Niall Toner is an Irish Bluegrass musician, song-writer and radio broadcaster from Dublin, known nation-wide for his programmes Country Heartland and Roots Freeway.

Musical career

Toner organised his first acoustic band in the early sixties with the formation of The Lee Valley String Band in Cork. He started the Sackville String Band in late 1975, a popular Dublin outfit that played at concerts and festivals all over the country. Influenced by the recordings of the Fuzzy Mountain, Hollow Rock, and Highwoods String Bands they played "American traditional music, old-time songs and bluegrass". A typical line-up in the late 1970s consisted of Imor Byrne (fiddle), Colin Beggan (guitar), John Caulfield (fiddle), Niall Toner (mandolin) and Richard Hawkins (banjo). The band's reputation was such that many visiting U.S. musicians would jam on stage with them, Bluegrass legends like Peter Rowan, Tex Logan and Kenny Baker

Kenny Baker (musician)

Kenneth Clayton Baker was an American fiddle player best known for his 25-year tenure with Bill Monroe and his group The Bluegrass Boys.-Biography:...

.

Niall Toner went off to form Hank Halfhead & the Rambling Turkeys in the early 1980s. He formed his current outfit, the Niall Toner Band, in 2001 with Dick Gladney on bass and Clem O'Brian on guitars. They have recorded three albums to date, with the help of Bill Whelan, Richard Hawkins, and Martin Styles on 5-string and claw-hammer banjos and Colm McCauhey on fiddle.

His songs have been recorded by Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...

, The Nashville Bluegrass Band

Nashville Bluegrass Band

The Nashville Bluegrass Band is an American bluegrass music ensemble founded in 1984.The group's members first played together in 1984 as a backing band for Vernon Oxford and Minnie Pearl; each of the members were established musicians from the Nashville bluegrass community. They signed to Rounder...

, Albert Lee

Albert Lee

Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...

, the Fleadh Cowboys

Fleadh Cowboys

The Fleadh Cowboys are a Dublin-based folk-rock/country band.The Fleadh Cowboys were formed in 1985 by Johnny Moynihan, Pete Cummins and Frankie Lane, in Kenny's pub in Westland Row in Dublin...

 and The Special Consensus, among others. His composition, "Nuns Island Reel", has been included in the biggest-selling video game in history, Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

.

Toner currently hosts Roots Freeway on RTE

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 radio. His music articles have been published by Hot Press

Hot Press

Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...

, Maverick and Country Music Plus. He is also the author of Nuts and Bolts, a guide to writing better songs.

Discography

• There's A Better Way Avalon Records AVCD 004 (2009)
• Mood Swing
• NTB3