ROBERT CRAY: STRONG PERSUADER, STRONGER GUITARIST
Robert Cray, the acclaimed young bluesman who critics say is just about singlehandedly going to save that genre from certain extinction, is a little sick of being called the messiah. For one thing, he says, “I’m not worried about _ being the savior of this kind of music, because this music’s always going to be around.” More to the point, the Robert Cray Band isn’t just about.
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ROBERT CRAY: STRONG PERSUADER, STRONGER GUITARIST
Moira McCormick
by
Robert Cray, the acclaimed young bluesman who critics say is just about singlehandedly going to save that genre from certain extinction, is a little sick of being called the messiah. For one thing, he says, “I’m not worried about _ being the savior of this kind of music, because this music’s always going to be around.”
More to the point, the Robert Cray Band isn’t just about. the blues. “What our band has always been is a combination of blues and r&b,” Cray stresses. “We do funky things, souj things...”
The 33-year-old singer/guitarist and his Seattle-based group (bassist Richard Cousins, keyboardist Peter Boe and •drummer David Olson) recently released their third album, Strong Persuader (PolyGram). It’s their first for a major label, having been preceded by a pair of laurel-heaped independent LPs, Bad Influence and False Accusations.
“Both those records hit the top of the indies charts in England,” notes Cray, “and PolyGram is real strong in Europe and the U.K. That’s what I think [stirred up] the interest.”