Mike Finnigan

During his brilliant career as both leader and sideman, it was acknowledged among the music cognoscenti that Mike Finnigan was one of the most gifted Hammond B3 players to ever touch the instrument. While his instrumental brilliance was widely acknowledged, few know that he was one of the best blues singers of a generation. Born in Troy, Ohio, a few miles north of Dayton in 1945, he taught himself how to play blues, gospel and rock n roll as a child by listening to Fats Domino and Ray Charles records. Those early years of diligence would pay off when, at the age of 22, while recording with his own band, The Serfs, an artist recording in another room of the studio happened to hear his playing and invited him to sit in. That artist was Jimi Hendrix, and they wound up collaborating with Buddy Miles for the songs Rainy Day, Dream Away, and Still Raining, Still Dreaming, both of which saw the light of day as part of Hendrixs landmark Electric Ladyland album, Thereafter, Mike joined The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood who recorded a critically lauded album for Columbia produced by Tom Wilson who had worked with Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, the Animals and Mother of Invention. He then worked with guitar legend Tommy Bolin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, before forming the duo Finnigan and Wood and joined Dave Masons band a few years later. In 1976, Jerry Wexler, who had produced Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and so many more for Atlantic records moved to Warner Bros. Where he immediately signed Finnigan. By the end of the decade Mikes solo career was supplanted by a tenure in Stephen Stills band, and shortly became, for the next two decades, the lynchpin of the CSN and CSN&Y band. He remained one of the most sought after B3 players and session singers, recording and touring with artists like Etta James, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, Michael McDonald, Tower of Power, Rod Stewart, Eric Burden, Tracy Chapman, Leonard Cohen, Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, White Snake, Don Felder, and so many more. In 2018, producer J.J. Blair set out to make the definitive Mike Finnigan record, completion of which would be interrupted by the Covid lockdown. Tragedy struck when Mike was diagnosed with liver cancer making his return to the studio impossible. Mike succumbed on August 11, 2021, from pneumonia, a byproduct of his cancer treatments. After his passing, Blair completed the eponymous Mike Finnigan album, and in 2025, blues powerhouse label 40 Below Records agreed to release it.