After a lifetime of hard work, Robert Finley has established himself as one of the spokesmen of the blues. At age 71, he has cris-crossed the globe entertaining audiences with his unique take on blues, soul and R&B. Equally at home in Paris, Amsterdam and London as he is in his North Louisiana stomping grounds, Finley even has his own personal cognac courtesy of the good people of Cognac, France. But with his new album, Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya, Bernice, Louisiana’s favorite son is finally achieving something Finley’s wanted to do ever since being baptized at age seven and started singing in the church choir as a boy: putting his testimony on wax.
“Making a gospel record was the first thing I ever wanted to do,” Finley says. “I’ve had at least one gospel song on each album, and I even did a gospel song on America’s Got Talent. One of the guys said he didn’t know if it was the type of crowd for that, but some of those people were in tears.”
However, if you referred to this new album as “the gospel according to Robert Finley,” you’d be more on the mark. Finley’s fourth album for Easy Eye Sound is the perfect mixture of blues, soul, R&B and yes, gospel. Once again he has created this new album with his friend and collaborator, Dan Auerbach, who has produced and performed on Robert’s recordings since 2017. “Robert and I always talked about it: the gospel groups he was in,” Dan says. “And I’ve always loved gospel music. My dad, Chuck, always played Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. I knew those songs like some people know Beatles songs."
Like most Finley recording sessions, Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya, came together with startling speed. Auerbach assembled the backing group – Malcolm Catto on drums, himself and Barrie Cadogan on guitar, Tommy Rennick on bass, Ray Jacinto on keys – at his Easy Eye Sound Studios in Nashville and directed the session.
But far from being a problem, the blank slate was key to the session’s spark. “Back in the day when Robert played for tips, he’d ask people questions and improvise songs for them on the spot,” Auerbach remarked. “That was the method, and that was the way, and choosing that direction – everything improvised, playing, singing and writing off the cuff – sparked a session of divinely inspired creativity, because letting the spirit move him is a trademark of Finley’s creative process.”
“Dan was like, ‘Okay, Robert. Sing something,’” Finley says. “It’s scripture. The good Lord said, if you open your mouth, I’ll speak for you.” And sing Finley did. The band tracked all of Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya not in a month, not in a week, but in a furiously fruitful single day.
Once the initial session was over, though, Dan said he “kept feeling like something might be missing. And I was listening to these gospel records with call and response, and I was like, ‘Damn, that’s it.’”
Inspired by the feeling of those records and the crucial back and forth between a preacher and their congregation and figuring that the record needed to at least try to get close to that feeling, Dan reached out to Robert’s daughter, Christy Johnson, to come to Nashville and see what she could do.
Having served as her father’s touring companion as well as his backup singer since 2019, Christy had a unique angle on the project. Singing gospel since she was two years old, Christy’s deep connection with her father’s work and their shared faith became the crucial missing piece of the project. Though she jokes, “I didn’t finish as fast as dad did – it took me two days!” Her vocals on Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya are an ethereal marvel; she echoes her father’s words with a haunting clarity that feels both beautifully soulful and chillingly spectral, capturing the feeling of not only the raw and earthy recordings of Mississippi Fred McDowell and his wife Annie Mae McDowell, but also somehow channeling the outer space spirituality of Sun Ra.
“It’s not a traditional gospel record,” Christy says bluntly. And that’s a major understatement.
Since beginning his recording career at the young age of 62 years old, Robert Finley has released four critically acclaimed albums including 2023’s Black Bayou (which established him as a headling touring artist all over Europe) 2021’s autobiographical Sharecropper’s Son, 2017’s Goin’ Platinum and 2016’s Age Don’t Mean A Thing. He also appeared on the fourteenth season of America’s Got Talent (eventually making it to the semi-finals). In addition to touring as a headlining act, Finley has shared bills with The Black Keys and the Easy Eye Sound Revue and has performed at countless major music festivals around the world.
