial series which takes an in-depth look at creating a unique playing style and musicianship using techniques such as ornamentation, variation, harmony and rhythmical ideas.
In his foreword to the tutorial books, the late Professor Mick Moloney of NYU said
"Enda Scahill is a gifted banjo player blessed with extraordinary technique"
Irish Banjo Lessons Learn Irish Banjo Celtic Banjo Tenor Banjo Music Lessons OAIM Online Academy of Irish Music Banjo Buddy James Finnegan Gerry O’Connor Irish Banjo Teresa O’Grady Learn Banjo Online How to play Irish Banjo How to Hold the banjo How to pick a banjo how to tune irish banjo Barney McKenna
Read more about Enda’s teaching philosophy here
Enda was central to the development of the We Banjo 3 tune book about which The Irish Echo wrote
"40 Solos for the Irish Tenor Banjo is an outstanding resource for banjo players wishing to better know and understand ornamentation and variation. With this tutor, WeBanjo3 has given us a resource young banjoists will undoubtedly turn to for years to come"
Enda's solo album Pick It Up was released in 2000 and is widely acclaimed as one of the essential Irish banjo albums of all time. Enda has been described as “just about the strongest banjo I’ve have ever heard” (Art Ketchin, Celtic Beat) and Irish American News in Chicago said “Enda does things on the banjo which should be impossible”. Irish Music Magazine has described his playing as “simply divine”
In 2006 Enda released the album Humdinger with Paul Brock and Ryan Molloy which was awarded Album of the Year in the Irish Times and Instrumental Album of the Year in Irish American News. Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains hailed the album’s “incredible virtuosic playing”
In 2011 the Brock McGuire Band released Green Grass Blue Grass, a collaboration between the band and some of the greatest legends of American Bluegrass- Ricky Skaggs, Bryan Sutton, Aubrey Haynie, Mark Fain and Jeff Taylor. The album, which was recorded in Ireland and at Skaggs Family Records in Nashville has been critically acclaimed and described by PJ Curtis as "An electrifying rendering of tunes from different - though related - traditions as they flow from the hearts and fingers of these virtuoso musicians at the very top of their game. A ground-breaking, milestone recording"
We Banjo 3
Galway-based We Banjo 3 has one foot in Irish music and one foot in Americana music, seamlessly combining the virtuosity and precision in each genre’s traditional disciplines with the artful song-craft and infectious live performance of today’s musical landscape.
2022 marked 10 years of We Banjo 3 playing to thousands of dedicated fans – music-lovers who perhaps first discovered the band at an Irish or Bluegrass festival, and are now flocking to headlining shows and mainstream music fests to dance to the dashing rhythms and simmering harmonies of this band of brothers. We Banjo 3’s two sets of brothers—Enda & Fergal Scahill and David & Martin Howley—share a musical intimacy that emanates in the rolling banjos, soaring fiddle and mandolin runs, and bright and vibrant guitar strums that swirl around propulsive vocals and perfect harmonies.
We Banjo 3 grew out of jam sessions among Enda, David, and Martin. After Enda returned to Galway from a tour playing bluegrass and old-time festivals, he called up David and Martin and asked them to come over to his house to play some music, wanting to share with them the music he’d learned on his tour. “We started to play, and I thought, ‘this is really fun’,” says Enda. “We didn’t think of forming a band; it was just a passion project.” In 2009, though, the three started playing small gigs around Ireland, and since they all played banjo they called themselves We Banjo 3. David added vocals and guitar, bringing another dimension to their sound. A few years later Fergal joined the group on fiddle, and though the band’s instrumentation and sound were quickly evolving, their moniker stuck with them.
After a performance at International Arts Festival, the biggest art festival in Europe, We Banjo 3 was awarded a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland, which they used to record their first album and continued to tour Ireland. Three years later, the band had built an impressive and still-growing following, and fans crowded into the band’s sold-out shows. In 2012, We Banjo 3 was invited to perform the renowned Milwaukee Irish Festival, where We Banjo 3’s dazzling musicianship and energetic live show wowed the audience, and this first U.S. play instantly positioned We Banjo 3 as darlings of the Irish American Festival circuit. Today, even as the band has grown to headline their own shows in these cities, We Banjo 3 tops the bill at these festivals year-after-year.
We Banjo 3 combines the jet-fueled tempos and rhythms of jamgrass with the swirling melody lines of traditional Irish music to get their fans up and dancing and to lift their hearts. As David says, “We love doing this; we’re grateful our fan community loves it, too. We get to pass the energy back and forth throughout our shows.”
On their upcoming album, it’s the band’s prolific tune-writing skills, and their inciting lyrics that are somehow ubiquitous and intimate all at once, that pull the listener in. Buoyed by musical virtuosity and well-crafted song structure, the complex instrumentation feels nimble and willowy, shaping a contended and canny listening experience.
Like their 2019 Roots to Rise Live, which debuted in August at #1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums Chart, and their 2018 album Haven, which spent 3 weeks at #1, Open The Road elevates the band’s music to new heights–-giving their fans the infectious melodies and musical brilliance they’ve come to expect from We Banjo 3, and introducing the band to an even wider swath of music fans at festivals across the U.S. and the world.
