Robert Cray

March 2, 2008

There are clubs where the membership is small -- take for example United States Presidents with 43, soon to be 44 members. Great guitar players -- not good, not better than good -- but really, really great guitar players also comprise a pretty small club. Sure Rolling Stonecame up with a controversial list of their top 100 guitar players of all time and guitarists themselves have their lists.
Robert Cray, who will perform Friday at Ovation Hall at the Odawa Casino Resort in Petoskey, didn’t make the Rolling Stone list and probably doesn’t make the list of most guitar players when they are asked to name all-time great guitarists.
However, Robert Cray has made the lists of these legends: Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Albert Collins. All of them have jammed with Cray. John Lee Hooker had Cray play guitar on his Boom, Boom and The Healer albums. Muddy Waters called Cray his “adopted son” and proclaimed Cray as “the torch bearer.” Eric Clapton has been a fan of Cray’s for nearly 30 years, and for his 2006-07 world tour Clapton had Cray tour with him as his opening band. The two remain close friends with Clapton prominently displaying Robert Cray among his top 10 friends on his MySpace site.
“Robert is by far the most underrated guitarist of all time,” said Clapton. “Not only is he innovative, it is obvious that the guitar is attached to his soul. Equally, he is a very talented vocalist.”

HUMBLE GUY
Cray is a humble star. Despite having won five Grammy Awards and a dozen Handy Awards (the blues version of a Grammy), selling millions of albums and a career that has spanned 35 years, he still sees himself as still a student of the guitar.
“You never truly master the guitar, there is so much to learn -- it is what drives me,” said Cray. “That and the road. I love the road. I know some musicians tire of it but I truly love touring and performing live.”
A Robert Cray concert is full of energy and spontaneity partly because Cray doesn’t like a “rehearsed” feeling.
“We walk out on stage and literally have no idea what song we are going to start with. One of the guys might call something out or I get a feeling about something,” said Cray. “We just have the whole concert go that way. I think it works better, you are not going through the motions, you have to work harder and the audience gets more out of the show.”
While Cray’s guitar work is mesmerizing, he is not a fan of long solos.
“I have said this time and time again -- those guys who play those 20-minute solos ought to be shot,” said Cray. “When I studied the greats -- guys like BB, Muddy, John Lee and Eric -- there was a commonality in their style. All of these guys are able to say more in one note than those other guy’s can in 20 minutes. So my approach is to make the point quickly.”

ROCK ROOTS
Cray grew up in Virginia and planned to head off to school be an architect but the rock and roll band thing got in the way.
“There was always a lot of music in the house, blues and gospel,” said Cray. “But when I heard the Beatles it inspired me to start playing the guitar.”
Cray moved to Washington and his band became a regional sensation on the West Coast, playing college towns with his brand of the blues. In 1977 a talent scout approached him about appearing in a movie.
“I laughed and said sure, but when I didn’t hear back I figure the movie didn’t happen,” said Cray. “Well six month later the gal called and said they needed me for three days to be a bass player in this band. I didn’t play the bass and they told me that I was going to play -- just act like I was playing. I really had no sense if the movie was going to be that big of a deal.”
Turns out the movie was a big deal and Cray’s appearance as the bass player in Otis Day and The Knights band for the movie “Animal House” was the start of big things to come, though Cray jokes that he didn’t even receive a screen credit for his appearance.
In 1982 Cray signed a major label deal with Mercury Records and made it big first in Europe. In 1986 his third release “Strong Persuader” connected with American rock and pop audiences. Behind the song “Smokin’ Gun” (#2 in the charts) the album climbed the Billboard Charts and sold two million copies.
“It was overwhelming because we had been just a bar band for the past 13 years and all of a sudden we were playing sold-out coliseum shows,” said Cray.

TALENT SHOWCASE
“Strong Persuader” not only showcased Cray’s guitar range of blending jazz, R&B, rock and blues together but also his sexy, silky soulful voice. Cray credits his approach to growing up during a time when music had fewer constraints and labels.
“During the ‘60s music was not prejudicial; I don’t mean from a racial perspective but rather from a style or box perspective,” said Cray. “The radio in those days, which was basically AM stations, played all music, so we listened to all styles and as musicians we drew from several types of music. But when FM took over things became formatted and labeled. I think that while in some ways it helped it also hurt music.”
Cray also feels formatting and labeling has created a limited window for artists.
“I think all of us realize that the spotlight is short-lived. You have a short window of time and after that the window opens for others,” said Cray. “It is just the way it works. I am just grateful to still be here, maybe the window has closed for me, and maybe it will open again, I don’t know. What I do know is that I love making music and just hope that people will continue to like what I do.”
It appears that they still do. Robert Cray continues to sell out auditoriums worldwide. It has been a couple of years since he released a CD (Twenty) and he says that right now his focus is the road, but at some point he will head back into the studio. While labeled a “bluesman” (a title he is willing to accept) Cray considers himself more of a musical explorer in both his guitar work and in his songwriting fusing together a jazzy R&B blues rock sound.
The Ovation Hall at the Odawa Casino Resort is the perfect intimate setting to see and hear one of the greats to ever pick up the guitar. The Robert Cray Band performs Friday, March 7. For a sampling of Cray’s sound visit myspace.com/robertcray and to purchase advance tickets to the show call 877-442-6464.