We Banjo 3 is an Irish quartet transcending even the best superlatives, with 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.

This year marks 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.

Cast: Enda Scahill (Tenor Banjo, Vocals), Martin Howley (Tenor Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals), Fergal Scahill (Fiddle, Viola, Dobro, Percussion, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals), David Howley (Lead Vocals & Guitar)