One of Northern Ireland's best known and accomplished singer-songwriters, Anthony Toner has released a career first 'mini album' of instrumentals. We caught up with him to discuss the inspiration behind it and his musical career.
FT: You are about to release a new album comprising of instrumentals. What inspired you to do that?
AT: For any musician, playing on a new instrument always invites you to make new shapes and sounds with it, and when Neil Robinson asked me to try out one of his guitars, I had thought of recording a small handful of instrumental pieces – I don’t have many of those, so I had an EP in mind. But over the course of six or seven months, I was inspired to keep going, so there are nine pieces in total, which I think qualifies as a ‘mini-album’, or at least that’s what I’m calling it. I think I can say that’s my ‘guitar instrumental’ collection pretty much complete for now.
FT: Tell me about the ‘The Hooklet’ guitar you used during the recording process.
AT: It’s a very small-bodied, all-mahogany instrument, beautifully made, and with Neil’s superb attention to detail – really lovely, restrained touches of decoration. And because of the mahogany, it has a strong bass response, and sounds like a guitar twice the size, so it was full of surprises. Neil makes wonderful instruments – I’ve always admired them – but this one was really close to the ‘ideal’ for me in terms of colour, design and tone.
FT: You’ve rearranged music made famous by Arty McGlynn and John Renbourn on the album, as well as few other well known songs. How did you decide which tunes to pick?
AT: As I said, I have a VERY small collection of these tunes – I’m not usually that kind of guitar player, I mostly play accompaniment for vocal performance, mine or others. So for this collection, I stuck to things that I knew. I’d played the Renbourn arrangement of ‘The South Wind’ and the Arty McGlynn version of ‘The Blackbird’ for years, and I had a couple of my own pieces from an earlier album that seemed to work well. Simpler tunes like The Salley Gardens and The Minstrel Boy (partly inspired by my friend Neil Martin’s arrangement for the West Ocean String Quartet) came later. By the time I’d recorded nine of them, I thought I should quit while I was at least slightly ahead.
FT: As well as your own successful solo career you’ve played with Ronnie Greer as part of his blues band for many years. How did that relationship develop?
AT: I had a blues acoustic duo for years with Doc Doherty (now with Tony Villiers and the Villains) and we opened for Ronnie and Kenny McDowell and the band at Clotworthy House for a blues weekend. Ronnie was very complimentary about my slide guitar playing (I’ve been a longtime fan of Ry Cooder, and Lowell George from Little Feat, so that’s always been in my repertoire). Shortly after that, Kenny went off to a solo career, and Ronnie kept the band going, and was asking other musicians to make guest appearances, and I got a call. We met up to rehearse and it felt like we immediately gelled, and those couple of guest spots turned into a permanent position with the band. Which still amazes me – I’ve been a big fan of Ronnie’s guitar playing from the minute I heard him, and it’s a delight to be part of that line-up. Always lovely musicians and guests in the band, and a great spirit of friendship, too. And as a primarily acoustic artist, it also allows me to get loud and blow off some steam now and then.
AT: Do you find playing electric guitar with Ronnie’s band allows you to show a side of yourself you don’t usually get to when playing your own shows?
AT: Before I had a reputation as an acoustic singer songwriter, I had played in a country dance band for some years, and then with a quintet in a residency at Snappers in Portrush, so I’d always played electric, but mostly country and rock. So to concentrate on blues takes me back to my first ever playing, listening to Chuck Berry and Elvis and artists like that. It’s a delight. I am trying to get some slide guitar into the solo acoustic shows, now, too – but it takes more courage. Without the other musicians behind you, acoustic slide can be very exposed. Every mistake sounds enormous.
FT: Speaking of your own shows. You are about to go on the road again with Barbara Dickson. That’s been another long-term musical relationship. How did that develop?
AT: I’d been asked to be Barbara’s support act for some shows in Ireland almost 10 years ago, and we became friends almost immediately. She loved the songs and my guitar playing (we’re both big James Taylor fans) and she asked me if I’d be interested in repeating the performance on the dates she does with Nick Holland in the UK, and I’ve been her first call for opening act ever since. It’s been superb for me in terms of opening up new relationships and new audiences – I now have album orders regularly going out to Dundee, Cardiff, Truro… And I’ve started to develop some small-scale live gigs of my own as a result, playing folk clubs and so on in Scotland and England. As well as a work relationship, it’s a real friendship, and that’s a delight for me, as I was a genuine fan, back in the ‘January February’ days. And Barbara’s the real thing – with a wealth of folk tradition under her belt, and her voice and playing on guitar and piano are still great.
FT: All in all, it looks like it’s been another busy year for you. How’s rest of 2024 looking in the diary?
AT: Wonderfully busy, for which I’m always grateful – when I come back from the UK dates with Barbara, I have a run of shows right through to Christmas either solo, or with Ronnie and the band or with The Boondocks, a country covers trio, featuring me and Marcus McAuley and Mark Crockard from Celtic Soul. I’m delighted to have this much work, as I found things very quiet for the first six months. And some dates are starting to land in the calendar for next year, including (hopefully) some more folk club shows in Scotland in the autumn. I’m also happy to say that after a long creative drought, some new songs are coming through, so there may be a collection of new songs to follow next year.
FT: Great to catch up with you. Enjoy the tour and good luck with the new record.
AT: A pleasure – and thanks to Folk & Tumble for all the support they’ve given me, and all the other artists, over the years.
‘Early Riser’ can be purchased direct from Anthony’s webshop
All full list of Anthony’s tour dates can be found online now.