For 20 years the County Clare born musician has been one of Irish traditional music's foremost ambassadors — even if she does give her traditional music a bit of a tweak with influences ranging from Jamaican reggae to French-Canadian reels and she started her recording career with the roots friendly rockers of The Waterboys.

St Patrick's Day also saw her play live at Dublin's Meteor Music Awards, where she was, at the age of 40, to become the youngest ever recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising a career which includes releasing Ireland's best-selling traditional music album 1991's, "Sharon Shannon", topping the charts with single "Galway Girl" and collaborations with home-grown and international stars such as Belinda Carlisle, Steve Earle, Kirsty MacColl, Bono, Christy Moore and Sinéad O'Connor.

"I'm just blown away. It's an amazing honour," she said ahead of collecting the award.

"I'm quite nervous about expressing how delighted I am, I'm not used to public speaking, so I'll be keeping it very short!"

Her first ever appearance in Inverness came just last November with a packed-out show in Hootananny's Ceilidh Bar. One of The Courier's top gigs of 2008, it seems the accordionist and occasional fiddler also had a good time on her Inverness stop.

"We really, really enjoyed that gig. It was one of our favourites of the whole tour," Shannon commented.

Now, just a few months later, she is returning to the Highlands with her big band next Thursday , just one of two shows in Scotland in her short UK tour, with a gig at HMV Picture House in Edinburgh the following night.

"I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be a good bit of craic, as we say, because I've got different guests," she said.

"I'd say the Scottish gigs will probably be the best of the whole tour because that Hootananny's gig was great the last time."

For this Inverness visit Shannon and her band of top Irish instrumentalists will be joined by singer and actress Camille O'Sullivan and a bona fide legend of Irish music — Shane MacGowan.

The hard living founder of The Pogues comes with something of a wild reputation, but that is not something that worries Shannon.

"I love him to bits! He's great and I really enjoy working with him," she declared. "With Shane you never know what to expect, it's different every night. We always have great fun and he never lets us down. He's very reliable and I think he would be able to do those songs in his sleep. He's a lovely genius, we're just mad about him."

Next Thursday's Ironworks' appearance may not have the intimacy of Hootananny's November show, but Shannon anticipates no dilution of the fun element.

"It's equal amount of party atmosphere," she said.

"We've never toured with Camille before and she's a great friend, so it will be great fun having her on the road and she's an amazing performer. The first time I saw her was on 'The Late, Late Show' in Ireland when she was doing a duet with Shane, so herself and Shane work very well together."

Her last Inverness show also drew on some more local vocal talent with a guest appearance by award-winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, so might we expect something similar at The Ironworks?

"You never know — we'll see who shows up," Shannon laughed.

"Anything goes really. Someone can get dragged up from the audience very easily. There's a lot of improvising in the tunes as well. I love it, because it's completely different every night. I really enjoy having the lads in the band."

The Inverness audience might even get a foretaste of Shannon's next recording project, an all star album which will follow up her bestselling "Galway Girl" retrospective.

"We started this album last year. I think the working title was 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels', but we've changed it to 'Saints and Scoundrels'," Shannon explained.

"It's my big band playing with various different guests. We've got lots of songs recorded already, one with Shane and two or three with Camille. The Waterboys did a really beautiful track and there are a whole lot of names in the pot that I can't say in public, because they're not confirmed, but we'll be doing that every chance we get."

* The Sharon Shannon Big Band featuring Shane MacGowan with support from Camille O'Sullivan appear at The Ironworks on Thursday. Doors open 7pm.

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