MusicRadar

Blues Week casts a mighty long shadow at MusicRadar. In addition to all of our amazing content covering gear, lists of the greatest players ever (as voted for by you!) and exclusive interviews, we now sit down with the one and only Robert Cray, whom Joe Bonamassa lists as one of his favourite blues guitarists.

In 1986, the world took notice of Robert Cray. With his crossover blues-pop hit Smokin' Gun ruling airwaves and its accompanying video receiving heavy rotation on MTV, Cray became the proverbial 20-years-in-the-making-overnight-success story.

"And just as quickly, MTV forgot all about me," says Cray, chuckling, without a trace of rancor in his voice. "Even back then, I knew that blues wasn't the bread and butter of MTV. It certainly isn't now. I don't even know what they play anymore. Do they still play music?"

In the ensuing years, the five-time Grammy Award winner has toured relentlessly and created an impressive body of recorded work, including Live From Across The Pond, a sizzling two-CD set drawn from a series of shows (opening for Eric Clapton) at London's Royal Albert Hall.

"It really doesn't bother me that I'm not the flavor of the moment," says Cray. "I've got the blues for life. I don't even think about topping the charts anymore. I play the music I want, with people I want, to fans that want to hear it. If you ask me, that's not a bad gig."

Recently, Cray has released two albums, This Time and the live set Cookin' In Mobile. On both discs, he's working with a new band which isn't really a new band at all: Richard Cousins, Cray's friend and bassist since 1974, returns after a long absence, as does keyboardist Richard Pugh, a cornerstone of the guitarist's group since 1989. At the suggestion of Cousins, drummer Tony Braunagel is the 'new' new addition to the Robert Cray Band.

"It was time to shake things up," says Cray. "Everything was getting a little too comfortable. I like things to be on the edge, from calling out the songs to just doing what I want to do on the bandstand."

Let's talk about your musical evolution. You're a blues artist, but you started playing the guitar after seeing The Beatles.

"Well, I got a guitar after seeing The Beatles on TV. They were a big deal, of course, and they got a lot of people picking up instruments and thinking about forming bands and stuff. But really, they were just a part of all the music I grew up listening to.

"I was lucky: my parents had a great record collection. Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke - everything from pop singers to blues, they seemed to have it all. I was listening to those records before I saw The Beatles. But yeah, The Beatles did get all the kids hyped up on buying guitars, and I was one of them.

"Once I got that guitar, I wanted to learn to play everything I could. Some of my buddies were listening to Buddy Guy and Magic Sam and BB King and Muddy Waters, and those records really hit me. I loved The Beatles, but I guess I was looking for something different. And then when I saw Jimi Hendrix live, well, that had a major impact on me."

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