Robert Finley

Hailing from the town of Bernice, Louisiana, Robert Finley is an American singer-songwriter delivering traditional blues and soul music with elements of R&B and gospel. He developed an early affinity for music when he purchased a guitar from a thrift store at the age of 11. This would be the beginning of a lifelong obsession with the instrument, learning to play by ear and eventually writing his own songs. Frequent visits to gospel quartet groups had a major impact on him, and his musical abilities flourished in his teens after he signed up for the Army in 1970. Originally enlisted as a helicopter technician in Germany, his skills were quickly recognized and he was soon moved to guitarist and bandleader duties for the military band.

Upon his return home, Finley found work as a carpenter for many years before losing his sight due to Glaucoma. Still passionate about pursuing music, he went on to meet a member of the Music Maker Foundation who helped him make a welcome return to the scene. He put out his debut solo record, "Age Don't Mean a Thing," via Big Legal Mess in late 2016.

His next album, "Goin' Platinum!," was released in 2017. The following year Finley joined Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound Revue tour, followed up with a series of headline shows around the world. In 2019, it was announced that Finley was a contestant for the fourteenth season of "America's Got Talent." He managed to reach the live shows but was eventually eliminated in the semi-finals.

In 2021, Finley released "Sharecropper's Son," an autobiographical album that centers around his upbringing on a crop share in Louisiana. Finley releases his anticipated fourth studio album Black Bayou in 2024, an 11-track tour de force that coalesces gospel, blues, soul, and rock into a raw, thundering tribute to Finley’s home state of Louisiana.