Robbie Henshaw is reason Sharon Shannon learned electric guitar

Athlone's rugby hero Robbie Henshaw has been credited as the reason that trad legend Sharon Shannon has learned how to play electric guitar!

Speaking on Newstalk's 'The Pat Kenny Show' on Tuesday about her latest album 'The Reckoning', the Galway-based accordion supremo was asked if it was true the Ireland ace, himself an accomplished accordion player, was behind her learning to master the electric guitar.

“That's right, it was part of a fundraising challenge, something like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Robbie asked me one day if he could nominate me to learn a new skill in five days.

“It could be anything you wanted, you could learn a new language, anything you wanted really so I decided to learn a tune on the electric guitar,” she told presenter Pat Kenny, and after borrowing an electric guitar from her lodger Sharon did just that.

“As soon as I took it into my hands, I loved being able to get this mad, distorted sound. I love that sound for jigs and reels so I couldn't leave it out of my hands,” she joked, and electric guitar can be heard on several tracks mixing trad music with other musical genres.

Back in 2018, many people will remember that the trad queen teamed up with Robbie and The Henshaw Family on a hugely successful charity album in aid of South Westmeath Hospice.

At the time Robbie, who has played music with members of his family from a young age, said that Sharon Shannon was someone he always looked up to and it was very special to play tunes with her as part of 'The Secret Sessions' project.

Sharon Shannon will perform her latest album which features a lot of new material and collaborations with top musicians and singers like Donal Lunny, Dennis Bovell, Susan O'Neill and Linton Kwesi Johnson, the latter featuring on a trad/reggae reimagining of the Johnny McEvoy/Dubliners hit 'Goodbye Muirsheen Durkin', in a special live stream performance from the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland on Saturday, March 20th at 8pm.

Tickets for the stream, featuring a full big band sound, are available exclusively via the www.dicefm website.