He had to wait until his sixties for his name to arouse the interest of the public and the media. Robert Finley is a singer from Louisiana, whose deeply soulful voice pierces you instantly. Born in 1954, he will not release his first album until… 2016. Immediately hailed by the recording industry, this first production will give him wings. The second disc will confirm its artistic value. Today, at 68, Robert Finley is on cloud nine. He presents his third opus, Sharecropper’s soundacross the planet.
On November 22, 2022, Robert Finley thrilled the audience at La Boule Noire in Paris. His broad smile, his rough appearance and his powerful voice fascinated spectators who were very receptive to his repertoire and his humorous comments tinged with a certainly hectic experience. The daily life of young Robert Finley, at the dawn of the 1960s, was risky and very modest. In the small town of Bernice where he was born, the weight of rurality decided his fate. He had no choice but to follow the example of his father, a sharecropper, and participate willy-nilly in agricultural work. Country life was to be his path, but a secret passion fueled his dreams of a more promising elsewhere.
Blues and Soul-Music inhabited his fertile mind even if propriety dictated that he listen to religious hymns. Without the knowledge of parental authority, he gradually turned to secular music. This taste for popular Afro-American heritage will never leave him. In 2015, while playing guitar in the streets of Helena, Arkansas, the creator of the “Music Maker” foundation noticed him and decided to support him in his quest for a musical future. Tim Duffy introduced him to producers and encouraged him to record an album. In 2016, at the age of 62, Robert Finley finally revealed himself through his first album logically titled Age don’t mean a thing (Age does not matter). Crowned with success, this introductory disc aroused the interest of guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach, leader of the rock group, The Black Keys.
The meeting between Robert Finley and Dan Auerbach takes place in 2017. A bond is instantly born between these two men who nothing brings together. And yet, the music will be able to create dialogue and will accelerate an intense collaboration which will materialize in two high quality albums, Going Platinum and Sharecropper’s sound. Robert Finley then finds a second youth and, even if his sight is declining and now requires him to be accompanied when he travels, he wants to take advantage of this chance to be heard and to give hope to those who suffer. He keeps repeating it:Dreams always come true“.
In the past, he hid to listen to his idols, so heavy were the strength of pious family traditions. Today, he is happy to be able to play this music which was dormant in him and which was just waiting for the opportune moment to burst forth. Robert Finley is happy. His dark glasses and his stetson do not even manage to hide his happiness.