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Robert Cray has been playing the blues for over thirty years and his sound is unmistakable.  On his new album, Twenty, Cray & Company combines the blues, reggae, and a bit of rock & roll in such a way to delight the blues aficionado as well as music lovers in general.  Critics say that Twenty is his best work since he rocketed up the charts with Smokin’ Gun from his 1986 release, Strong Persuader.

Twenty, similar in tone to 2003’s release of the appropriately titled Time Will Tell, confirms Cray’s early fears of the eminent war with Iraq.  A few years later, and many lives lost, Twenty addresses the pain and suffering that are the result of war.  Cray, who grew up in a military family, uses his voice and his guitar to spread his desire for peace.  MusicPix.Net had the opportunity to talk with Robert before his Indianapolis performance about his new album, his early influences, and why he believes America made a terrible mistake.

MusicPix: I would like to begin by saying that it’s an honor and a privilege to speak with you.  I remember the first time I heard your voice and it made an impression on me – it’s unmistakable- your soul speaks through your music… a trait that every performer yearns for…

Your latest release, Twenty, gives the listener a ‘musical menu’ to taste.  It’s got your signature blues sound threaded with a few other ingredients.  What do you attribute the new mix to?

Robert: I think it comes from the fact that when people are sitting down to write songs, including myself, that we just do that.  And we’re not considering the fact that people say we play a certain style of music to come into play.  And I think that’s a good thing because there are so many other influences that we do have and different music that we love to listen to…I think that’s why this record has a bunch of different flavors on it.  From Poor Johnny to the music that accompanies Twenty, to the very last song which is almost like an organ jazz trio.  And so then we have the contribution of Jim Pugh and Kevin Hayes on this record.  When you put it all together, you have to say it’s more of a band sound.

MusicPix: Twenty offers a Robert Cray fan variety.  Especially, Does It Really Matter, is a rock song!  Jim Pugh, your keyboardist co-wrote this song with Scott Matthews.  Did you collaborate with them on this song?

Robert: Jim brought the song in…he had written it with Scott.

MusicPix: The title track Twenty deals with the Iraq War.  If you had a child who wanted to enlist in the army, what would you say to them given your family’s military history combined with your feelings about how the U.S. government sold this war to the American public?

Robert: I would dissuade him to join the service because I wouldn’t want to send another innocent victim over there.  Because the fact that this the first time that this country has started a war and we didn’t send massive troops amount of troops after Osama Bin Laden… we sent massive troops into Iraq for oil and that doesn’t make sense.  I don’t think that the administration should have a private army to do that.  I wouldn’t recommend joining the military service at all at this point.

MusicPix: Rolling Stone has said that Twenty is your best album since Strong Persuader.  How do you feel about that?

Robert: That’s a nice compliment.  Like you said, I think it’s because all of the different styles of songs on the record.  That’s nice.  We’ve been hoping for something nice to be said about a record of ours for a long time and it’s really good.  We’ve been getting really good response from people from the shows too.

MusicPix: You were honored with a star on the Hollywood Rock Walk this year.  You even got to pick out the location in between John Lee Hooker and Lee Paul.  Could you talk about your legendary bookends?

Robert: Well, John Lee Hooker…it was great that that space was open because I had the opportunity to spend some good moments with John over the years.  We’ve done some recording together, we hung out together, we toured together…he was just like granddad…just a big sweetheart.  He just loved playing.  He loved people.  So I wanted to be next to him.  And it just happened that Les Paul was right there.  I only had the opportunity to meet Les Paul once before in about 1990.  We were at this Guitar Legends Festival in Seville, Spain and we were on a panel together.  He’s a funny gentleman too.  It’s great.  He’s the father of the electric guitar!

MusicPix: We share something in common as I attended the infamous Alpine show that late August evening in 1990-Stevie Ray Vaughn’s last show. I remember your set…you played right at dusk.  Reflecting back- what was your feeling during the show?  And once the news of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s death settled in, how did it affect you and your music? 

Robert: Being there…it was the second of two nights, we were just happy to be together.  It was great.  We did a photo shoot for Fender…and uh, we just chatted.  Everybody was just looking at each other’s watches and stuff like that [laughing].  We just had a good time.  And I didn’t hear about what had happened until I was awakened by Andrew Love who played tenor saxophone with the Memphis Horns…he called me to make sure that I was in my room.  Then he told me what was going on.  So the first thing that I did, because someone had mentioned that they thought I was on the plane, and TV stations from my home where my mother lives had been calling her so I had to call her first to let he know I was OK.  Then everybody was awake and everybody was just trying to just wipe away the fog.  I don’t think that it really sunk in until days later.  One of the other people on board was one of Eric’s technicians, probably a similar build to me, who was the same guy that helped me on the stage that night to do the jam session at the end of the night.  I had known him for a while too.  I don’t know that it’s changed our music so much.  I’d been a big fan of Stevie Ray’s music for a long time.  We first got the opportunity to meet in 1979 and we did shows together.  I listened to a lot of his stuff and dug it.

MusicPix: Changing gears.  I’ve read that you don’t think that roots music doesn’t exist much anymore.  We’ve talked with a handful of artists lately that believe that roots music is alive and well.  Could you talk about why roots music is important to you?

 Robert: Somebody said that roots music is gone?   [laughs…more like a chuckle…]  The roots are always there you know.  I guess you have to really look at who you deem are the holders of the roots these days you know?  Like B.B. King, Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Junior Lockwood, and Buddy Guy and people around that age or older and there’s very few older ones left in the blues world.  In the jazz world, you’ve got Sonny Rollins, people like that..but the roots are still there.  The roots sprout the branches on the trees.  Even if you have to go back to the roots, back to the vinyl or CD, but the stuff is still there. It’s important to have a good root system.  Sounds funny…like we’re talking about plants and vegetables but that’s basically how you have to structure things.  If you don’t have a good foundation, there’s nothing to build from.  For a band like ours, we’ve been around for awhile and we’ve listened to a lot of things.  Like I mentioned earlier with the flavors on this record…the flavors come from everywhere and that’s because we’ve listened to everything.  If there are some flavors from Jimi Hendrix in the song Twenty-it’s because I’m a fan of Jimi Hendrix and I saw him a couple of times.  If there’s that reggae flavor in there, it’s because I like Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals, The Paragons.  If there’s rock & roll in there, it’s because I started playing guitar because of the Beatles.
 
MusicPix: Many blues artists talk about ‘the misery’ after the fact…you seem to place us in the moment of the broken heart, the lost love, and the agony of it all.  Is that a conscious decision on your part?

Robert: It’s like freshly hurt?  [laughs]  It’s kind of hard to feel bad after it’s done you know?  When you’re feeling the pain…I guess it’s a conscious thing, but I never really thought about it.  I’m really a sucker for those kinds of sad songs and that pain part needs to be there in order to have the song to have its full effect.

MusicPix: Which leads into the next question…you were quoted recently saying that the blues is about healing.  Could you talk about that?

Robert: I believe that it’s about healing.  Once you confront the situation, you’ve taken that first step in the healing process.  If people say they like blues..it’s because they might have heard something they can relate to in a song and it makes them realize that they aren’t the only ones going through that situation.  But I like blues just because I like the blues!  [laughs]  People can relate to certain songs and it helps.  That’s in reverse to people saying that I hate blues because it’s so slow and sad…but I bet you half the time, those are the same people that can’t confront their reality. 

MusicPix: One of the things I’ve learned about you, and really appreciate, is the fact that you don’t try to live up to anyone’s expectations which is probably one of the main ingredients of your long term success.  What about your expectations?

Robert: For myself and the band, we want to sound good.  We don’t like to fall into any traps.  We watch what goes on around us.  We’ve never really wanted to be like any other band.  We just do what we do.  I always figure that there are tons of bands out there and there’s always a club next door.  We’re allowed to do what we like to do.

MusicPix: You’re a storyteller.  Your music is full of stories sprinkled with just the right amount of guitar work to complement the story…the guitar feels like it helps connect the dots of the story…when you’re writing lyrics, are you thinking about riffs that accentuate the words?

Robert: Sometimes the guitar plays a main focus in the melody of a song or sometimes you’re playing just chords to back up the story.  I hate long guitar solos. And that’s what turns me off to what passes for blues music today….just too much gratuitous guitar.  For me, one thing that I loved when I worked with Dennis Walker, who was producer who worked with us for a long time…and you talked about storytelling.  That’s one of the main things I learned from Dennis, storytelling.  He could always paint the picture.  I try to keep that in mind.  It doesn’t always work, but I try to keep that in mind.  The music is the vehicle for the story.  If the song calls for a solo, yea, there’s a place for a solo.

MusicPix: You’ve been compared to Ray Charles as you too have crossed the barriers of blues, soul, and pop.  How do you feel about that comparison?

Robert: That’s fine….playing different types of music.  Nobody should say anything about the talent difference between Ray Charles and Robert Cray…there’s a big gap there…[laughing] But the thing is, we play what feels good. 

MusicPix: We have a series of questions that we ask every artist we interview called the MusicPix Six:

MusicPix:What is the first musical instrument you played and at what age?

Robert: I played piano and I believe that I was eight years old and I played piano for two years because my dad was a fan of Ray Charles and we lived in Germany at the time since my dad was in the army.  And when moved bank to the states, I quit and picked up the guitar.

MusicPix: What artist/performer influenced you the most? 

Robert: Albert Collins…a guitar player.  I first saw him play in 1969 at an outdoor concert/ festival and he just blew away everybody that proceeded and followed him.  He was very impressive.  I think I was about to turn sixteen years old.  Then he also played our high school graduation party in 1971 and I got the opportunity to see him up close and to shake his hand afterwards.

MusicPix: If you weren’t in your current band, what band would you like to play in?

MusicPix: Howlin’ Wolf’s band. [laughs] I’d love to be in Howlin’ Wolf’s band!

MusicPix: What are your 3 ‘desert island’ albums?

Robert: One of them would have to be Nucleus of Soul by O.V. Wright and I’d have to have a Howlin’ Wolf album.  It’s hard to pick three albums.  I don’t know…the third one is hard to say.  I can see already that I’d be bored with just three albums.  Maybe… Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix.

MusicPix: Who do you think is the most over-rated in the music industry?

Robert: [Long Pause…] I don’t know.  Even if I did know, I wouldn’t say…

MusicPix: What’s your ‘perfect world?’

Robert: It would be a peaceful world.  I think that we can get a lot more accomplished with dialogue.  I think that war is the last resort and we shouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in right now.  America has made a wrong turn and everybody’s trying to justify it…like saying support the troops and then try to knock you down if you’re not supportive of the troops- calling me anti-American for speaking out against the war…knowing full well that they made a terrible mistake.  They’ve harmed many families here in America…harmed many families in Iraq and killed a lot of innocent American soldiers and GI’s…men and women.  Terrible.

Discography

1980  Who's Been Talkin'  
1983  Bad Influence 
1985  False Accusations 
1985  Showdown
1986  Strong Persuader 
1988  Don't Be Afraid of the Dark  
1990  Midnight Stroll  
1990  Too Many Cooks  
1992  I Was Warned 
1993  Score: Charly Blues Masterworks, Vol. 16  
1993  Shame + A Sin
1995  Some Rainy Morning 
1997  Sweet Potato Pie 
1999  In Concert  
1999  Take Your Shoes Off 
2001  Shoulda Been Home 
2003  Time Will Tell 
2005  Twenty 

The Tour

11/24/05   Brasilia, BRA  
11/25/05   Belo Horizonte, BRA 
11/26/05   Curitiba, BRA 
11/27/05   Sao Paulo, BRA 
11/29/05   Brasilia, BRA 
12/17/05   Lake Tahoe, NV 

By
Gwyn Tyme