By Paddy McCarthy
This week I am featuring two of Ireland’s greatest talents who have two different types of music style, ranging from traditional rock music to Irish traditional folk and ballad music. They are The Coronas and Finbar Furey from Dublin, who are both on the way to perform in the greatest city in the world, New York City!
The Coronas, whose trajectory took a curious detour in 2020 due to sharing a name with a certain virus, made up for their coronavirus setbacks by supporting Bruce Springsteen in London’s Hyde Park and playing for President Joe Biden in County Mayo during his visit to Ireland and making chart history as the only independent Irish band to have scored three consecutive chart-topping albums.
Kicking off on March 5, The Corona’s Stateside tour includes a St. Patrick’s Day March 17th show at Bowery Ballroom in New York City.
Fresh off their traditional holiday residency at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre plus an evening at Vicar Street for charity, all of which sold out in a matter of minutes, The Coronas return to North America in March for a string of shows.
Known for their high energy live performances, The Coronas were voted #1 Live Act of the Year by Ireland’s Hot Press Magazine, and Ireland’s best-loved, hardest-working band have no intention of slowing down as touring continues through the rest of this year, and a 2024 North American tour is confirmed for March.
The Coronas—comprising lead vocalist/guitarist Danny O’Reilly, bass guitarist Graham Knox and drummer Conor Egan—return to North America to begin a run of shows on March 5, culminating with St. Patrick’s Day at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. They last toured the US a year ago, but this past March performed at the celebrated pre-Academy Awards “Oscar Wilde Party” in Los Angeles and squeezed in an SRO nightclub show in Hollywood as part of an extraordinary year.
They have recently released a special collection called ‘The Best of The Early Days’, a dozen tracks compiled from the band’s first three albums, plus a special never-before-released album closer “One Last Time”.
They have started the new year at work in London on what will be their 8th studio album. As I have said before this band The Coronas are the hottest band ever to come out of Ireland since U2, who are still the number #1 band in the world.
As somewhat of a treat for both the fans who have supported the band since Day One and those, they won over with last year’s #1 Irish chart album, ‘Time Stopped’, The Coronas have delved back through their archives for this special collection of songs.
All of these tracks are being released on vinyl for the first time, in addition to CD format and via all digital platforms.
Beloved for their cinematic, melancholic pop, The Coronas’ ever-evolving sound is captured on ‘The Best of The Early Days’. Four songs each come from their 2007 debut ‘Heroes or Ghosts’, their 2009 breakthrough ‘Tony Was An Ex-Con’ (winner of Best Album at 2010’s Meteor Awards, for which they beat U2 and Snow Patrol) and 2011’s ‘Closer To You’, their first Irish chart-topper, all chapters in an extraordinary, near 20-year career.
So, for all you fans who would like to go and see The Coronas in your local area for tickets here I’m giving their tour dates and tickets here right now: March 5—Empty Bottle, Chicago; March 6—Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI; March 8—The Great Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada; March 12—The Foundry, Philadelphia, March 13—Atlantis, Washington, DC; March 15—Brighton Music Hall, Boston; March 17—Bowery Ballroom, New York City.
Here is a man that I know very well, again from my music and promoting days, and he was always a gentle man, yes that is Finbar Furey. I had the pleasure of promoting him for a few shows where he was always a true professional and one of the best entertainers I ever worked with.
Whether it’s a big or small stage his show was always brilliant and what a great ambassador for Ireland he is through his music.
It’s my pleasure to give you an introduction on this Irish performer who is still one of the most sought after Irish entertainers all over the world. He is one of Ireland’s great legends that we have all been so proud of for over 60 years, a very long time as there is no stopping him and he just seems to get better with age.
So here we go: Finbar Furey was born in Dublin, Ireland into a musical family. His father, Ted Furey, a renowned tenor banjo and fiddle player, taught him to play the Uilleann pipes, which he excelled at, becoming a master piper, and winning All Ireland Medals and Feiseanna during his teenage years in the 1960s.
Finbar left Ireland in 1967 to tour with his brother Eddie, bringing Irish music, songs and stories all over the world.
In 1968, Finbar and Eddie joined The Clancy Brothers and spent the next two years touring, performing and recording with them. Finbar and Eddie then went on to tour and perform as a duo.
Finbar’s playing was recognized by BBC’s John Peel in 1972, when he was awarded Single of The Year for the original sound of the pipes and the whistles on ‘Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway’ by Gerry Rafferty.
In 1976 Finbar and Eddie joined up with their younger brothers, Paul and George, and banjo player Davey Arthur recording and touring as ‘The Fureys and Davey Arthur’.
As a band they achieved international success with songs such as ‘The Green Fields of France’, ‘The Lonesome Boatman’ and ‘When You Were Sweet Sixteen’.
During this time Finbar designed a new whistle with Bernard Overton, producing the whistle, known as a low whistle, and now played in bands worldwide.
After nearly twenty years as The Fureys’ front man, Finbar decided the time was right to pursue a solo career and follow his path as a singer songwriter.
He also embarked on an acting career with a role in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Gangs of New York’ in 2002. He appeared in the boxing film, ‘Strength and Honor’ in 2007 where he shared credits with Patrick Bergin, Vinnie Jones and Richard Chamberlain.
In 2010 he had a main part in the award winning Scottish short film, ‘Paris/Sexy’, followed by a character role in the RTÉ series, ‘Love/Hate’ in 2011. He also appeared in ‘The Wild Goose Lodge’ in 2016 for which he wrote the music.
In 2022, Finbar featured in the award-winning film, ‘My Sailor, My Love’ directed by the Finnish film director Klaus Härö.
Finbar was honored in 2015 to receive the accolade of the Lord Mayor’s Award presented by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, and in 2022 he was proud to receive an honorary doctorate of literature from UCD.
His 2013 album, ‘Colours’, reached the top of the Irish charts featuring Gerry Fleming’s beautifully written ‘The Last Great Love Song’.
In 2018 BMG released the ‘Don’t Stop This Now’ CD and live DVD from Vicar St. followed by an Irish and UK tour.
In 2020, Finbar released the single, ‘Blue Jewel in the Sky’, a track from his new album, ‘Moments in Time’ which was released on September 29, 2023, to coincide with his 77th birthday.