Nashville musicians comprise a brotherhood and sisterhood like no other, and on Sunday, hundreds of them and their loved ones gathered at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to remember and pay respect to pedal steel guitar player and music scholar Pete Finney, who died on Feb. 7 at 70 years old. They packed the 215 seats in the Ford Theater while at least another hundred people listened to music and memories over speakers in the Hall’s atrium.
The sincerity and warmth within was no surprise, given Finney’s decades-long track record as a masterful musician and man about town who loved to take in live music and visit with his peers and many friends.
The Hall of Fame’s longtime curator and Vice President of Museum Services Michael Gray welcomed the overflow crowd and gave Finney credit for his key role in conceiving, researching, and curating the famous museum exhibit Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats, which ran from 2015 through the end of 2017. Finney’s personal research inspired the exhibit and offered a novel point of view on Bob Dylan’s well-documented story, Gray said.
“Pete shared his knowledge graciously and enthusiastically. He worked long hours to ensure that the exhibition, and its related book, compilation album, and educational programs were the very best they could be,” Gray told the audience. “Pete loved to learn. He was a lifelong student with an endlessly curious mind. He attended programs and exhibits because he genuinely wanted to know more. But perhaps more than anything, he showed up to support his friends.”
Finney grew up in Maryland in a family that had connections to the region’s folk music community. While he started on guitar, he became enamored of the sound of the steel and took lessons from country mainstay Buddy Charlton, who lived near the nation’s capital. On Sunday, two of Finney’s brothers were on hand, including younger brother Steven, who fleshed out Pete’s early years in southern Maryland, describing the shows they saw by great artists, from the famous to the little-known, including Peter Rowan’s Earth Opera and a very young Asleep At The Wheel.
The wild Texas songwriter and Tex-Mex revivalist Doug Sahm offered Finney some of his first gigs and tours, leading Pete to move to Austin, TX. But that proved as mercurial as Sahm himself, and a job with country singer Sylvia prompted his move to Nashville in the early 80s. He played early on with Vince Gill, who became a close friend and fan, up to and including performing at Finney’s wedding to his wife Carol in 2017. Then came Pete’s bread and butter job for the sublime singer Patty Loveless, who was there in person to pay tribute on Sunday.
“I am just in awe that he was even with me for about 20 years on the road, here and there, everywhere,” Loveless said in brief remarks from the stage, before singing a moving version of “Go Rest High On That Mountain” with Gill, the song’s author, backing her up on guitar. Loveless also told a story of Pete’s musicianship in the studio, recalling his doubled-up leads on the hit record “Blame It On Your Heart.” She said, “To me, the steel sticks out more than anything on that particular record. And it would not be the same without the solo of Pete Finney.”
Finney also toured with Foster & Lloyd, The Chicks, Reba McEntire, and The Judds on the national stage, while playing countless sets at bars and taverns with journeymen Americana outfits and songwriters. His resume includes time with Jim Lauderdale, Justin Townes Earle, Shemekia Copeland, and Allison Moorer, who was also on hand to sing “A Soft Place To Fall” with a very Nashville house band made up of Chris Scruggs on bass, Marty Lynds on drums, Kenny Vaughan and Chuck Mead on guitar, Jen Gunderman on piano, and Tommy Hannum on pedal steel.
Toward the end of the ceremony, musician and painter Jon Langford spun witty yarns from years of knowing Finney - about being pulled into the Hall of Fame’s Nashville Cats exhibit by Pete, about Pete’s recent touring with Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, and about officiating at Pete’s wedding to his wife Carol. “We played together for many years,” Langford said. “And I just thought he was a fantastic musician, a great person to hang out with.”
Langford closed out the affair with a final tip to Finney’s work on the Dylan/Cash exhibit. “The core of what Pete was trying to do was really about the community of musicians in this town. He was the perfect example of someone who understood and contributed and connected so many people in this town and across the country.”
A more complete and deeply affectionate bio and appreciation written by Pete’s close friend and music journalist Jack Silverman can be found at the Nashville Scene here.
