Mike Finnigan


Michael Kelly Finnigan is an American keyboard player and vocalist, his speciality being the B3 Hammond Organ. Working primarily as a freelance studio musician and touring player, he has played with a wide variety of musicians in pop, rock, blues and jazz.

Life and career

Finnigan was born in Troy, Ohio, and attended the University of Kansas on a basketball scholarship.
Finnigan has toured with and sessioned for Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Etta James, Sam Moore, Crosby Stills and Nash, Dave Mason, Buddy Guy, The Manhattan Transfer, Taj Mahal, Michael McDonald, Maria Muldaur, Peter Frampton, Cher, Ringo Starr, Leonard Cohen, Tower of Power, Rod Stewart, David Coverdale, Tracy Chapman, Los Lonely Boys, Bonnie Raitt, and Saving Escape.
Finnigan recorded Early Bird Cafe with the Serfs in the late 1960s, with Tom Wilson producing. The Serfs were the house band at a nightclub in Wichita, Kansas at the time. He recorded two solo records in the 1970s, one with Jerry Wood. He later collaborated with two other Columbia artists, Les Dudek and Jim Krueger, with whom he formed DFK in 1978. More recently, his work featured on a CD by The Finnigan Brothers, a collaboration with his younger brother Sean and founding member of Bread, Robb Royer.
He is twice a winner of a Blues Music Award for his work with Taj Mahal as a member of the Phantom Blues Band.
Finnigan has always been active politically and was, for several years, a regular contributor to the weblog Crooks and Liars.
In 2013 and 2014, Finnigan was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Pinetop Perkins Piano Player' category.

Personal life

He has been married to Candy Finnigan for 50 years. She is an intervention counselor who has appeared on the television show Intervention. They have two grown children, Bridget and Kelly. Bridget is a nurse.
Kelly, his son is the lead singer and organ player of Bay Area-based indie-soul auteurs Monophonics, has released his debut solo album, Kelly Finnigan and The Atonements The Tales People Tell, via Colemine Records. April 2019. If he's not working on projects for Monophonics or his own stuff, then he is writing, producing, engineering for solo artists, bands etc.He is a gifted and virtuoso musican.

Selected discography