The strongest album yet from one of Northern Ireland’s most promising and acclaimed singer songwriters. Filled with memorable melodies and lyrics brimming with insight, The Duke of Oklahoma and Other Stories cements the Belfast man’s reputation as a major songwriting talent. Produced by former Van Morrison sideman Clive Culbertson, the album is laced with beautiful playing on songs that tread a path that leans more on Americana. The mix features acoustic guitar, pedal steel, Hammond organ, banjo, twelve string guitar and some gorgeous viola playing. All of this is in service of songs that cover typical Toner territory – heart-filled narratives about flirting by e-mail, jumping off rooftops, a teenage boy struck by lightning and the ballrooms of romance. At home Anthony is one of the leading lights in the burgeoning singer songwriter scene in Belfast, and on the international stage he has chalked up appearances in Nashville, Austin and Canada in the last six months, with plans for return trips to North America in the next twelve months. He’s gathering momentum – this is his strongest collection of songs to date, and features a live version of the classic ‘Sailortown’, which was such a huge radio hit from his previous album A Sky for Every Day.