Born way down south in segregated Columbus, Georgia, Robert Cray grew up steeped in blues of the everyday variety. It's a background that makes him highly unlikely to be tempted into the MOR or adult pop charts, but producers keep trying.
Kicking off a UK tour to promote his 17th studio album, In My Soul, the 60-year-old singer/guitarist allayed such fears by opening with an old favourite, I Never See You Cookin' in My House, and other numbers that screamed If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix It.
Fronting a new young band — probably the reason he left his porkpie hat backstage — he continued to paint himself as the randiest rooster in the henhouse.
I Heard You Cryin' Next Door Last Night and That's Nobody's Fault but Mine was a nasty tale of neighbourly dalliance that contained the line "You didn't know you was just another notch on my guitar".
Keeping the ambience hard were drummer Les Falconer, bass-guitarist Richard Cousins and organist Dover Weinberg, who took a fine Hammond organ solo on Two Steps Down the Hall. We expected more from him but the busiest man onstage was the roadie who kept swapping Cray's axes between numbers, a manoeuvre they produced flawlessly, even in total darkness. There should be awards for such things.
Guildford G-Live, May 18 (0844 770 1797)
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