Hello everyone, I hope you’re doing marvellously effectively.
Now and again, you get to speak to any individual whose love of music runs so deep that it comes by way of in each sentence. That’s JJ Blair. He’s an unbelievable producer, engineer, mixer, musician, and a kind of individuals who appears to grasp not simply information, nonetheless the human beings inside them.
Not too long ago, I sat down with my previous pal JJ to speak a few very particular venture, the completion and launch of Mike Finnigan, the self-titled album by the legendary Mike Finnigan, who sadly handed away earlier than the file was completed.
This was not simply one other album launch. This was a labour of affection, a years-long journey, and in some ways an act of devotion.
A friendship that grew to become one thing deeper
JJ and Mike Finnigan have been shut for greater than 30 years. This was not some informal working relationship. Mike was one among JJ’s dearest mates, and as JJ put it, the closest factor he needed to a father after dropping his personal dad when he was younger.
That type of bond issues, as a result of it adjustments the way in which you hear the story. JJ was not merely producing a file for an artist he admired. He was carrying one thing treasured for somebody he beloved.
And Mike Finnigan was actually price carrying.
For individuals who know the title, the résumé is staggering. Mike performed Hammond on Hendrix tracks like Wet Day, Dream Away and Nonetheless Raining, Nonetheless Dreaming. He labored with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, Etta James and Dave Mason. He had a wealthy and storied profession as a sideman, session participant, band member, singer, and musical power of nature.
Nevertheless, for all of that historical past, JJ felt there was nonetheless one file lacking.
He knew what Mike may do. He knew the depth of his voice, the soul in his taking part in, and the sheer authority he delivered to blues, soul, funk and nation. In JJ’s eyes, Mike had by no means fairly made the definitive album that put him in precisely the setting the place he may do what he did finest.
So JJ saved pushing him to make it.
The session that began all of it
The turning level got here after Mike performed a gig on the town with an exceptional band together with James Gadson, Abe Rounds Jr. and others. Mike was on fireplace, and JJ lastly mentioned, let’s cease speaking and simply do it.
The thought was easy. Go into EastWest for a day, every choose a music, herald the best musicians, and see what occurs. If Mike beloved it, they’d hold going. If not, they’d neglect the entire thing ever occurred.
The very very first thing they recorded, the primary take, was magic.
JJ described it as a kind of performances you play for individuals they usually simply stare at you in disbelief. Stay vocal, reside really feel, first take, the form of second you can not pretend and will by no means enhance by overthinking it.
That was sufficient. The venture had begun.
Initially, there was a plan to buy the fabric for a label deal. Joe Bonamassa heard the early recording and wished to place it out, which appeared like a pure path ahead. Nevertheless, after Covid and after Mike’s loss of life, issues grew to become much more sophisticated. Label phrases, licensing points, and the comprehensible needs of Mike’s household meant JJ finally needed to carry the venture ahead himself.
And that’s the place the story grew to become much more exceptional.
Ending a file after loss
JJ and Mike had recorded ten tracks, nonetheless solely seven vocals had been accomplished earlier than Mike handed away.
At that time, this might simply have grow to be a kind of heartbreaking unfinished information that by no means sees the sunshine of day. As a substitute, JJ discovered a option to honour Mike with out compromising him.
That meant endurance. It meant giving Mike’s household the time and area to grieve. It meant ready till the second was proper. And it meant determining, very rigorously, the right way to full songs that had been left unfinished.
One observe had been supposed as a duet with Mike’s son, Kelly Finnigan, an exceptional singer and frontman in his personal proper. JJ was in a position to construct that efficiency utilizing sufficient of Mike’s scratch vocal to form it into the duet it was all the time meant to be.
One other music had initially been deliberate as a duet with Smokey Robinson. JJ had Smokey sing a part of it, then introduced in James Gadson and Dorian Holley to finish the image, with Dorian additionally dealing with harmonies.
On one other music, after loads of problems and politics over who would sing it, JJ landed on Stephen Stills, who carried out it as a duet together with his son Chris Stills, one other gorgeous vocalist.
That is the place the venture reveals what it actually was. Not merely a producer ending a file, nonetheless a neighborhood of nice musicians stepping in to assist full the ultimate chapter of a pal’s story.
Capturing magic, not perfection
Probably the most lovely issues JJ mentioned was that when you find yourself working with really particular musicians, the purpose is to not keep away from errors. The purpose is to seize the second.
That’s such an vital distinction.
We reside in a time the place a lot recording can grow to be about management, correction and limitless refinement. Nevertheless, JJ wished one thing else for Mike. He wished the electrical energy of reside efficiency, the texture of musicians listening to 1 one other in actual time, the type of chemistry that solely occurs when everyone is totally current.
An ideal instance is their model of Sing Me Again Residence.
JJ had heard the Grateful Useless do a slower model of the Merle Haggard music and thought it revealed the true emotional core of the lyric. Mike, who was an enormous Ray Charles fan, took that concept and reshaped it into one thing like a sluggish 6/8 ballad, virtually as if Ray may need interpreted it.
The observe was reduce with a reside vocal, with Mike taking part in Hammond and singing on the similar time, whereas Pete Thomas, Davey Faragher and Val McCallum sang harmonies reside behind gobos. That mix, that really feel, that spontaneous chemistry, is true there within the file.
JJ talked about Mike together with his eyes closed, singing his coronary heart out whereas working the Hammond drawbars and switches in actual time. That’s not simply musicianship. That may be a entire physique efficiency. And when the best individuals are within the room, you don’t attempt to sanitise that. You seize it.
In response to JJ, there are spine-tingling performances throughout this file.
Mike Finnigan, the singer
It’s straightforward to speak about Mike Finnigan’s pedigree as a keyboard participant and sideman, as a result of that historical past is immense. Nevertheless, one factor JJ was adamant about was Mike the singer.
He didn’t communicate in half measures. He known as Mike one of many nice blues singers of all time.
Not good. Not underrated. Not underappreciated. Nice.
And in JJ’s thoughts, that isn’t hyperbole. He believes that when individuals hear tracks like Don’t Reply the Door, they’ll perceive precisely what he means.
That claims the whole lot. This album was not nearly documenting a revered veteran. It was about lastly placing Mike Finnigan, the artist, totally in focus.
An album years within the making
Though the file solely not too long ago got here out, this venture really started again in December 2018.
Like many nice information, it didn’t start with some grand enterprise technique. It began with a few songs, a bit of hope, and the willingness to interrupt the piggy financial institution if mandatory.
At a sure level, JJ stopped ready for out of doors momentum and easily determined to make the album correctly. He locked out EastWest, introduced in a few of his favorite musicians and Mike’s closest musical allies, and dedicated to constructing the file the way in which it deserved to be made.
The solid is extraordinary. David Goodstein, Tony Braunagel, James Gadson, Pete Thomas, Davey Faragher, Val McCallum and others all contributed. These should not simply employed arms. These are musicians with contact, character, style and deep musical vocabulary.
That issues, as a result of that is precisely the type of file the place really feel is the whole lot.
Getting it launched
Even after the album was completed, the toughest half nonetheless remained, discovering a label.
JJ found one thing that makes good sense, nonetheless remains to be sobering to listen to. Labels are sometimes reluctant to tackle a file by an artist who’s now not right here to put it on the market.
That’s the enterprise actuality.
Nevertheless, JJ believed the album nonetheless had an opportunity, as a result of though Mike had handed, the music was alive, the collaborators have been alive, and the viewers was there. He knew there was a narrative, a neighborhood, and a musical lane this file belonged in.
Finally, Eric Corne at Forty Beneath Data understood the imaginative and prescient and helped carry it residence.
And the music discovered its method out into the world.
A file constructed with love, style and ears
There was one other beautiful element in our dialog that claims loads about JJ as a producer.
A few of the songs, notably these with Pete Thomas, Davey Faragher and Val McCallum, have been blended by Bob Clearmountain. That alone is sufficient to make any recordist smile. Bob is, fairly merely, one of many greats.
JJ laughed about how happy he was that Bob favored his snare sound sufficient to not exchange or radically reshape it. In engineer phrases, that could be a correct badge of honour.
Nevertheless, what’s much more telling is that JJ listened rigorously to what Bob did, seen the additional pleasure and punch within the kick and snare, requested questions, realized from it, after which went again and remixed his personal songs so the entire album would sit collectively on the similar normal.
That’s the mark of an amazing producer and mixer. No ego, simply ears. Simply dedication to creating the file higher.
Why this album issues
There are albums that arrive with enormous campaigns and limitless noise round them. Then there are albums like this, information that carry a human story inside them.
This one issues as a result of it’s about friendship. It issues as a result of it’s about ending what you began. It issues as a result of it offers an amazing artist yet another probability to be heard in the way in which he deserved. And it issues as a result of JJ Blair didn’t let the venture disappear when issues acquired tough.
He stayed with it.
For eight years, by way of grief, delays, unfinished vocals, label problems, shifting plans and the sheer emotional weight of the fabric, he stayed with it.
That type of dedication is uncommon. And delightful.
Ultimate ideas
Speaking to JJ jogged my memory of one thing I really like about nice file makers. The perfect of them should not simply technically gifted. They’re custodians of feeling. They perceive songs, performances, individuals and moments. They know when to push and when to get out of the way in which.
JJ Blair is a kind of individuals.
And with Mike Finnigan, he has completed one thing very particular. He helped carry a exceptional album throughout the end line, not by forcing it, nonetheless by defending what made it significant within the first place.
That may be a great reward to Mike’s legacy, to his household, to his mates, and to all of us who get to listen to the end result.
The album is obtainable now on all main streaming platforms, with CDs obtainable by way of Forty Beneath Data, and digital copies by way of the standard retailers.
Go and hearken to it.
Mike Finnigan was the true deal.
And due to JJ Blair, this file proves it.
