With one banjo and four musicians, We Banjo 3 will travel to Ball State from Galway, Ireland, to perform Thursday in Emens Auditorium.
This performance is a part of their “Earth and Sky” tour, which We Banjo 3 initiated to spread happiness and entertainment to their audiences.
The band initially started out as three banjoists playing together, but has morphed into four members consisting of the Howley and Scahill brothers, with only one banjoist in the group.
“It started out in my kitchen, and the three of us were all playing the banjo,” said Edna Scahill, the band’s banjoist.
Today, the band focuses on exploring the unique sound of “celtgrass.”
“We wanted to take Irish music and combine [it with] bluegrass and create this kind of energetic show,” said David Howley, the band’s lead vocalist.
Although the band created the new genre together, the Howley brothers had many initial ideas which stemmed from listening to their father’s music selections throughout their childhood.
“As young kids, we spent a lot of time listening to mixtapes of Irish and American music together,” Howley said. “It kind of created this sense that the conditions of the music were merely accent changes and that a lot of the music shared a lot of the energy. We were excited to explore that.”
Although their most recent album, “String Theory,” reach No. 1 on the Billboard World Album Charts, the band is still working to perfect their sound.
We Banjo 3 has had opportunities to play in both the United States and abroad at bluegrass and Irish festivals; although, this is their first concert in Indiana.
“Every show is different, and what we are massively based off of is the energy of the crowd in some respects,” Howley said. “Because when you have a couple hundred or thousand people screaming at you, you’re gonna get up and dance around. [The music] has a certain energy and drive that you can’t rehearse.”
Since they live in Ireland and have performed abroad, the band has noticed multiple differences between the atmosphere of crowds.
“[Americans] arrive completely committed to enjoy themselves and [are] very open,” Scahill said. “They arrive to be in the front row because they want to be right there.”
The band knows that concert attendance varies, but they encourage everyone to give their music a try.
“We’re really high energy, and its not heavy on the traditional folk music. For the general audience member who likes to be entertained here's the music. At high energy levels that's what we do,” Scahill said. “It’s not like, ‘I don’t know any Irish music so I don’t think I’ll go.’ If you like good music, if you like Mumford & Sons, if you like The Lumineers, you will like our music.”
Contact Pauleina Brunnemer with comments at pdbrunnemer@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @pauleina15.
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