Robert Finley Will Bring His Blues, Soul And R&B To Australia For The First Time This May, Including A Newly Confirmed Melbourne Show
by Paul Cashmere
Robert Finley, one of the most powerful contemporary voices in American blues and soul, will make his long-awaited Australian debut this May. At 71, the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter arrives at a career peak, armed with a formidable catalogue and a brand new album, Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya.
Presented by Love Police, the tour will see Finley perform at Blues On Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory and, following a Victorian venue update, Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne.
For Finley, the journey to this first Australian tour has been anything but conventional. Born on February 13, 1954 in Bernice, Louisiana, he was raised on gospel music, singing in church from the age of seven after his baptism. By 11 he had bought a guitar from a thrift store and began studying the craft by watching gospel quartets up close, absorbing technique and discipline from the front row.
In 1970, Finley joined the U.S. Army intending to work as a helicopter technician in Germany. Instead, he found himself travelling Europe as a guitarist and bandleader in the Army band. After returning home to Louisiana, he balanced carpentry with part-time performance, leading the gospel group Brother Finley And The Gospel Sisters and busking to make ends meet. When he was later declared legally blind and forced to retire from carpentry, music once again became his primary calling.
His recording career began remarkably late. Discovered by the Music Maker Relief Foundation in 2015 while busking in Arkansas, Finley released his debut album, Age Don’t Mean A Thing, in 2016. The record introduced a voice steeped in Southern soul tradition, drawing on the lineage of Booker T. & The MGs, James Brown and B.B. King while foregrounding Finley’s own lived experience.
A connection with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys soon followed, leading to a prolific partnership on Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label. Finley released Goin’ Platinum in 2017, toured internationally with the Easy Eye Sound Revue, and expanded his audience further with a semi-final run on America’s Got Talent in 2019, where a gospel performance resonated deeply with viewers.
Subsequent albums Sharecropper’s Son in 2021 and Black Bayou in 2023 cemented his reputation as a storyteller rooted in the soil of the American South. Sharecropper’s Son in particular traced his upbringing on a Louisiana crop share, blending autobiography with muscular grooves and classic soul arrangements.
Now comes Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya, his fourth album for Easy Eye Sound, released on October 10, 2025. Recorded in Nashville in a single, high-voltage day with Auerbach and an all-star studio band, the record captures Finley’s spontaneous, spirit-led approach. The sessions also feature his daughter and longtime touring partner Christy Johnson, whose call-and-response vocals draw directly from the gospel tradition that shaped them both.
While the album carries strong gospel themes, it is not confined to church walls. The songs traverse Mississippi blues textures, deep soul inflections and gritty R&B rhythms, unified by Finley’s commanding delivery. It is the sound of an artist distilling decades of experience into testimony set to tape.
Live, Finley is part preacher, part bandleader, part raconteur. His shows are built around groove, storytelling and connection, with a voice capable of quiet intimacy one moment and full-throated release the next. Australian audiences will now have the opportunity to witness that presence firsthand.
Tickets are on sale now via lovepolice.com.au.
Tour Dates
Sun 17 May, Sydney, Oxford Art Factory, NSW, with Daddy Long Legs
Tue 19 May, Melbourne, Thornbury Theatre, VIC, venue change
Fri 16 May, Gold Coast, Blues On Broadbeach, QLD
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YouTube. See things first—Subscribe to Noise11 on YouTube
Follow Noise11.com on social media:
Bluesky
Facebook – Comment on the news of the day
