We’ve already told you about the first couple of singles off Mike Finnigan‘s eponymous posthumous album (Forty Below Records)–splendid takes on Curtis Salgado’s “20 Years of B.B. King” (featuring Joe Bonamassa on guitar) and Freddie King’s “My Credit Didn’t Go Through”–so we had a feeling that the rest of this album would be pretty special too.
We’ve internally debated for decades what kind of songs we most like to hear Finnigan sing and play: we’d hear him do a slow blues/soul number like “Hard Times”, “Your Mind is on Vacation” or “I’ve Got News for You” and be convinced that we just heard Mike at his best, only to then hear him belting out something with a bit more tempo like “Can’t Stand It” or “Bad Blood” and think we could never possibly hear anything better from him, or anyone else, for that matter. Truth is, Finnigan did it all so damn well, seeming to give all he had on each and every song, and the good news is that you can hear it all here again on Mike’s final album (not to be confused with the first eponymous album of his career, a 1976 release from Warner Brothers Records), from slow blues numbers like B.B. King’s “Don’t Answer the Door” and the creeping “It Ain’t Fair” (Aretha Franklin) to groovers like the handclap-driven “She’s Not Just Another Woman” (8th Day) and “Let That Liar Alone” (The Staple Singers/Sister Rosetta Tharpe), with Mike’s son Kelly Finnigan joining on vocals and Curtis Salgado on harmonica on the latter.
In between are soaring numbers such as “Fool for You” (Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions) and an “All That You Dream” (Little Feat) that features Stephen Stills and his son Chris on vocals, with Finnigan also delivering a so-funky- you-can-smell-it “Lay Around and Love on You” (Ray Charles, Delbert McClinton). A falsetto “The Way You Do the Things You Do” finds Mike backing Smokey Robinson and James Gadson on both vocals and keyboards, with the album closing on the poignant slow country-gospel of “Sing Me Back Home” (Merle Haggard).
Produced by Finnigan’s friend J.J. Blair, who also added some great horns to the tracks in addition to Finnigan’s golden voice and unrivaled playing on the keys, this album is oozing with soul, and a terrific note by which to remember Finnigan that, we hope, will be duly recognized at next year’s blues awards programs. On behalf of Mike Finnigan fans everywhere (of which there are probably many more than most folks might think, with Finnigan having backed the likes of Jimi Hendrix; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Dave Mason; Etta James; Bonnie Raitt; Joe Cocker and many others throughout the decades, in addition to his work with The Phantom Blues Band and The Mannish Boys), thanks to J.J. Blair and Eric Corne at Forty Below Records for seeing this very important one through. It’s always hard to tell with Finnigan, but we’re pretty sure this is some of the best we ever heard from him!