finbar furey

[john]

could anyone out there give their impression of finbar's playing?

i've heard very little of it and might be interested in investing in a recording or two - although i think he would be counted as a travelling-style piper he doesn't sound that much like keenan to me, but i suppose that shows that the term travelling-style is a broad church

i wonder if that perhaps by going for the all-round entertainer status his contribution to piping has been overlooked or maybe he has not pursued this aspect of his music enough

[MichaelLoos]

IMO, one of the greatest pipers ever.
His style of playing may not be to everybody's taste (if you don't like back D triplets, you will probably not like his playing), but his technical abilities are amazing, in chanter control as well as in regulator playing. His rendition of "Madam Bonaparte" is absolutely brilliant. Also, his slow airs are among the most beautiful I've ever heard.
Most of his solo recordings are from the early 1970ies, and his style has changed in that time - the chanter playing became more open-style, and the reg work changed from "Rowsome-style" to off-beat.

[tommykleen]

His two releases on Nonesuch in the '70s here in The States started many a piper down the road to piping. I know it did me. Now you know whom to blame

tommykleen

[The Blacksmith]

I like this Finbar CD and it is available from Amazon.

Tim


http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Pipes-Finba ... 63&sr=8-28

[Uilliam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei3wR5Ig8LU

Says it all...

[john]

does anyone know where finbar got his playing from? (he doesn't sound like anything else i've heard) - how would you describe his playing?

[Ted]

When young, Finbar lived with Paddy Keenan's family. Paddy said Finbar got to get piping lessons from Leo Rowsome but his father did not let him go to Leo.

[Juan Pablo Plata]

He recorded the best version of "The Fox Chase".

The best, no doubt.

[s1m0n]

When young, Finbar lived with Paddy Keenan's family. Paddy said Finbar got to get piping lessons from Leo Rowsome but his father did not let him go to Leo.

I've read that John Keenan, Paddy's father, also insisted on tutoring each boy privately so that they'd end up with different styles.

[reedmasters]

Finbar Furey is the reason that I left Dublin and went to Scotland for three years to learn the GHB. After speaking with him in O'Donoghue's in the early 1970's, he convinced me that the uilleann pipes were too difficult "for me" to learn. I do find it ironic that after all these 40 plus years, we're both reedmakers and I'm finally learning the uilleann pipes.
He does play a great pipe!!!

[meuritt]

I really enjoy his piping, both his 'solo' recordings are excellent, I've bought as many of his recordings as I can find. It does get to be too commercial, might I say pop oriented, but there is always a good track or two of pipes. Watching the Furey's youtube channel just now I must say I didn't realize he was singing and playing at the same time.

[rgouette]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei3wR5Ig8LU

Says it all...

Uilliam, great vid there.
I've lost count how many times I've listened to that one.

[pancelticpiper]

Yes I bought those two vinyl albums back in the 1970s and listened to them over and over and over.

Some tracks are Finbar solo, others have his brother playing guitar. In my opinion the guitar usually detracts more than it adds and I was happy, around ten or fifteen years ago, to come across a CD which had all the solo tracks from those two vinyl albums on it.

His playing and style are amazing.

His reg playing is astounding, especially on jigs where he plays four reg chords a bar in 6/8 jigs (one three four six, one three four six).

What amazes me is when I talk to young people from Ireland, who play traditional music, who don't know that Finbar plays the pipes! They only know of him as a singer and string player.

[Patrick D'Arcy]

John said: "could anyone out there give their impression of finbar's playing?"

No. He's inimitable

Patrick.

[PJ]

There's a youtube clip somewhere of the Furey family playing in an RTE studio sometime in the 1960s. It features a young Finbar Furey on the pipes.