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EXTRA EXTRA… Web Only Special Feature
ROBERT CRAY TURNS “TWENTY”
by Ernie Thomas
Few Chicagoans realize that a guitar-slingin’ Georgia Peach named Robert Cray was among the first bluesmen to help nurture a young John Belushi’s love of the blues.
This was even before Cray helped to revitalize the blues back in the early 1980s with such critically acclaimed, yet under the radar albums as Bad Influence and False Accusations for the then fledgling High-Tone blues label.
Before his own star began to rise, Cray and his band were perpetual road dogs, living on the road and playing every club and bar that would have them.
“I was living in Eugene, Oregon in the mid-’70s and one night when we got off stage this lady asked me if I wanted to be in a film they were going to be filming there,” he remembered.
Two months later he got the call to report to the set. That motion picture turned out to be the cult classic – “Animal House” – with Cray trading his guitar for a bass as a member of the film’s house band.
“We spent three days on the set doing our scenes and then we went back to playing the bars,” recalled Cray. “Belushi wandered around Eugene checking out some of the bands and came in to see this splinter group I had called The Crayhawks. It was the Cray band and some of the Nighthawks group, with Curtis Delgado who plays harmonica and sings.”
“We’d have John come up and sit in with us,” he continued. “Curtis was schooling him on the blues at that time and there’s a whole ‘nother story there. “Suffice to say that the whole ‘Blues Brothers’ idea came right there with Belushi watching Curtis. He got the idea for the sunglasses bit from Curtis.”
When the Blues Brothers made their television debut on “Saturday Night Live”, Paul Schaffer did a Don Kirschner impersonation and famously announced Jake & Elwood for the first time saying – “With the help of Curtis Delgado and The Cray Band, we give you the Blues Brothers!”
Cray’s career took an upswing a few years later after signing with blues imprint, Tomato Records (the home of many Albert King titles) and releasing his debut LP, Who’s Been Talking, which was has since been picked up and re-released by Mercury.
Fans of blues guitar welcomed and relished Cray’s lean, understated style of playing that owed much to such predecessors as Albert “The Iceman” Collins and Johnny Copeland. Singing praise for Cray in those early years were such high-profile fans as Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy.
Their remarks brought Cray to the attention of Mercury Records, who released his 1986 breakthrough album, Strong Persuader, which ushered the talent former Army Brat into the realm of MTV fame with the crossover hit single, “Smoking Gun.”
Cray’s star continued to rise with 1988’s Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark and 1990’s Midnight Stroll, but then the soulful bluesman reacquainted himself with his roots and started taking more control of his music.
Shedding himself of outside songwriters and taking pen to paper more and more, Cray’s best music has followed his foray into pop stardom. Right up to and including his newest album, “Twenty,” an 11-song set release via Sanctuary Records that embraces everything from the blues, to gospel, to sweet soul music.
One of the stand out moments on this very solid album has to be Cray’s treatment of the old Booker T. & The MGs cut, “I Forgot To Be Your Lover,” which the guitarist respectfully covered simply because it is a song he has loved as a fan for many years. “I just had to do that one,” he said. “It’s just a great song.”
Cray got a high profile boost when he was invited by Clapton to perform at the latter’s “Crossroads Guitar Festival” in 2004, where he shared a stage with the likes of Jimmie Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy, among others.
“It used to be pretty stressful and a little intimidating when I was younger to be on stage with some of these guys who are my heroes,” mused Cray, reflecting back on when he performed alongside Clapton, Keith Richards and Chuck Berry during the making of the early ‘80s classic rock film, “Hail, Hail Rock & Roll”.
“They are still my heroes, but these days they are also friends,” he continued. “Now getting up there with them to play is just a good time.”
While known for his prowess with a six-string, Cray is equally as talented if not always recognized and acknowledged as a vocalist. His voice falls somewhere between Chicago’s own Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. He mellow deliveries on new cuts like “Poor Johnny” and the album’s title track, “Twenty,” are sheer bliss to the ears of soul music fans.
The latter tune is the tale addressing the war in Iraq/Afghanistan as told through the eyes and voice of a young soldier inspired by the 9/11 tragedy and eager to do his part for his country. The soldier comes home in a body bag by the song’s end, leaving a message that is stark, haunting and hard-hitting.
“The response to that song has been very strong,” said Cray. “I had a woman in the audience just the other night who had lost her son in the war and she was very moved by it.”
Cray grew up on Army bases all over the world as the son of a career soldier. He has deep respect for the military and those who serve. His barbs are towards the current administration and the idea that brave, young Americans make good cannon fodder for a Middle East oil war rooted in greed and money.
Cray said that response to the song has been overwhelmingly favorable, especially from members of the Armed Forces who have heard the song or attended a recent live performance.
Twenty has become the cornerstone of Cray’s current live show. “We’re doing about six of the new songs,” he said. “Not all of them in every show of course. We alternate which ones we play from show to show, but ‘Twenty’ is one we always do.”
For more on this amazing bluesman and his music, log on at:
ROBERT CRAY BAND performs AUGUST 25th at Chicago’s Park West |
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The self-produced collection finds Cray working once again with his
long-time band mates –– drummer Kevin Hayes, bassist Karl
Sevareid and keyboardist Jim Pugh –– who have been the
musical backbone of his live show and his recording output for many
years. Cray penned five of the cuts, leaving the balance to
collaborative efforts by Pugh and Hayes.