Although born and raised in Chicago, Liz Carroll has found a stunning amount of success in her ancestral homeland of Ireland. In 1975, at the age of 18, the fiddler won the Senior All-Ireland Championship - the first American to win that title in nine years, she recalled in an interview last week.
And a quarter-century later, in 2001, Irish Echo named her traditional musician of the year - its highest honor.
Carroll will be one of nine main-stage acts at this weekend's Midwest Folk Festival in Bishop Hill, about 30 miles southeast of the Quad Cities. The free two-day event focuses on Midwestern talent but has an international flavor because of artists such as Carroll, who still lives in the Chicago area.