Emmett Finley

Emmett Finley walked away from his recording contract with CBS shortly after the release of this, his one and only album, to study classical music and was largely never heard of again. Of course, such tales are manifest in the crash and burn world of the music business, but Finley’s 1971 self-titled LP is a genuine lost classic. Finley was good/well-connected enough to book Jimi Hendrix for one track (Hendrix couldn’t make it in the end so the story goes, though it’s hard to imagine where would have fitted within the ragged honky tonk boogie of Sky King) and these soulful country gospel rockers pitch him somewhere between solo Lennon and Neil Young. The sheer caliber of these fragile, melancholic songs here make it baffling that Finley didn’t become a star, though the album’s recent reissue should hopefully turn more onto its enigmatic charms.