Adam appears in a documentary, premiering tonight on Irish television, about the life of his longtime friend, the renowned Irish accordion player Sharon Shannon.
'Tradfluencer: The Sharon Shannon Story', which debuts on RTÉ One in Ireland, follows Shannon's ascendence as one of Ireland's best known and most beloved musicians by taking traditional Irish music into places it hadn't gone before.
Throughout her career, Shannon has collaborated with artists of a wide variety of genres from The Waterboys, Jackson Browne, John Prine, and Steve Earle to Sinéad O'Connor, Kirsty MacColl, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Moya Brennan—and Adam himself.
'She's really made the accordion hip and sexy—nobody would have thought that could happen', Adam says in the documentary's trailer.
Adam and Shannon first met in the legendary pub of Winkles Hotel in Kinvara, Galway in the late 1980s.
'I knew I was no match for the accordion, I knew that immediately', Adam told host Ryan Tubridy during a 2021 appearance alongside Shannon on RTE's The Late Late Show. 'In Sharon's hands, the music comes alive and there's no disputing that…and eventually I did manage to get on stage for a couple of numbers at Winkles Hotel and that was my dream come true'.
Recordings from those sessions were eventually released as the live album 'The Winkles Tapes', with Adam appearing on the track 'Larry O'Gaff's Set'.
In 1991, Adam played acoustic bass on 'The Marguerita Suite' from Shannon's self-titled debut album—the best-selling album of traditional Irish music ever released in Ireland.
'Tradfluencer: The Sharon Shannon Story' airs May 18 at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and will be available thereafter online via RTÉ Player.
