New York Daily News

GOLDEN AGE OF BLUES

Legally blind singer is discovered at age 64

- BY SPENCER DUKOFF

THERE AREN’T many houses in the small town of Bernice, La., that Robert Finley hasn’t worked on in one way or another.

For most of his life, Finley’s chosen vocation was carpentry, but his calling has always been music.

He grew up not far from Bernice in Winnsboro, where he started singing in his church choir at the age 4 and bought his first guitar at age 10.

“If you were big enough to talk, you were big enough to sing in my house,” Finley recalled.

And although Finley, 64, put his dreams of making it as a blues artist on hold long ago, he continued to perform from time to time at little venues in the South, ranging from the local preschool to fish fries to nursing homes.

“I was undiscover­ed,” Finley said. “Maybe I was noticed, but it wasn’t by the right person at the right time.”

A few years ago, Finley began to lose his sight, and legal blindness forced him into early retirement.

He also got divorced and lost his house and trailer to a fire.

But as Finley told the Daily News, “Sometimes things look like they’re for your bad and they’re really for your good.”

Now, over 50 years since he first dreamed of becoming a star, Robert Finley has arrived.

Finley, who performed Sunday at Rough Trade in Brooklyn and will be at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan Wednesday night, has cut his first two albums in the past couple of years.

This new chapter, according to Finley, began in 2015 when he was discovered busking on a sidewalk during the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas by the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a nonprofit that helps aging blues musicians.

That chance encounter led to an introducti­on to Bruce Watson at Fat Possum Records, who asked Finley to cut an album.

In 2016, Finley released his debut album, “Age Don’t Mean a Thing” on Fat Possum and Big Legal Mess Records.

Though the album — blues tinged with R&B and soul — didn’t make too much noise in terms of sales, it did find its way to Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, who subsequent­ly asked Finley to collaborat­e.

“I didn’t know who (Auerbach) was,” Finley said. “Then, when I got a chance to meet Dan, we just kind of clicked all at once.”

Auerbach recruited legendary session musicians, as well as guitarist Duane Eddy and the Preservati­on Hall Jazz Band, to work on an album with Finley, which features songs written by Auerbach, John Prine, Nick Lowe, Pat McLaughlin and more.

The result was “Goin’ Platinum,” Finley’s sophomore album and his first for Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label, which was released this past November.

But even more than in the studio, it’s onstage where Finley truly comes alive.

“You can sit on a porch in a rocking chair at any age,” Finley said. “To be 64 years old and be able to go to the floor and come back up, it signifies that you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Despite his recent streak of success, Finley knows it’s important to stay humble and remember where he comes from.

He still lives in Bernice and sings in the choir every Sunday when he isn’t touring at the New Hopewell Baptist Church.

“If you get up and put the same hat on your head every morning, that lets you know you’re head’s not swelling,” Finley said.

Finley maintains that his goal is simple: to continue topping himself every performanc­e.

“I’m not going to hold back or save anything for tomorrow night because tomorrow night is not promised,” Finley said. “Every night is like the first night, and every night could be the last night.”

 ??  ?? Musician Robert Finley at left and below with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, at whose studio Finley recorded his new album “Goin’ Platinum.”
Musician Robert Finley at left and below with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, at whose studio Finley recorded his new album “Goin’ Platinum.”
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