![Taking a break from their national tour opening for Eric Clapton, the Robert Cray Band will come to Ithaca for a headline performance Sunday night at the State Theatre.]( "Taking a break from their national tour opening for Eric Clapton, the Robert Cray Band will come to Ithaca for a headline performance Sunday night at the State Theatre.")
Taking a break from their national tour opening for Eric Clapton, the Robert Cray Band will come to Ithaca for a headline performance Sunday night at the State Theatre.
For more than 20 years, Cray has been at the top of the blues world, ever since his album “Strong Persuader” sold two million copies back in 1986.
Cray recently released his first concert album, the double CD “Live from Across the Pond”; it was recorded during a seven-night stand opening for Clapton at London's Royal Albert Hall.
“It wasn't our gig, it was Eric's gig, and the main thing on our mind was to get some new fans,” says Cray. “So we weren't thinking about the tape. Which has always been a problem in the past—you worry about this one shot that you get to do a live recording, your voice goes out, you're too hyped up to relax and it just doesn't pan out. We had seven nights at the same place with same setup.”
The format allowed Cray and his road-tested band—drummer Kevin Hayes, bassist Karl Sevareid and keyboardist Jim Pugh— to stretch out on familiar favorites such “Right Next Door (Because of Me)” and “Bad Influence.”
Listening to the tapes offered Cray a new perspective on his band's interaction. “You realize that you don't hear things the way you do onstage,” he says. “So you're listening to the tapes, and you realize, ‘Oh, we did that!'”
Blurring boundaries
Blues isn't really an adequate label to describe Cray's music: he also draws on R&B, gospel and soul for his distinctive sound.
“When I go home and look at my record collection, I've got a lot more than blues in there,' Cray says during a recent tour stop in Grand Rapids, Mich.. “I like a lot of different things, and that can't be denied.”
He attributes some of that eclectism to frequently moving when he was a kid; his father was in the army.
“When we lived in Germany, we bought a lot of records,” he remembers. “We'd go to the PX and buy singles and albums—they were a lot cheaper on the military base. We'd listen to Armed Forces Network.
“When we lived in Virginia, about 1966-68, we heard the regional music there, boardwalk music from North Carolina, and we were also getting the Stax music,” he continues. “Before that, when we moved back from Germany to Washington (State) in 1963, there was a lot of regional music, and the radio stations played it.”
Like many kids growing up in the 1960s, Cray was inspired to pick up the guitar by the Beatles.
“When we came back from Germany, we were in Tacoma, when the Beatles hit,” he says. “I remember listening to KJR AM radio station talking about the Beatles coming to Seattle. I didn't have a chance to go I was too young, but it was pretty cool.
“So I got a guitar, and liked every other kid, I played and practiced in the garage and took lessons off and on. I had a little garage band that never did anything. The thing with me is, I just never got rid of the guitar, and every opportunity to play with somebody I did.And one thing led to another.”
At the movies
Cray has had small roles in some movies. One, “Hail Hail Rock and Roll,” Taylor Hackford's tribute to Chuck Berry was recently released on DVD.
“I was talking to Steve Jordan about that,” Cray says of Eric Clapton's drummer who's also in the movie. “He said that there's a lot of stuff that didn't come out in the original, so we're both looking forward to watching it. I had a good time. It was a lot of fun, and hilarious at the same time. You've got Keith Richards honoring one of his heroes, who doesn't trust anybody. And although he's known Keith for the longest time, he treats Keith like a little boy. Meanwhile, I'm new on the scene, and watching all this stuff go down while Chuck is being so nice and gracious to me. There was some great moments, some great jams going on, and making some new friends for the first time.”
Less known is Cray's role as a member of Otis Day and the Knights in “Animal House.”
“When they did it, I was living in Eugene, Ore., where me and (former bassist) Richard Cousins had started the band after moving down from Tacoma, Wash.” he says. “But there wasn't any working movie title that I knew at the time, being a bit player in the film. But with John Belushi being in town, it started the whole Blues Brothers thing.” (Belushi based his Joliet Jake Blues character on Cray's bandmate, Curtis Salgado.)
Timely topics
Lately, Cray has veered toward timely subjects on songs such as “Twenty,” which addressed the war in Iraq.
“It's all around us these days. It's so huge,” he says. “‘The Decider' has divided people into different camps. (Topical songwriting) is something that comes with being around for a while and getting older, but you do pay attention to things you might not have paid attention to in your younger days. So I read papers, and listen to the radio, and absorb information, and how it affects everybody's daily lives.”
Is he content with the course of his career? “Given the type of music that we play, hell, yeah!,” he says with a big laugh. “When we started off doing what we're doing, we didn't think that we'd be on the radio in the first place. So when we had the success that we did with ‘Strong Persuader,' it was great. And just like any other band will tell you, if you've got a gig you're doing fine. And that's where we are now.”
While Cray has won several Grammy Awards, he's not content to rest on his laurels. “I have this little practice room off the garage, and they sit in there,” he says of his trophies. “But that's not the reason I play. I play for fun. And it's always been that, and it still remains that to this day. But the Grammys are cool— it's something to look at and say ‘Hey, they like what we're doing.'”
