We Banjo 3

A band from Galway, Ireland, We Banjo 3 plays a blend of traditional Irish, old time, and bluegrass music they call ‘celt grass.’ The band is composed of two sets of brothers; Enda and Fergal Scahill and Martin and David Howley. Their debut album Roots of the Banjo Tree was released in 2012 and was named Traditional Music Album of the Year by The Irish Times. The band’s latest album is last year’s String Theory. KS spoke with Enda Scahill about We Banjo 3’s upcoming Japan visit.

Tell us about the term ‘celt grass’ and how you’d describe the band to someone who’d never heard it.

Celt grass was coined by a U.K. Folk Music journalist after our first album came out, but we’ve nabbed it! We grew up playing Irish music and then fell in love with American folk music. As the band was based so much around the banjo, and the banjo is so influential in both Ireland and America, it was really natural to blend both musics. We like to describe ourselves as high-energy, virtuosic fun.

Have you played in Japan before?

We first came to Japan in 2015 for the Irish Christmas in Tokyo concert series where we played with Dervish, Altan, and Humbert Humbert.

You release albums at the rate of almost one a year, does that mean that a fifth album is on the horizon?

We’ve released four albums in five years, and our next album will be recorded in January in Nashville.

German pioneers of heavy metal
• Club Quattro, Osaka • Metal • 7pm • ¥8,500 • Tel: 06-6311-8111