“You have to have lived, have been there or done that,” he says, his low voice a virtual growl, partly because it’s 10am in his native Louisiana and he’s only just gotten up.
But if life experience is the secret, it’s no wonder that Robert is so well regarded by those who know and love their blues and soul.
Robert Finley
A talented singer-songwriter in his younger days, he worked as a part-time street performer, as leader of the gospel group Brother Finley and the Gospel Sisters, and as a carpenter.
Robert stopped playing for many years and he was 62 when he finally released his debut album, Age Don’t Mean a Thing, despite being declared legally blind due to an eye condition.
Now at 70 he’s got his fourth release – Black Bayou – under his belt and is in Manchester on Sunday, one of a series of highly-anticipated UK dates.
Like his previous album Sharecropper’s Son, Black Bayou saw Robert teaming up with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach who both produced and played on the record.
The way the pair devised the album would, I suggest, terrify many musicians with Robert heading into the studio without a song having been written in advance.
“I guess that would,” he chuckled, “but we’d just go in, pick a subject, play some music and go from there. Dan came up with most of the stuff to sing about. He’d say ‘let’s do something about this’ and we’d just come up with an idea, then we’d come up with a beat and took it from there.
“When I was a kid I always worked on riddles and poetry in my head so I guess it sort of comes naturally for me.”
Black Bayou is a collection of 11 songs, each of them almost cinematic in nature.
“I’ve always said when you write and sing a song, when you listen to it, it should be like you are reading a short novel. It needs to have a message in it, it’s not just that there’s a beat and a groove. It should deliver a message to make people aware of something or make them think.”
Rather like Sharecropper’s Son, there’s a heavy element of autobiography in Black Bayou with Robert sharing stories of life growing up in North Louisiana. How true or how exaggerated they are he’s not about to say, that throaty chuckle is the only response you get when you suggest that some of them sound a little far-fetched.
An example is Alligator Bait, in which Robert was used by his grandfather to catch a ‘gator’.
But they paint a vibrant, colorful and at times harrowing portrait of a world which many people today never realized existed.
“The songs I write are new to the kids and bring back memories to the elderly,” he said. “That’s one of the good parts about the shows. There are folk of all ages in the audience.
“I tell my daughter I’m closing the generation gap. Most older people don’t listen to the music that young people listen to and the young people don’t want to hear old people’s music. I’m fortunate enough to be able to reach both generations.”
Robert will always be found after a show meeting fans.
“You never know what you are opening yourself up to,” he said, “but I always go out and take photos and stuff. That’s history to them; when they take the photo and share it with their family it creates that personal connection.
“Next time I come around with a show those people will be there and they will have brought other folk with them.”
Robert understands the power of communicating with others.
“I tell people a smile is a universal thing which pretty much works everywhere,” he said. “If you smile at people most of them smile back.
“Sometimes in a big city they are afraid to smile. I’ve had people say it’s a sign of weakness or you are opening yourself up and a smile will lead to a conversation and you don’t want to be talking to total strangers.
“I can sort of get that but in my world there aren’t no strangers, just people I haven’t met or talked to yet.”
Robert Finley is at Manchester’s Band on the Wall on Sunday, November 3. Details from www.robertfinleyofficial.com