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As a part of the Irish folk group Solas, Karan Casey has defined herself as one of Ireland's best, joining the distinguished ranks of fellow female singer/songwriters such as Clannad's Maire Brennan, Sharon Shannon, and Karen Matheson of Capercaillie. The Wall Street Journal's music writer Earle Hitchner praises her singing, harking that Casey's voice "is one of the true glories of Irish music today." Karan Casey grew up singing with her family while growing up in the southeastern side of Waterford in the Irish village of Ballyduff Lower. As a child, she sang in the church choir, but turned to the piano as a young adult. While studying voice and piano at the University College Dublin and later at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in the late '80s, Casey was singing Ella Fitzgerald standards in a jazz duo at a local pub in Dublin. She also started her own Irish group called Dorothy. She credits jazz music for allowing her to wholly approach and understand her tact to singing traditiona...