Kelly Finnigan: A Lover Was Born…out now!

I’m honored to be a session drummer on soul singer-songwriter Kelly Finnigan’s A Lover Was Born album, which came out Friday on Colemine Records. I played on all but two of the tunes (Kelly himself is on “Be Your Own Shelter” and Joe Crispiano on “Count Me Out”), surrounded by musical heavyweights, including the aforementioned, guitarist Jimmy “Scratch” James, Sergio Rios and Max and Joe Ramey. I’d never played with anyone on the record before and didn’t get any demos to learn. I flew to the Bay Area and we got it done off the cuff, all in the same room, over four straight 12 hour days. It was what I envisioned sessions being like from looking at the back covers of my favorite soul, funk, rock and jazz albums growing up, before technology allowed us to create in pieces and in solitude. Cig butts and beer cans everywhere – half finished black coffee cups, water bottles and a bag of peanuts that’s probably still by the drum set for me because I’m old and square – and we recorded to a reel to reel. Everyone on these sessions was pro and made me a better musician in that short trip. If you made a mistake, we all started over. Nobody wanted to be that guy. Especially not at 11:52 PM and we’d been there since 10 AM. You better find the bacon fat at that point. The rest of the band still had energy to spare at quittin’ time every night and hit the bar – I went to sleep completely spent. Middle age ain’t for the soft! If you dig gritty and pretty soul music that references a specific time (late 1960s) but is still 100% authentic in its own thing, give it a spin on Spotify or wherever you buy records/stream music. Or just let the YouTube link above play the whole record.