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He first heard the Irish banjo on a Mick Moloney recording and after his family returned to Philadelphia he started taking lessons from Moloney.
During a short space of time he also mastered the tin whistle, mandolin and uilleann pipes and won no less than four All Ireland Champion titles (tin whistle, flute, mandolin, banjo). At the tender age of 16 he released his first record with the unimaginative title Traditional Music of Ireland.
When Moloney founded The Green Fields Of America he invited Egan to join and it was with this band he made some of his most remarkable banjo work. It's also where he first began working with Eileen Ivers.
When "Green Fields" disbanded, Egan continued working with Eileen Ivers, performing in the New York area. In the early 1990s the two of them teamed up with Susan McKeown and John Doyle to form The Chanting House and later Egan, Ivers and Doyle all played in The Seamus Egan-Eileen Ivers Band.
In 1995 Egan released his second solo album, A Week in January, followed by When Juniper Sleeps the next year.
1995 also saw the birth of the band he is perhaps best known from, Solas. In Solas Egan has been focusing mainly on the flute, but he also does some impressive banjo work with them.
No matter what instrument, Seamus Egan's playing is always highly energetic and virtuostic without ever getting flashy. Rather than showing off his tremendous skills he prefers to blend into the band.
He's been said to play "uilleann-pipe style" banjo. There certainly is a lot to that. Although his banjo playing is firmly rooted in Sligo fiddle style he's definitely inspired by his experience as a piper. Always eager to explore new areas he's also been experimenting with jazz and other non-Celtic music styles.