Anthony spent his early years in Devonport, New Zealand, not far from Auckland. For a child this was a place of beaches, forests, and sunshine, an ideal place to grow up. The third of seven children, Anthony was raised to follow his passions, and he quickly developed a love of music, literature, popular science, and science fiction. At the age of 8 his parents returned to live in Ireland, later settling in Warrenpoint, Co. Down, which became home for Anthony during his teenage years.
Anthony bought himself a guitar at age 19, and quickly learned what chords he needed to write songs. The songwriters Colum Sands, Kieran Goss, Ben Sands, and Tommy Sands lived nearby, so he followed their example, quickly learning that songwriting was something he enjoyed. His first song was a lyrical masterpiece about the family dog ('I have a dog/His name is Cappy/He's sometimes sad/He's sometimes happy'). His second attempt entered darker territory, resulting in the terrifying explorations of 'my roommate stole the laces of my shoes.' Undeterred, Anthony used a year-long study trip to Spain as an opportunity to write as many songs as possible in the shortest possible time. He had read somewhere that if you can write a hundred songs quickly it's a good way to get the bad songs out of your system. This may or may not be true, but at least a couple of songs from Anthony's 'Spanish Period' have survived (for example, 'just a friend')
In 1996, Anthony joined Kernel Green in setting up the Galway songwriters collective, Songcraft. In 1997, Anthony moved to Limerick to pursue a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology (anthropology of music), and any aspirations Anthony had to become a full-time songwriter got sidelined for an academic career.
1997-2011 was mainly spent working in universities in the USA, England, and Northern Ireland. Anthony performed at a few house concerts and coffee houses during that time, but put most of his energies into his scholarly pursuits. Anthony is an experienced researcher and educator who has held positions at the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Ulster. His first degree was from Queen's University Belfast (B.A. Celtic Studies and Spanish), followed by work at University College Galway (M.Phil. in Irish Studies), and the University of Limerick (Ph.D., Ethnomusicology).
In 1999 Anthony served as Assistant Co-coordinator and temporary Project Co-coordinator of the UNESCO / Smithsonian World Conference, "A Global Assessment of the 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore: Local Empowerment and International Cooperation." He held the position of Research Associate with the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC from 2003-2005. Anthony has given talks and seminars at the Library of Congress, the University of Chicago, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Indiana University, among others. Awards include the Charles Seeger Prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology, a Fulbright Award, and a Government of Ireland Scholarship.
Among Anthony's current academic research interests are: the politics of gentleness; pedagogy; personal and political dynamics of enclosure; Irish traditional music; critical legal studies/anthropology of law; music, copyright, and intellectual property. Academically, Anthony considers himself primarily a Social Ecologist, although he has also worked in the disciplines of Celtic Studies, Spanish, Irish Studies, Ethnomusicology, Anthropology, Media Studies, Visual Culture, Cultural Policy and Management, and Museum and Heritage Studies.
Anthony recently returned to performing in Derry/Londonderry in the Northwest of Ireland, anchoring a series of songwriter nights in the city in the company of other local songwriters.
In 2011, Anthony McCann married Emma McNeil, rendering all performances of songs about ex-girlfriends a little inappropriate.
Among the songwriters Anthony listens to at present are Chris Wood, Neil Finn, Dar Williams, Jonathan Coulton, Silvio Rodríguez, John Spillane, Kat Eggleston, Andrew Calhoun, Jim Page, Dave Carter, Josh Ritter, Leslie Smith, Kieran Goss, John Deery, Ronan Kearney, Eilidh Patterson, Eoin O'Callaghan, Shawn Colvin, Karine Polwart, Vyvienne Long, Julie Feeney, Anthony Newley, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Randy Newman, and many, many more.
As well as working in universities, Anthony has worked as a cultural policy researcher, translator, journalist, and radio broadcaster (winning a collective SONY Award with Strule FM Omagh Community Radio) , and is the Founder and Director of the educational non-profit Hedgeschool21 and the Crafting Gentleness project. He is known to come up with bad puns on a regular basis. A television addict since age 4, he particularly enjoys science fiction, and Joss Whedon's work, and has been rumoured to still shed random solitary tears at the passing of The West Wing. He's also a frustrated wannabe film and theatre director, who hopes that there are enough years left to do something about that. He once received Special Mention for acting in a youth drama competition. He was also listed for an "outstanding" game in a local newspaper following an U-16 hurling match in 1988. Don't give him sugar. Please, no sugar.
