Music in the Gardens: Robert Finley

Robert Finley is a legend waiting to be shared. At the age of eleven, in Louisiana, he used his shoe-buying allowance to snag his first guitar, and it, in turn, ensnared him in a lifelong love affair. After leading an Army band while stationed in Germany, he returned to the Deep South, playing solo blues and wondrous soul after long days working in construction. Now legally blind, Finley's home-building days are over. But a rediscovery by the Music Maker Relief Foundation gave him a second chance with his first love. His 2016 debut, Age Don't Mean a Thing, even caught praise from NPR and The New York Times. On the title track, he dismisses the doubters, howling the chorus like a man who has long lived by his own rules.