A lifetime's love of music

Galway holds music close to its heart; it is a place where a song can always be sung — and heard. Singers & Their Songs, a series of gigs taking place in The Crane from December 18 to 23, bears this mind as it showcases both emerging talents and more experienced players.Tony Small, who plays The Crane on Sunday, December 23, could claim to be both. He may have 40 years of gigs behind him but the Galway man still writes with a youthful fever, with each day bringing a new song. “I was at it this morning, I was it at it last night when I went to bed,” he enthuses. It preoccupies a part of my head all the time; there’s a tune going on or there’s a line waiting to be looked at. This stuff is burning away all the time; it’s like on a back boiler. It’s an obsession really.”This fascination with folk music was sparked in the early 1960s, when Small first encountered Galway’s nascent song writing scene. “When I was…..