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Finbar Furey – The Man and His Music
by William Ramoutar

You know, if Finbar Furey sold cars, he’d be the best salesman in the world. In fact if he sold anything, he’d be great. But what he sells is himself, as all great salesmen do, and he is totally great at that. When I met him, whether it is his nature or something he has learned, you feel immediately as if you have known him your whole life, and you have! In fact he is the bloke that you wish you grew up with or your new best pal. Either way, boy what a fantastic experience he is. He was born for Irish music and whether he is showing an audience how more sophisticated the Irish Uilleann pipes are opposite the Scottish bagpipes, or singing heart-ripping songs about “The Green Fields of France” in the First World War or “Leaving Nancy,” or whatever the side of him he shows you, you are in for the treat of your life.

Truly a showman, in the best tradition of the word, and tradition is where he comes from. He was born into a family with a father, Ted, who is still to this day, many years after his death, a legend as to his dedication to “the music.” From the stories about Ted, he would put his fiddle under his arm in the family home in Ballyfermot, a suburb of Dublin, and announce to all and sundry, “Alright, I’m off!” Meaning, he was heading for wherever the latest gathering of traditional musicians to play with them, for as long as it took to learn new tunes, or pass the ones he knew on to others. Meanwhile the Mammy was left to cope with their sons, Eddie, Finbar, George and Paul, and all of them lived and breathed music too, just like their Dad.

Schooling in the Furey house was not a priority - but music was everything. Eddie was a brilliant fiddle player and Finbar won competitions on the Uilleann pipes. The two brothers teamed up as soon as they could after playing in O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin’s inner city whose original claim to fame being the place where The original Dubliners, with Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly, started out. Ted would play a tune, Ronnie would sing a song and the two young lads would show their traditional roots. What a grounding in “the music,” and it stood them in good stead because Eddie and Finbar were soon touring on the Continent, as we call it at home in Ireland. They were not only building a fan base, but also their repertoire of this music that was taking the parts of Belgium, England and Germany by storm, and yet, as Finbar told me, ”Once Eddie found rock and roll, there was no more fiddle!” I couldn’t believe it, but I know the grip any kind of music can get on you, so that was that. He never picked up the fiddle again. I am sure there were threats galore from the Dad, but the guitar was Eddie’s new obsession.

Thereafter the dynamic duo joined with their two other brothers, George and Paul, and another young lad who had come to stay in the house in Ballyfermot and for many years they were known as The Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur. They went on to make many albums and to have many hit records, not only traditional tunes, but they were also among the first to cross over to other audiences. Through contemporary songs like “The Red Rose Café,” love songs such as “Sweet Sixteen,” “Scarlet Ribbons,” heart-wrenching war ballads like “The Green Fields of France,” or the haunting “Lonesome Boatman,” songs that stayed in the charts for weeks and sometimes months on end, only to be discovered again and again over the years by new audiences.

The Fureys were big business and toured the world over for decades. Then to many people’s surprise, in 1993, after over thirty years, Finbar decided it was time for him to do something else. He felt there was something else he needed to accomplish. What more could he do? And yet as with many brilliant artists, he had a vision of another place he needed to be.

Since then he has had several hits under his own steam, and many written by his own hand. It seems he has reinvented himself outside of the traditional and yet the influence runs deep. He incorporates the pipes into the songs and also the low G whistle, which he had a big hand in really inventing. His whistle maker was Bernard Overton, a great instrument maker and visionary in his own right. Bernard made Finbar a wonderful low D whistle and through an accident the end of the whistle was irreversibly damaged. Finbar asked him to cut the end off it and change the finger hole sizes and it became miraculously a low G!! Since then Finbar has made that key whistle his own trademark. Listen to “The Lonesome Boatman” to hear it in its finest hour. To hear his songwriting prowess, listen to “Óro Óro” on The Fureys’ “Winds of Change” cd – a song that utilizes an old tune using Finbar’s lyrics, that gave the Irish government a black eye because they were only interested in their own careers and were letting the country go down the drain. With hundreds of thousands of people out of work, Finbar’s words evoked the thoughts of the unemployed and, I believe, made a big difference because not too long after, along came the Celtic Tiger!

His versatility is key to his performances, because he can make his Uilleann pipes sound like the Scottish bagpipes to show his audiences the difference and show how the instruments are played and how exciting the sound can be. His voice though, is unmistakable, and with these tunes associated with him, he could hardly fail. He has gone on to cover much of the same miles and countries that he had covered with The Furey Brothers and Davy Arthur, but has opened up many a new audience to his brilliant solo work too.

With the passing of their brother Paul in 2002 to cancer, Eddie and George continue the story of The Furey Brothers, and Davy Arthur is back to fill his place alongside his old friends and really family. Finbar continues to perform his gigs with Uilleann pipes, banjo and low whistle, but more than that, much more than that, the voice and the memories that sound at home in all our minds. The listeners are the winners here.

Certainly a man who knows his craft, but also a wonderfully gifted musician and storyteller that is unequalled as a one man show. He is the show.

You’ll feel when you hear him, like you knew him already. And if you are truly lucky to see him, you’ll feel as if he is, like I said, one of your best buddies – a magnificent man of the people.

Photo Credits:
Young Finbar: Last FM

O'Donoghue's Pub: English Turk

Furey Brothers & Davey Arthur

Current Finbar: Finbar's web site

Recordings by The Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur on amazon
Finbar Furey recordings on amazon


BIO William Ramoutar
IRISH WAYS RADIO PROGRAMME
WFCF Radio 88.5 FM
Every Sunday 11:00 am to Noon eastern standard time on the radio WFCF 88.5fm
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streaming live on iheart.

Review written by William Ramoutar Presenter of Irish Ways Radio Programme, St Augustine Florida