Womad

Finley Quaye

Ever-eclectic sounds from the musical maverick

It may be a decade since his explosion onto the UK music scene (a multi-platinum album in Maverick A Strike, huge hit singles in Sunday Shining and Your Love Gets Sweeter, a MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act, a BRIT Award for Best British Male Solo Artist), but Finley Quaye continues to follow his own fertile musical path. The son of jazz musician Cab Kaye and kid brother of veteran session guitarist Caleb Quaye, an eclectic musical ear was always going to be Finley's birthright. As such, his sound has veered from reggae through pop and soul to trip-hop grooves and now, perhaps surprisingly, country - Quaye has demoed an album of country music that started off as a collection of protest songs. It's not the only new record on the horizon. Very imminent is Pound for Pound, recorded in Jamaica and Brixton with Norman Grant of the Twinkle Brothers, while a reggae/trip-hop album, Pinnacle, is slated for a 2009 release. Refusing to stay still and always failing to recognise any delineated boundaries, Finley Quaye is back.

Biog by Rob Williams