| Finis Tasby |
| Finis Tasby built his reputation as an accomplished blues performer by playing the bass for Freddie King and John Lee Hooker, before he decided to do justice to his warm, soulful voice and become a full-time singer. Before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, Finis learned his trade in Dallas, where he played behind two performers who left a strong imprint on his style, Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin. He was largely unknown outside L.A. before 1998, when Evidence Records released his CD, Jump Children! On this CD, Finis does outstanding covers of songs by Fulson, McCracklin, Jimmy Reed, and Mercy Baby, and he is joined by some of the hottest young California blues players: guitarists Rick Holmstrom, Kid Ramos, and Coco Montoya, keyboard player Rob Rio, Larry Taylor on upright bass, and Richard Innes on drums. The CD received glowing reviews everywhere and resulted in Finis being nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in 1999 as Artist Most Deserving of Wider Recognition, as well as invitations to perform at high-profile blues festivals in the United States and in Europe. One reviewer, Jay Oblander in Southwest Blues Magazine, said of the CD, "This is not just another attempt at retro; this is the real thing. . . . Tasby sings these songs with the authority that comes with having been there. In fact, you can go right back there with him, song after song." Finis, who received his first name because he was the last of ten children, was born near Dallas, and by the time he was eighteen he was a blues drummer in Dallas and the friend of two Dallas blues legends, guitarist Frankie Lee Sims and drummer Mercy Baby. In his early twenties, Finis formed the band The Thunderbirds, but switched from drums to bass. "I got tired of sitting in the back as a drummer, I wanted to be out front doing stuff." For almost ten years, until the band broke up in 1970, The Thunderbirds were popular as headliners in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and they also backed up touring blues stars such as Freddie King, Fulsom, McCracklin, Solomon Burke, and others. The Thunderbirds' vocalist was Z.Z. Hill, who became a major southern soul star in the 1980s, and when he left in the late sixties his place was taken by Joe Simon, who also went to become a soul singer of some renown. Finis recalls that he noticed the same young white man at many of their gigs. Eventually this blues fan came up, introduced himself as Jimmie Vaughan, and said he would like to use the name "Thunderbirds" if the band ever broke up. "I told him to go ahead, because we were splitting up," Finis says, and some five years later in Austin, Jimmie Vaughan and Kim Wilson formed The Fabulous Thunderbirds. After moving to California, Finis worked for eight years as an auto mechanic, playing bass on weekends in the bands of his old friend Lowell Fulsom, John Lee Hooker, and others. His first album, aptly entitled Blues Mechanic, came out on the British Ace label in 1985. Starting in the mid-eighties, Finis switched to music full-time, singing and playing the bass in his own band, and his second album, People Don't Care, which had a more contemporary blues sound than Jump, Children!, came out on the Shanachie label in 1995. Finis's live shows in California are dynamic. This spring he played a club called Sly McFly's in Monterey, and local radio deejay Ralph Parker, who hosts a show called "Oldies Unlimited," posted a rave review on the Internet: "The most real lowdown R & B show of the year . . . the type of voice I haven't heard in years . . . he jumped, shimmied, and juked onstage as he belted out '50s grindin' R & B, stuff by Bobby Blue Bland, Wilbert Harrison, B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, Little Richard, Jimmy McCracklin, etc." Not to be missed! |
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| Finis, Kirk "Eli" Fletcher and Enrico Cafe Boogaloo, Hermosa Beach, California 27 December 2001 |