After several days of transcribing, editing, and fact-checking, I’ve finally completed my interview transcript with Finbar Furey.
Finbar and Sheila Furey have now reviewed it (twice), suggested corrections, added clarifications, and graciously given me permission to share this edited excerpt from our conversation.
The interview focuses on Finbar’s recollections of Bernard Overton, the development of what Finbar consistently calls the Overton Flute, and the lifelong friendship between the two musicians that helped bring this remarkable instrument into the world.
This transcript is just one chapter in a larger research project I’m currently writing on Bernard Overton and the legacy of the modern Low D whistle.
(As you’ll discover in the interview, Finbar would probably remind me to call it the Overton Flute! 
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What began as a search to better understand the haunting, hollow aluminum whistle voice that first captivated me has become something much richer. As I explored the music of artists such as Brian Finnegan, Ali Levack, Ross Ainslie, Fraser Fifield, John McSherry, Tyler Duncan, and many others, I gradually realized they all shared an unmistakable voice.
Following that sound led me to Colin Goldie’s whistles, then back through their lineage to Bernard Overton, and ultimately to the remarkable friendship between Bernard and Finbar Furey that brought the instrument into being.
Along the way, I discovered that someone in the whistle community had affectionately dubbed the sound “The Cosmic Drainpipe of the Universe.” I can’t think of a better description.
If you’d like to read the interview, it’s available here:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed helping preserve this small piece of musical history.