Highway gig for Hanly and McGlynn

MICK Hanly and Arty McGlynn will perform at the Highway Inn in Crusheen on Friday, August 13.

The two are playing a number of venues this summer and Hanly’s unique song-writing and story telling skills fused with McGlynn’s tasty virtuosity on guitar are making for a special coming together of two stalwarts of Ireland’s domestic music scene.
McGlynn hails from Omagh and after a long stint on the showband circuit, he turned to traditional music and released the groundbreaking McGlynn’s Fancy in 1979, the first album of traditional music played on guitar.
Subsequently he became one of the most sought after guitarists in the country, playing with the likes of Van Morrison, De Dannan and Patrick Street.
Hanly is best known as a songwriter, and is perhaps best known for Past the Point of Rescue that was a huge hit in American and which scooped two BMI awards.
His work has been covered by artists including Christy Moore, Dolores Keane and Mary Black in Ireland and by the likes of Hal Ketchum and Delbert McClinton on the other side of the Atlantic.
He spoke to The Clare Champion last Thursday and said that he has actually played at the Highway in the past. “It’s been a long time since I was there, the last time was years and years ago when Joe Galligan had it,” he says.
The pair are covering a lot of the country according to Hanly. “We’re out the next two weekends and then we have a week on the trot. Crusheen is in there somewhere. we’re working our way down the west coast Inishbofin, Westport, Galway and Clare.”
At the moment, he says that there isn’t much time available for songwriting. “I’m not writing all that much but I’m taking notes I suppose. I’m kind of cranking up for an album but we’re getting back to the live stuff much more and I don’t have the time for writing,” Hanly replied.
He says he is really enjoying playing live and that working with McGlynn is going very well. “Arty brings a great dimension to it. I’ve been playing alone for most of my career but Arty produced a few of my albums and played with me on a couple of albums in the nineties. We go back a bit.”
He acknowledges that he is still best known for Past the Point of Rescue. “A lot of the other work isn’t as celebrated but it would have been performed by people like Dolores Keane and Mary Black.”
Hanly did a duet with Dolores Keane of his song My love is in America which has received huge airplay over the years. He praises her performance on it and says it is still relevant. “It’s a good song and it’s still relevant today. It was written in the 80s but we’ve kind of gone full circle. I’m very lucky I recorded it with Dolores, she really nailed it,” he said.
He says that his musical preferences haven’t changed that much over the years. “I tend to revert back to the tried and trusted. I’d have a great sense of expectation when Randy Newman or Joni Mitchell have a new album. I’d go back to Willie Nelson, I really admire him as a song writer. With the newer stuff, I admire Gillian Welch.”
To book tickets, call 086 8599957.