Mike Finnigan – Mike Finnigan<\/h2>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n FORTY BELOW<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mike Finnigan: if you know you know, and if you don\u2019t, you probably know Electric Ladyland<\/a><\/em>. In June 1968, The Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/a> were booked into New York\u2019s Record Plant, as were The Serfs from Wichita, Kansas, cutting their only album, The Early Bird Caf\u00e9<\/a><\/em>. \u201cJimi happened to hear us and said he\u2019d like to have us play on his record,\u201d the Hammond B-3 maestro Mike Finnigan told MOJO in 2008. \u201cJimi was very easy-going, very loose. His notion was the Jimmy Smith organ quartet with a different kind of slant, and we jammed it down on the spot. If I\u2019d had any sense I\u2019d have got some writer\u2019s credit on that Rainy Day deal. And I never got paid for the session, by God!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Was this the moment the affably self-effacing Finnigan heard his calling as a sideman to bigger egos? Stars from Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy and Ben Sidran to Cher, Rod Stewart<\/a>, Leonard Cohen, Alice Cooper<\/a>, Ringo Starr<\/a> and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would call on his services, with only two \u201970s solo albums released in his lifetime. Four years after his passing, this third is a stellar showcase of Finnigan\u2019s instrumental, vocal and band-leading prowess, gift of the groove and genius for swaggering reinvigoration of deep cut Americana. Think Boz Scaggs, think Robert Palmer<\/a>, think Ry Cooder.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Only The Temptations\u2019 The Way You Do The Things You Do, including a vocal cameo by its writer Smokey Robinson, is a household banger, cleverly transplanted south from Detroit for a brass-fat, easy-rolling New Orleans feel, as are the less familiar My Credit Didn\u2019t Go Through by The Chairmen Of The Board\u2019s General Johnson and 8th Day\u2019s She’s Not Just Another Woman, both originally on Holland-Dozier-Holland\u2019s Invictus label. It was all remade in Hollywood with inspirational producer JJ Blair and seasoned session aces including drummers Tony Braunagel, David Goodstein, James Gadson and Pete Thomas, bassists Bob Glaub and Davey Faragher, guitarists Josh Sklair and Val McCallum plus blues axe hero Joe Bonamassa and Finnigan\u2019s son Kelly and old pal Steven Stills cooking mightily to serve songs ranging from Reverend Edward W Clayborn\u2019s Let That Liar Alone in 1928 to Curtis Salgado\u2019s 2008 tune 20 Years Of BB King \u2014 who in turn is represented by the Jimmy Johnson-penned Don\u2019t Answer The Door. (All other pleasures aside, this peach of an album tempts you down myriad discographical rabbit holes.)<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Among these dud-free 11 tracks which also reboot The Impressions, Ben E King, Delbert McClinton and Little Feat, Merle Haggard\u2019s Sing Me Back Home rendered a la Ray Charles tells a bigger story: entreating the Almighty with the end approaching, a late, great thing of joy by a master hiding in plain sight.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Mike Finnigan is out March 20 on Forty Below.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ORDER: Amazon<\/a> | Rough Trade<\/a> | HMV<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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