COURTESY OF ROBERTCRAY.COM
Blues/soul veteran Robert Cray will share a concert bill with Bonnie Raitt next week.
Cray adds soul
to blues
Robert Cray is equal parts Albert Collins, Al Green and O.V. Wright -- a blues guitarist and soul singer who appeals to a broad range of fans. Along with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cray helped usher in a new era of blues by finding chart success in the 1980s.
While the 50-year-old Cray may have started in the blues tradition, his style has evolved into a R&B-soul sound that features his silky voice just as prominently as his noted guitar work.
The Robert Cray Band
Opening act for Bonnie Raitt6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the A&B Amphitheatre of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Tickets $37, $45 and $55, available at the center's box office, Mondays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call (808) 242-7469.
6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Waikiki Shell. Tickets $25 to $55, available at the Blaisdell Arena box office and all Ticketmaster outlets. Call 591-2211.
Born in Columbus, Ga., he was the first of three boys.
"We always had music around the house when we were growing up -- blues, jazz, gospel, soul, pop ... you name it, I loved it all," Cray says.
When the Beatles came out, so did the guitars. Cray got his first, a Harmony Stella in 1965. He joined his first band, One Way Street, in junior high in Newport News, Va. At the end of high school, he was in a band called Steakface in Tacoma, Wash., then Foghorn Heghorn. In 1974, Cray left Tacoma for Eugene, Ore., to join Tom Murphy on drums to start the first edition of The Robert Cray Band.
After being inspired by a Collins performance at his high school graduation in Tacoma, Cray got his first break as "the Iceman" 's rhythm guitarist.
Cray had a fairly invisible debut with 1980's "Who's Been Talking," then exploded onto the scene over the next few years, gaining the respect of musical giants like Keith Richards and Muddy Waters, who called Cray his "adopted son."
Then, in 1983, "Bad Influence" brought Cray a national audience.
Two years later, he made "Showdown!" with Johnny Copeland and Collins, released on the Chicago blues label Alligator. All three guitarists won Grammys. The next year saw the release of Cray's classic "Strong Persuader" on the major Mercury label, with the breakout hit "Smoking Gun." The album went double-platinum in sales, Cray won another Grammy, and every album he's released since has been nominated.
Cray's latest CD is "Time Will Tell" on the independent Sanctuary label.
COURTESY OF CAPITOL RECORDS
The Robert Cray Band will open for nine-time Grammy award winner Bonnie Raitt.
THE STAR-BULLETIN spoke with the blues musician by phone from his Los Angeles home.
Question: You've had the band since 1974. How would you say the music is changing? In what direction is it going?
Answer: These band members are not the original, but this group has been together since about 1989. The music has changed a lot and what happened with this new record is that everybody brought something to the table as far as songwriting is concerned and that's great, it's what we need. It gives us a whole lot of crayons to color with.
It's also really cool that all the different flavors of the music we listened to growing up is starting to take a big play in what we do. I like listening to a lot of different music, and I know it's the same for the rest of the guys in the band. Driving around on tour, we'll listen to anything -- Brazilian music, old funk, jazz, rock 'n' roll, organ trios and everything else under the sun. So the diversity you hear on this record is just us being ourselves. We still have a footing in R&B, but we enjoy and play a lot of other things. We hold no allegiance to one bag.
The song "Up In the Sky" is by my keyboard player, Jim Pugh, and when I first heard the song, I thought it was interestingly different. Then listening to the story and knowing what the story was about, about his parents, and it's so heartfelt, I thought this is a very cool song. Jim suggested that I play the electric sitar on the record and he knew that I was a big fan of (it). As time goes on, I would like to believe our music doesn't have to say a whole lot to get the point across.
Q: What have been your musical inspirations and do they change as time goes by?
A: I have a lot of influences, but I don't think they change. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. I think what happens to me before I go into the studio is I will listen to an artist or a certain style which influences the songwriting. The only deal is that when I do listen to my favorites now, as compared to when I used to listen to them years ago, I hear more and I hear different things. I pick up more out of the lyric than I used to when I would listen to somebody. When I listened to a guitar player, I would only be aware of the licks. Now I listen to the words, what they are signing, the rhythms, the feel, the phrasing.
Q: What's the hardest part about this business?
A: The hang time between gigs or during the day because the most exciting part is being on stage. Sometimes you're doing gigs and you're stuck on the side of the highway a long ways from town. So you have to hang out. We do more than 100 performances a year, but I like traveling and seeing different places and meeting different people, sampling different foods.
I'm like a dreamer. I sit on the bus and stare out the window and just get inspired by where I am.
Q: Do you write everyday?
A: Oh, no. I write when the inspiration strikes me. I just know when it's time. Or I may be up against a deadline and I start paying more attention to the work.
Q: Doing the blues and then doing soul, R&B, do you ever think it's all two sides of the same coin?
A: Yeah, basically it is. Singing the blues and soul, it's all heartfelt music about love and life. It's just different grooves. And being on stage, you have the advantage of being allowed to sing it out, scream and shout. If you were to go outside and stand in the middle of the street and scream, wouldn't that feel good? It's all passionate music.
Q: You're pretty much relying on touring to get your music heard. Radio doesn't play much blues.
A: The situation is pretty dismal and I know (radio executives) don't think the music appeals to the younger demographic who buy records. But I think if you played some jazz and blues, younger kids would pay attention to it. It's difficult for anybody to get onto the charts these days because of the way radio is set up. We're always hoping that we can get something on the air, but still the format that seems to fit our music outside of National Public Radio or college radio stations is a format called Triple A. The way radio's set up these days, the bands that constitute what's on that format right now are groups like U2 and Madonna and more well-established bands, whereas they used to be on the mainstream Top 40 networks. On the Top 40 networks now, you have to be a pre-teen or in your early 20s to get any airplay.
Q: The song "Survivor" on "Time Will Tell" seems a summary of your career and life.
A: The main thing about that song is being so glad to be here now, what with growing older and losing friends and living life the way we did. That's the general theme of the song, except for the last verse, which I just had to put in about Iraq.
Q: That political statement is a major departure for you and very strong: 'You take a school boy and teach him how to hate. Send him to the desert for the oil in Kuwait. You're trying to change a world that you don't understand.' It's the most political song you've ever done.
A: I know, but my hope is the song gets more people to pay attention to what's going on and not let things just happen and that we must stay aware. There's a lot of different topics on the album. It's just great to have a lot of different things, rather than just one. For me, the album is about current events.
An interview with Bonnie Raitt will run in the Today section on Monday.
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