“HalleyAnna writes meaningful lyrics and her singing and guitar-playing deliver her songs in grand form.” 
- Lloyd Maines

HalleyAnna (2014)

 HalleyAnna’s seamless  self-titled cd frequently tempers heart (“Out of the Blue”) with humor (“Tattoo”). HalleyAnna says the dual themes on her new self-titled record focus on leaving and the life of a songwriter. One of her mentors, Todd Snider said, “I was at the Finlay house when they brought HalleyAnna home from the hospital,” Snider says. “As a brother, it’s been a joy to watch her grow into one of the most formidable songwriters of our time. She’s like Hayes Carll but pretty.” - The Austin American-Statesman

I love HalleyAnna's singing. She has a real attitude, the way she sings a country song. It's just perfect. She's the real deal. We'd been talking about me working with her on a record because she's always been a big Kasey fan and she knew I'd played on Kasey's records. We'd been talking via email for about six months and I said, “I'm coming to Austin.” She said, “Let's keep talking.” When I got here, we spoke on the phone and she said, “Can you produce my record next week?” “Man, you're not giving us much time.” She just made up her mind on the spur of the moment. I said, “Do you have the songs?” She said, “Yeah, I'll come around.” She came to the house where I was staying and we ran through a dozen songs. I said, “Yeah, you have the songs. The songs are there, but I only have three days left to spare while I'm here in Austin.”

So, we quickly went into the Woodshed studio there at Cheatham Street and worked with Russell Tanner there. Great guy. Of course, Sterling, HalleyAnna's brother, was on bass and he's a great player. We had a great little band and in three days we made the record, which is almost impossible normally. We didn't fix things. We just left them and I thought that was a perfect way to make a record. They used to make records in the Fifties and Sixties like that but today people take months. I think it's too long. I think the quicker the better. You have the spontaneous feel. Put it down the way the band plays. Don't mess with it. I like that.
 - Bill Chambers, Producer (HalleyAnna - 2013)
  - from Kent Finlay, Dreamer (Texas A&M University Press 2016)
 

The Country (2011)

The songs on the album, most notably “Peace Is Lonely, Love is War” and the title track (co-written with childhood friend David Beck of Sons of Fathers, who recorded their own version of “The Country” on their own debut), revealed a mature, poetic wisdom beyond her young years. But it was HalleyAnna’s voice that really grabbed the listener’s attention. It’s an instrument as full of expression and gnarled grit as Lucinda Williams’, wrapped in a deceptively vulnerable, fetchingly pretty drawl suggestive of Iris DeMent on a whiskey bender.  - Lone Star Music

2017 is starting to come together with great promise. In January, HalleyAnna takes her sophomore  voyage on Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Cruise 23. February will have her back in the studio working on the new project. March will be bittersweet, as the second anniversary of her dad's passing, and of course, 2017 South By Southwest.  Along the way, she'll be up and down the highway -writing, singing and living the dream.