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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 InchRainy Day, Dream Away, Inch and InchStill Raining, Still Dreaming, Inch both of which saw the light of day as part of Hendrix's 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 Mason's 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 Mike's 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 Wa
