CQAF 2026 Early-bird Shows

On the back of his incredible recent performance on BBC’s Later With Jools Holland, CQAF is delighted to welcome back Louisiana soul-blues artist Robert Finley to open this year’s festival in what will be a blistering show in The Empire.

The tour follows his critically acclaimed album Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya, which was released earlier this year via Easy Eye Sound. The new album has already won global acclaim, with SPIN declaring the artist “a master musician and entertainer – only gets better with time,” and UNCUT noting: “Approaching his eighth decade … Finley’s work here is clearly just getting started.”

Produced by longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, the album features bold, joy-driven gospel-soul statements like “I Wanna Thank You,” and was recorded in the spirit of live improvisation with Finley and his band.

After a lifetime of hard work, Robert Finley has established himself as one of today’s preeminent spokesmen of the blues. Born and raised in the small town of Bernice, LA, Finley spent decades playing music as a street performer and leader of the gospel group Brother Finley and the Gospel Sisters before making his long overdue recording debut at the young age of 62 with 2016’s Age Don’t Mean A Thing.

The album captured the attention of Easy Eye Sound founder Dan Auerbach, beginning a long collaborative relationship that has included Goin’ Platinum, 2021’s autobiographical Sharecropper’s Son, and 2023’s critically acclaimed Black Bayou. An 11-track tour de force that coalesces southern soul, jazz, folk, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and more into a raw, thundering tribute to Finley’s home state of Louisiana.

The latter album was met by ecstatic applause from leading publications around the world spanning SPIN, The FADER, No Depression, American Songwriter, Paste, Uncut, and more with MOJO simply declaring in a five-starred rave, “Black Bayou is surely the album Finley was put on Earth to create, filled with stories only he could tell.”

An electrifying performer known for his soulful swagger and gritty vocal power, Finley has since proven a hugely popular international live act with sold-out headline tours, countless festival appearances, shows alongside The Black Keys, and a leading role in Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Revue.

Having overcome great adversity – including losing his sight in his 60s – Robert Finley is now justly recognized the world over as a singular storyteller and one of the last great bluesmen of the modern era, a true living legend with still more magic to come.