“Finbar And Eddie Furey” by Finbar and Eddie Furey - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1968 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1960s

Back in 1960, for £2 each, these child protégés were playing in O’Donoghues; they were still school kids at the time! Maybe it’s not too surprising really; Ted and Nora (Mum and Dad) were well known musicians themselves, and encouraged their sons to play music from a very early age – there was live traditional music in their house almost nightly. Fast forward 8 years; by the time of their debut album Finbar (mainly pipes) was 21 and Eddie (mainly guitar and vocals) was 22. At this stage, the restless young lads were almost like missionaries, and it’s quite well recognised that their tours as a duo went some considerable way to popularizing the pipes worldwide, their stirring performances often commanding standing ovations. This set includes an amazing array of instruments; whistles, pipes, bodhrans, guitars and whatever you’re having yourself. It includes some terrific stuff. All told, there are 6 with vocals and 8 instrumentals – and they can be equally captivating in any style. The bodhran and pipes of the “The Spanish Cloak” serves as a rip roaring instrumental start to the set. Finbar’s flute and Eddie’s acoustic guitar then lead the album with the excellent “Come By The Hills”, a song written by Scottish TV producer Gordon Smith. The words are set to the traditional Irish air “Buchal an Eire”. With the opening one-two they’ve set the bar highly, and although they cannot quite maintain this standard it’s meaty enough all the same, with much to commend it, including a fantastic traditional “The Curragh of Kildare”, and a sympathetic reading of Shay Healy’s “This Town is Not Our Own”, a song about the struggles of travellers seeking acceptance in urban communities. The boys own father was a showman and he met their mother when he was working at a Fair. These boys are true to their roots and they’re a credit to their kin…

The Jukebox Rebel
03–May–2011

+ notes

• Sleeve Notes »> Finbar and Eddie Furey are two brothers from a family of six comprising four boys and their parents. The whole family is musical. Mrs. Furey plays the banjo and the accordion ; Ted Furey, their father, plays fiddle, pipes, whistle, banjo and mandolin. Fin and Eddie began playing and singing professionally at the age of nine when they busked on trains going to football matches. Shortly afterwards they began playing all over Ireland at the famous O’Donoghue’s Pub, at race courses and sea-side resorts. When Finbar was thirteen he got his first bag and chanter (a half set of pipes) and when he was fifteen he won the All Ireland junior championships for pipes. Within three years of this Finbar won twenty-three senior championships including the senior All Ireland and also won a couple of duet championships with brother Eddie. The two boys plus Ted Furey, their father, also won the Ulster senior trio championships and finally in 1966 Eddie and Finbar Furey won the international folk award in Tralee against eighty other groups. For this they got 170 in prize money which they say lasted about three days. ’It went to charity’, says Eddie. ’Guinness charity’ says Finbar. Fin and Eddie are descended from the royal bards in West Meath in Ireland centuries ago. ’We would probably still be there if Cromwell hadn’t driven us out’ says Eddie. In 1967 Fin and Eddie ventured into Scotland for the first time with 6d in their respective pockets. They based themselves in Edinburgh and made many good friends such as Gordon Geekie, The Corries, Paddy Bell, Graeme Bell, Diane Halley and many others. In the early part of their stay in Scotland they worked at the Edinburgh docks digging out the new Imperial dock. Soon however, they became known in Scotland, as well as in Ireland, as two of the finest traditional musicians to emerge in recent years. They were invited to the hallowed Singers Club in London, played the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, The Ulster Hall, Belfast, and the Town Hall, Birmingham. They have appeared in Scotland on both BBC TV and STV and on Tyne Tees TV and at the 1967 Edinburgh Festival.

Tracklist

A1	[01:33] Finbar and Eddie Furey - The Spanish Cloak (Traditional) Folk
A2	[04:06] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Come By The Hills (Gordon Smith) Folk
A3	[02:49] Finbar and Eddie Furey - The Mountain Of The Women (Sliabhna Mban) (Traditional) Folk
A4	[03:12] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Dainty Davy (Traditional) Folk
A5	[01:37] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Tattered Jack Welch (Jig) (Traditional) Folk
A6	[04:31] Finbar and Eddie Furey - The Flowers In The Valley (Traditional) Folk
A7	[01:17] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Pigeon On The Gate (Reel) (Traditional) Folk
B1	[01:03] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Graham’s Flat (Jig) (Finbar Furey) Folk
B2	[03:51] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Leezy Lindsay (Traditional) Folk
B3	[01:51] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Piper In The Meadow Straying (Set Dance) (Traditional) Folk
B4	[04:47] Finbar and Eddie Furey - The Curragh Of Kildare (Traditional) Folk
B5	[03:49] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Ned Of The Hill (Eamonn An Chnuic) (Traditional) Folk
B6	[03:54] Finbar and Eddie Furey - This Town Is Not Your Own (Shay Healy) Folk
B7	[01:43] Finbar and Eddie Furey - Rocking The Baby (Jig) (Traditional) Folk

ratings by TJR