Ennis Trad Festival reunion for Any Old Time

ONE of the headline acts at this year’s Ennis Trad Festival will bring people on a trip down memory lane. Any Old Time comprising percussionist Mick Daly, fiddler Matt Cranitch and Dave Hennessy on accordion have been persuaded by the organisers of the festival to reunite to perform at the festival.
Up to 15 years ago, the group were among the favourites at the festival every year and it’s something of a coup for the festival to have the trio back together this year.
Mick Daly of Any Old Time explained that they never formally disbanded but just drifted into other individual projects.
“The door was always left open for us to play together again on any occasion. We’re absolutely thrilled to come back to the Ennis Trad this year and we hope the crowd will enjoy our performance as much as they used to in years gone by,” he said.
Mick recalled that Any Old Time brought out their first album in 1982 on vinyl, “so it’s back a good while now”.
“After that, we recorded The Phoenix in the mid-1980s and our last album, The Crossing, was in 1995. We toured for a few years after that. Our music was mainly Irish dance music and a lot of it was rooted in Sliabh Luachra music, polkas and slides and the music of Johnny O’Leary, Denis Murphy and his sister Julia Clifford. I also sang some American and Canadian tunes and Irish songs too of course. So, I’d guess you’d say we played a nice mix of music and we certainly weren’t straight trad, but we could do straight trad do,” Mick commented.
After Any Old Time, Mick played with Arcady, in the Mary Black Band and in Four Men and a Dog. He added that he still plays a lot in Cork and has worked with various musicians including Harry Bradley and Jesse Smith. He has recorded with Four Men and a Dog and on other people’s albums but has never done a solo album. “Maybe one of these days I will,” he added.
Matt has recorded lots of times, mainly with Sliabh Notes. “He and Jackie Daly also launched a CD during the Willie Clancy Week too.”
Mick and Dave meet and play together a few times a year, particularly in West Cork and in Cork City.
“We’re all still living in Cork. I live in the city, Dave is in Crosshaven, where he’s a secondary school teacher and Matt lives near Blarney and he’s retired from his lecturing in Cork Institute of Technology. He’s done a PhD on Sliabh Luachra music, focussing on the music of Julia Clifford. I work as a sound engineer too, mainly repairing instruments,” Mick explained.
After much thought, he admitted they have no Clare connections, other than coming to the county to play, including Ennis Trad Festival and at the Willie Clancy Week.
“Ennis Trad Festival is a great gathering of musicians and there’s a great atmosphere there. People from all over the country and further afield come and it is a really good festival of traditional music. It has a similar feeling to the Willie Clancy Week but it’s a bit calmer. I always go to Miltown for Willie Clancy too. This year I was there for a CD launched by Mary and Josie Nugent. I play on that with Jackie Daly and Johnny McDonagh, formerly of Dé Dannan,” Mick said.
This will be the group’s third official reunion since the 1990s, the last one being in May 2009 when they performed at the Fiddle Fair in Baltimore at the memorial gig of Seamus Creagh.
Mick isn’t ruling out the group playing together more regularly from now on.
“Arising from this, we are considering playing together more often again. It will depend on what offers are made but we’re certainly open to touring together again now, maybe not as much as we did in the ’80s and ’90s but certainly more regularly than now. We always enjoy playing together and we never had any falling out, so the door is open to playing Any Old Time again. We are in regular contact and we’re often at sessions in Cork together. We never formally disbanded but we all drifted into different projects. We’re not sure where this performance at Ennis Trad will bring us but we certainly haven’t closed our minds to being Any Old Time, a lot more of the time again,” he added.
Any Old Time will be one of the late club/concerts and will take place on Thursday night of Ennis Trad Festival, which runs from November 11 to 15.
A full line-up of events for this year’s Ennis Trad Festival is available online at www.ennistradfestival.com.