By CAROLYN BROWNFor the Valley Advocate Socks in the Frying Pan, the high-spirited, traditional music-playing trio from County Clare, Ireland, known for combining virtuosic musicianship with humor and charm and fervor for their roots, will soon grace the Iron Horse stage. The band, comprised of guitarist/lead vocalist Aodan Coyne, accordionist Shane Hayes and fiddler Fiachra Hayes, will perform a holiday show at the Northampton venue on Wednesday, Dec. 10. Showtime begins at 7 p.m. “We will do our best to speak slowly so that you can understand what we’re saying,” Sean Hayes joked. “We can’t afford the big overhead projector that has subtitles.” This isn’t the band’s first time in Northampton. As it happens, the group, which formed in 2014 in County Clare, Ireland, performed at the Iron Horse last December, too, on tour in support of their fifth album, “Waiting for Inspiration.” Every song on the album is original, which Hayes said is rare in Irish music. “Northampton is a great little town. We love going there … It’s a great town to walk around in, and the Iron Horse is an absolutely fantastic spot,” Hayes said. Beyond Northampton, the band is well acquainted with the United States. They’ve played in 48 states; the only two the group haven’t yet performed in are Hawaii and Alabama. Interestingly, one of Hayes’ standout memories of the U.S. include a food truck burger in Natick. Though he couldn’t remember the company’s name, he admitted that he thought about the burger probably more than he should. “It’s not trying to be anything; it’s just a burger. But I often think about that burger, and I just think, ‘I would love to go [back] there,’” he recalled. In a certain sense, traditional Irish music is transporting, too, Hayes said. He said he likes playing this genre because its spirited. “It’s an infectious, energetic style. It’s a really great way to be able to express yourself,” Hayes said. “You can really bring yourself into the music, and you can really get across what you’re feeling, and it’s usually just [a] very high energy, close-your-eyes-and-vibe type of thing. It’s like another world you can go into. You can close your eyes and disappear, and you go into this great world where you’re communicating with an audience.” Hayes spoke to the Gazette by Zoom from Florence, Italy, where he lives and conducts bus tours, which he said is easier than touring “because, instead of us going to 50 places, 50 people come to see us in the one place.” The band also leads bus tours of Ireland. When asked what made him move from Ireland to Italy, he had a simple reply: “A woman.”  In 2021, Hayes and his bandmates weren’t allowed to get visas to the U.S. It was the first summer in 10 years that the band hadn’t traveled to the U.S., but Hayes’ uncle had a place in Florence. He offered Hayes the opportunity to stay there for a month, which ended up changing his life.  “I came over here and met a girl and she said she’s not moving, and I said I’m not moving, so we compromised and I moved,” Hayes said. Incidentally, Fiachra Hayes, the band’s fiddler, is also Sean Hayes’ younger brother. Touring and performing with his brother is “exactly as you probably expect,” Sean Hayes said, “that it depends on the day; we could be best friends and we could be murdering each other the next day, but it is overall good.” Don’t ask what the name “Socks in the Frying Pan” means, by the way. “That is a massive secret,” Hayes said. “The agreement is, the last surviving member is allowed to say it as their final words on their deathbed.” When asked what audiences can expect at the Iron Horse show, Hayes replied, “Good, lively Irish music, that’s what they can expect — and a bit of fun. If you feel like going out and having a bit of fun, it won’t be a terrible 90 minutes of your life.”  Tickets are $30 at ironhorse.org. To learn more about Socks in the Frying Pan, visit socksinthefryingpan.com. ...read more read less