At 63, Louisiana Bluesman Robert Finley Living Musical Dream
Bluesman Releases Debut CD entitled "Age Don't Mean A Thing"
September 29, 2016
By Bob Mehr
The Commercial Appeal
Soul-blues singer Robert Finley knows a thing or two about holding on to your dreams.
"It hasn't been an easy road," says Finley, 63, of his late-blooming musical career. "I probably had this dream since I was just a little lad. I always wanted to play the guitar. I got a chance to hold my first guitar at 10, owned my first one at 11. I've been playing it now for over 50 years. Been waiting practically all my life for this, I guess."
Finley's debut album, the appropriately titled "Age Don't Mean a Thing" — recorded in Memphis with a cadre of top local players — comes out this Friday, and he'll make his live debut in the Bluff City on Thursday, Oct. 6, when he plays an album release show backed by the Bo-Keys and Jimbo Mathus at Lafayette's Music Room.
"My motto is 'quitters never win,'" Finley says. "I just hung in there and believed I was gonna get a chance someday. Music just became a part of me. Whatever happened to me in life, I put it to music."
Born near Bernice in north Louisiana, Finley grew up steeped in gospel. "My father, he was real religious. He didn't allow us to play blues," he says. "Once I was grown — that's when I finally started playing R&B and blues. But I wasn't allowed to play it at home for a long time."
Finley was still in his teens when his father was killed in an auto accident. Soon after, he enlisted in the Army. "I volunteered during the Vietnam War, but they started to pulling out before I got over there. I guess they heard I was coming and they got scared," Finley jokes. Instead of combat, he saw action on the military band circuit. "I played the whole time I was in the Army. I joined a band in basic training, went from Maryland to Germany playing."
After his hitch was over, he returned stateside. For a time, he continued to perform, leading the gospel group Brother Finley and the Gospel Sisters. "We had a radio show, a gospel hour on Sunday mornings in the '80s," he says. "But the girls was younger, and they all got married or went off, and that was the end of that."
Music remained a sideline to his career as a carpenter until a couple of years ago. "That's when I start losing my sight," says Finley. "I got to where I couldn't make an accurate cut and then had trouble even driving back and forth from job to job."
Glaucoma has left him legally blind in one eye, and with less than 40 percent vision in the other. "They say it's eventually going to deteriorate completely," says Finley. "But I haven't accepted that. I'm hoping the technology will get good enough to where it can be fixed."
With his livelihood gone, Finley decided to dedicate himself to music full time. "You know how it is," he says. "You see people on different shows and think, 'How the hell have they been discovered and I ain't been discovered'? 'Cause I got that beat. But if you don't put it out there, nobody gonna know if you got it. It's all about being in the right place at the right time."
In fall 2015, Finley found himself in Helena, Arkansas, during the King Biscuit Blues Festival. While he was busking out on the street, he caught the ear of Tim Duffy, head of the Music Maker Relief Foundation — a nonprofit that assists traditional Southern artists — who immediately contacted his friend Bruce Watson of Fat Possum records, the Mississippi label known for discovering older blues musicians like Charles Caldwell, T Model Ford, and Leo "Bud" Welch.
"Finley was just playing on the street, and Tim took some pictures and video footage and was like 'I'm sending this to Bruce,'" says Watson. "I used to live in north Louisiana where Robert is from. So I got his number and called, and I said 'I'm coming to meet you.'"
When he heard Finley play in person, Watson was bowled over and signed him on the spot. "It was one of those things — 'Oh, my God, this guy's great! I can't believe nobody's ever heard of him outside this region,'" says Watson. "He actually writes songs, he can sing, play guitar, he looks good. I'm always looking for those guys and never really think I'm going to find another one. But they still exist. They're still out there"
Although Finley was mostly playing blues at the time, Watson keyed on a collection of his more soulful originals. "Tunes like 'Age Don't Mean a Thing' and 'Snake in the Grass' — those are more Southern soul. We went through all his songs and picked the most soulful things to record. I figured if we're going with the soul thing, then it needs to be a Memphis soul thing."
This past March, Watson brought Finley to Memphis's Electraphonic Studios, owned by the Bo-Keys' bandleader Scott Bomar. With Bomar recording, Watson and Mississippi roots musician Jimbo Mathus co-producing, and name players like drummer Howard Grimes and organist Al Gamble backing him, Finely cut his nine-track debut album.
Though the collection flashes a range of influences from B.B. King and Bobby Bland to Joe Simon and Tyrone Davis, Finley's voice is all his own. "I always wanted to be different from everybody," he says. "When you're like everybody else, you're not noticeable. If you sing from the heart, you can reach the hearts of people. If you sing a song about real life, people can feel what you saying. I guess that's what I got — people hear my songs, and they can put themselves in that situation. Lot of times people are already in the same situation."
Although the record is just coming out, Finley is already gaining major notice. He's been written up in The New York Times and profiled on NPR, and he'll be touring heavily behind the new record through the fall and into 2017.
"The most important thing is to stay focused and to stay humble, to where the doors can keep opening," says Finley. "Opportunity don't keep knocking. It only knocks so many times and moves on. So I'm trying to make the best of each opportunity. Right now, I'm just enjoying the ride. Just living my childhood dream doing what I always wanted to do."
Bluesman Releases Debut CD entitled "Age Don't Mean A Thing"
September 29, 2016
By Bob Mehr
The Commercial Appeal
 |
| Sixty-three year old singer Robert Finley marks the release of his debut album with a show at Lafayette's Music Room in Memphis, Tennessee on October 6, 2016 Photo Credit: Aaron Greenhood |
"It hasn't been an easy road," says Finley, 63, of his late-blooming musical career. "I probably had this dream since I was just a little lad. I always wanted to play the guitar. I got a chance to hold my first guitar at 10, owned my first one at 11. I've been playing it now for over 50 years. Been waiting practically all my life for this, I guess."
Finley's debut album, the appropriately titled "Age Don't Mean a Thing" — recorded in Memphis with a cadre of top local players — comes out this Friday, and he'll make his live debut in the Bluff City on Thursday, Oct. 6, when he plays an album release show backed by the Bo-Keys and Jimbo Mathus at Lafayette's Music Room.
"My motto is 'quitters never win,'" Finley says. "I just hung in there and believed I was gonna get a chance someday. Music just became a part of me. Whatever happened to me in life, I put it to music."
Robert Finley - Age Don't Mean a Thing
Born near Bernice in north Louisiana, Finley grew up steeped in gospel. "My father, he was real religious. He didn't allow us to play blues," he says. "Once I was grown — that's when I finally started playing R&B and blues. But I wasn't allowed to play it at home for a long time."
Finley was still in his teens when his father was killed in an auto accident. Soon after, he enlisted in the Army. "I volunteered during the Vietnam War, but they started to pulling out before I got over there. I guess they heard I was coming and they got scared," Finley jokes. Instead of combat, he saw action on the military band circuit. "I played the whole time I was in the Army. I joined a band in basic training, went from Maryland to Germany playing."
After his hitch was over, he returned stateside. For a time, he continued to perform, leading the gospel group Brother Finley and the Gospel Sisters. "We had a radio show, a gospel hour on Sunday mornings in the '80s," he says. "But the girls was younger, and they all got married or went off, and that was the end of that."
Music remained a sideline to his career as a carpenter until a couple of years ago. "That's when I start losing my sight," says Finley. "I got to where I couldn't make an accurate cut and then had trouble even driving back and forth from job to job."
Glaucoma has left him legally blind in one eye, and with less than 40 percent vision in the other. "They say it's eventually going to deteriorate completely," says Finley. "But I haven't accepted that. I'm hoping the technology will get good enough to where it can be fixed."
With his livelihood gone, Finley decided to dedicate himself to music full time. "You know how it is," he says. "You see people on different shows and think, 'How the hell have they been discovered and I ain't been discovered'? 'Cause I got that beat. But if you don't put it out there, nobody gonna know if you got it. It's all about being in the right place at the right time."
In fall 2015, Finley found himself in Helena, Arkansas, during the King Biscuit Blues Festival. While he was busking out on the street, he caught the ear of Tim Duffy, head of the Music Maker Relief Foundation — a nonprofit that assists traditional Southern artists — who immediately contacted his friend Bruce Watson of Fat Possum records, the Mississippi label known for discovering older blues musicians like Charles Caldwell, T Model Ford, and Leo "Bud" Welch.
"Finley was just playing on the street, and Tim took some pictures and video footage and was like 'I'm sending this to Bruce,'" says Watson. "I used to live in north Louisiana where Robert is from. So I got his number and called, and I said 'I'm coming to meet you.'"
When he heard Finley play in person, Watson was bowled over and signed him on the spot. "It was one of those things — 'Oh, my God, this guy's great! I can't believe nobody's ever heard of him outside this region,'" says Watson. "He actually writes songs, he can sing, play guitar, he looks good. I'm always looking for those guys and never really think I'm going to find another one. But they still exist. They're still out there"
Although Finley was mostly playing blues at the time, Watson keyed on a collection of his more soulful originals. "Tunes like 'Age Don't Mean a Thing' and 'Snake in the Grass' — those are more Southern soul. We went through all his songs and picked the most soulful things to record. I figured if we're going with the soul thing, then it needs to be a Memphis soul thing."
This past March, Watson brought Finley to Memphis's Electraphonic Studios, owned by the Bo-Keys' bandleader Scott Bomar. With Bomar recording, Watson and Mississippi roots musician Jimbo Mathus co-producing, and name players like drummer Howard Grimes and organist Al Gamble backing him, Finely cut his nine-track debut album.
Though the collection flashes a range of influences from B.B. King and Bobby Bland to Joe Simon and Tyrone Davis, Finley's voice is all his own. "I always wanted to be different from everybody," he says. "When you're like everybody else, you're not noticeable. If you sing from the heart, you can reach the hearts of people. If you sing a song about real life, people can feel what you saying. I guess that's what I got — people hear my songs, and they can put themselves in that situation. Lot of times people are already in the same situation."
Although the record is just coming out, Finley is already gaining major notice. He's been written up in The New York Times and profiled on NPR, and he'll be touring heavily behind the new record through the fall and into 2017.
"The most important thing is to stay focused and to stay humble, to where the doors can keep opening," says Finley. "Opportunity don't keep knocking. It only knocks so many times and moves on. So I'm trying to make the best of each opportunity. Right now, I'm just enjoying the ride. Just living my childhood dream doing what I always wanted to do."
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