Right now Nashville's back streets are full of singer/songwriters who no longer want or need the attentions of Music Row to survive.   Not that they are avoiding the idea of a major label deal, rather they are wary of what that could mean.   They survive in the tight-knit musical community that thrives in front rooms, small clubs and demo studios.   They write literate music that draws from a wealth of American roots musical forms and is fashioned by fine-tuned and skilled players who know how to support a song rather than overwhelm it. 

One such person is Jeff Finlin.   He came to Nashville via a stint in Boston.   The Cleveland, Ohio born musician previously tasted success as drummer with The Thieves who released a Marshall Crenshaw produced album on Capitol.   This album Seduced by Money, an appropriate title perhaps in the light of subsequent events, gave them a minor hit with the track Everything But My Heart.   Since moving to Nashville he has concentrated on his singer-songwriter skills.   He released one album, Highway Diaries on Pete Anderson's Little Dog imprint before releasing his second, New York city recorded, solo album Original Fin.   This was picked up by UK label Gravity and re-released.   It has now been followed by his current album Somewhere South Of Wonder. 

This time out he has recorded in Nashville working with some fine musicians like guitarist Pat Buchanan who co-produced several of the tracks with Finlin.   "The convenience of doing it in my living room was just great.   Me and Pat would get together and cut the basic tracks there, and then take them somewhere to else to work up."   The remainder being co-produced with Laron Pendergrass.   Mr. Finlin also turns his hands to guitar, piano, accordion, percussion as well as his former trade as drummer.   He also brings in such local talents as Will Kimbrough, Phil Madeira, Joe Pisapia and Dave Jacques to help him out.   He still plays drums on his own records on certain tracks as he explains.   "It depends on what works.   I have a certain thing in my head rhythmically and I want to get it down.   I'm a stickler on rhythm because I am a drummer, so I even play a guitar like a drummer, so I get real particular about timing."
 
The result is a more organic sounding album, with a more rootsy feel than his last album, that has drawn some comparison to Bob Dylan, but then what songwriter hasn't?   It is his nasal delivery that, perhaps, brings that particular brickbat but in the end Jeff Finlin is Jeff Finlin and should, like most performers, be taken on his own merits.   Does he see the comparison as valid?   "Yes and no, because an artist's main job is to find his own voice, you know.   That's what I am always striving for.   I like what he does and where he comes from stylistically.   Growing up with him he led me on that educational path.   It's like the way I grew up listening to the Stones and you would read about Keith talking about Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters and take that trail back into American music.   Great art has a trail back, like the way you can see in Picasso that he was looking at the Greeks and the ceramics they made and it is really cool to see that."   Where then does Finlin find inspiration?   "My writing comes from different places, I get obsessed with the human story and how that translates mythologically.   Whether it's a part of my own life or me looking out.   Trying to take it a little bit deeper and express myself artistically.   Some of the songs like Perfect Mark Of Cain, (which he had heard Johnny Cash say in a radio interview and had written it down at that time to later expanded that phrase into a song) and I Am The King are short, short, stories.   I like to complete ideas, stories, that's what makes me tick."   How about working with other writers?   "I usually work on my own but on this one I've worked some with Pat.   I find that if I can get in a groove with somebody it helps, because you have two balls of energy instead of one.   However I don't write for anyone else but me.   I've tried it but it never seemed to work out."   Does ever consider outside material?   "Every once in awhile I will get obsessed with a song and want to cover it.   I did a version of Lovin' Cup, the Stones song which I have never put out.   I've done a Hank Williams cover.   And maybe they'll surface at some point.   There's great songs out there and when I hear a great song I tend to get excited about it.   It hits me as being my own story too." 

Since becoming a part of the musical community in Nashville has he seen many changes?   "I think it's already started to change, I don't think that mainstream Country music is at all representative of American music.   All it represents now is corporate marketing.   As long as you wear the right hat and the right smile, it seems you're country now.   We all know different than that.   There are two different worlds; there's the Music Row thing and then there's the really creative world.   People like Lucinda Williams, Matthew Ryan, Kevin Gordon, Swandive and Ryan Adams are doing good stuff, loads of people really, that live in that world and that's always been the world that I've existed in."   So the parameters of what's called country have changed?   "What used to be called rock 'n' roll is now country, if it has a guitar on it it's country.   Things have changed quite a bit.   I mean if the Rolling Stones came out with Honky Tonk Woman now they'd be called country.   The whole industry is getting turned upside down.   That need to play music is what separates the men from the boys.   Are you in this to get free drinks or do you really love the music?" 

Finlin clearly is in this for the music and works hard to get it right.   He takes his writing seriously and has learned as he has gone along.   "When I'm writing I'm writing, and when I'm not I do other things. I   used to just write all the time but I now I pretty much need to write for a reason.   When it's time to do something I'll go and write ten to fifteen things and then pick the best out of those.   I'm enjoying doing it that way because before it was just like beating my head against a brick wall.   For this record I had fifteen songs recorded and I worked on them on and off for a couple of years and I just got sick of them.   They are good songs, but if they're kicking around for that long you want to move on, you just want to keep things current.   So I have to be careful about when I do it and how I do it.   I could go home and write another set of songs but maybe nobody would want another record for two years.   I've got around fifty songs just kicking around right now.   You got to let them lay there and not look at them or your perspective gets skewed on them." 

Although his deal in the UK is in place he is still label-less in the US.   "Yeah, I'm still working on getting this new album out in America.   That's what I will be working on for the next while."   He has toured solo and with his band; which does he prefer?   "I like both and this tour has been great because it has opened the songs up to new possibilities.   I can play a song just by myself and it's bigger than with a band. I like that.   I like being able to take it there just by myself, or with just one other guy.   I can make it different every night."   A lot of similar artists, like Kevin Montgomery, are coming over to Europe, returning on a regular basis which is important to building a following.   "A lot of us are finding a place over here in Europe.   It's kinda like a small British Invasion in reverse.   Because America is just in a quandary right now.   There’s not a whole lot of people out there who you can really sink your teeth into right now.   Something that you can say is going to be around in thirty years and sound just as good.   A lot of us who do this kind of thing are just looking for an audience." 

Finally where does Jeff see his music fitting?   "I don't know, it's just music.   It's just Jeff Finlin." 

Stephen Rapid 
Lonesome Highway
20 January 2003