Finnegans Wake

Finnegans Wake is an American band formed in 1974 at the County Cork Pub in Springfield, Illinois.  John Van Orman, William Furry and Bill Rintz joined together during weekly gigs at the Pub (and later, for a short while, Tim McKean as well), which soon evolved into the band, Finnegans Wake, named after the James Joyce novel.  The three men, bound by a love of traditional American and British Isles music became favorites on the Springfield music scene, and eventually toured the Midwest and the Ozarks in an area circumscribed by Minneapolis, St. Louis, Mountain View, Arkansas, and Rockford, Illinois. They continue touring to this day.

Joanne Long, from the Springfield State Journal-Register described their instruments as “fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, concertina, and banjo,” but band members have always been instrumentally adventurous, and through the years have added tin whistles, bodhran, glockenspiel, finger cymbals, spoons, mandolin, harmonium, harmonica, oud, triangle, temple blocks, jingle bells, and hurdy-gurdy to their instrumental line-up.  Their musical repertoire has consisted of traditional ballads, sea chanteys, fiddle tunes, and Van Orman originals.

Although the band came out of the bar scene in Springfield, their music has never been typical bar music, nor is it Irish music, as some would assume.  Their collection of traditional music has been deeply researched and/or collected from the field.  In 1976, Mick Cochran of the Springfield State Journal-Register explained that, even as early as 1976, “Finnegans Wake was asking the audience to be intelligent, and still have a good time.”

Band member individual biographies may be found HERE.

Finnegans Wake 1974