ROBERT CRAY
Robert Cray will bring his Groovin’ 50 Years tour to The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. If it seems impossible to you that the blues/R&B singer-songwriter has been performing for 50 years … that’s probably because you’re thinking about his breakthrough, to a national audience, in the mid-’80s.
But 50 years ago — in 1974, while living in Eugene, Oregon — he formed the first version of The Robert Cray Band. (In the current lineup, he is joined by bassist Richard Cousins, keyboardist Dover Weinberg and drummer George Sluppick). He also appeared in the 1978 movie “Animal House” — as the bass player in the toga party band Otis Day & the Nights — and released his first album, Who’s Been Talkin’, in 1980.
The 1985 album Showdown!, also featuring Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland, showed him holding his own with two legendary bluesmen, and he had a Top 40 single, “Smoking Gun,” in 1985. He also appeared in the 1987 Chuck Berry tribute film “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll” — singing “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and playing guitar on that and other songs — and worked with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Eric Clapton and other blues giants as his reputation grew, and he became widely acknowledged as one of the leading blues performers of his generation.
He has been a prolific recording artist, receiving five Grammy Awards as well as 11 other Grammy nominations. He released his last studio album, the Grammy-nominated That’s What I Heard — including the anti-Trump protest song, “This Man” (watch video below) — in 2020.
I talked with him by phone, from a tour stop in Sacramento, last month.
ROBERT CRAY
Q: I know this is a 50th anniversary tour for you. But of course, you didn’t really break through until the mid-’80s. So that first decade must have been, like, mostly playing local places, I guess. What was that first decade like for you?
A: It was pretty wild. We started in ’74 and played in clubs in the Pacific Northwest and eventually broke into Northern California. We played The San Francisco Blues Festival in 1977, backing up Albert Collins, and started to get a little bit of notoriety after that gig. And that’s when we had the opportunity to meet Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, who became our producers for the next five, six, seven albums. And we went into the studio in ’78 and recorded the album, Who’s Been Talkin’.
Q: Of course, you had the “Animal House” thing around that time, too. Did that seem to you like a big deal at the time, or was it just something you did?
A: It was just something that I did. We had no idea as to what was going to become of that effort. We didn’t really know anything about John Belushi or “Saturday Night Live” because we were always working on Saturday nights in clubs (laughs), until people started to tell us. And then after the making of the movie, we started paying more attention to what was going on, on “Saturday Night Live.”
Q: I know you were out on tour with The Doobie Brothers, this summer. What was that like?
A: We actually just played our last show with them last night, in Sacramento. It’s been great. All the guys in the band are just great people, and we had a really good time. We did some over the summer — I think about 16 shows. We got to play an hour before them, every show, and got pretty good responses from the audiences.
Q: Were you a fan of theirs, growing up?
A: They were huge. You know, you could not deny the fact that you heard them on the radio, and there’s a lot of songs that I paid attention to. And over the years, we’ve played with some of the same people that they’ve had in the band, in and out. (Trumpeter) Wayne Jackson and (saxophonist) Andrew Love played with them in the ’70s for a bit, and they played in our band for some time in the late ’80s, and into the ’90s. And Jack Hale, who we just lost (note: Hale died on Aug. 12), was a trombone player who played with them: Jack’s been on a couple of our albums. And (bassist) Willie Weeks played with them for a bit, and we’ve known Willie for a while.
Q: Did you get to play any songs with them at the shows?
A: On a couple of nights I did. We were down in Florida and I sat in, a couple of different times, there, and Derek Trucks played with them as well. And then Derek and I played one night together with them as well. (Note: see video below of The Doobie Brothers performing Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me Talkin’ ” with Cray and Trucks.)
The cover of The Robert Cray Band’s 2020 album, “That’s What I Heard.”
Q: It’s been a few years since your last album. Are you working on a new one?
A: Not yet. But that’s our hope, that we’ll get into the studio this winter.
Q: Of course, the way the music business is now, a lot of artists are not emphasizing recording that much anymore just because it’s hard to make money that way. Do you ever feel like recording has become secondary to touring, for you, the way it is for a lot of artists?
A: Well, we’re fortunate in the fact that we do a lot of touring, and I’ve talked to people over the years about that fact that you just mentioned: that people aren’t making the same kind of money from record sales. It’s just not the norm today.
It’s funny, too: when we do make records, the way we go about sequencing records is just thrown out of the window, these days, because people just buy songs, if they buy anything. So it’s a whole different world, but we still would like to go in and make records. It gives us the opportunity to have new material, and stuff like that.
Q: Because it’s the 50th anniversary tour, does that affect what songs you’re doing at all? Are you trying to make the shows an overview of all that time?
A: We’ve always done an overview, pretty much, in our shows. We’re basically just celebrating (with the tour) the fact that we’ve been around for that amount of time. There’s nothing super-special outside of that — but it is special to us (laughs).
Q: Of course, there have been a lot of different people in the band, over the years. Is there anything special or unique about the guys in this current version?
A: I like the way you put that (“current version”), because I always look at the bands as different versions, and there are nicknames for the different bands. You know, as Richard Cousins, our bass player, says, when we had (the 1986 album) Strong Persuader, the band was The Strong Persuaders. There was The Bad Influences, back in those days (after Cray released Bad Influence in 1983). So there were different eras and different-sounding bands, different personnel as far as the instruments … when we had horn sections, and when we were a five-piece, and now we’re a quartet once again. And with the changes in the rhythm sections, there are different sounds. The band does sound different (now). With the addition of our most recent drummer, George Sluppick, it’s got a different sound. He’s got a different feel than previous drummers. And we’re having fun with that.
Q: Is it possible to put into words how he is different? I know that’s hard to do, sometimes, with music.
A: Everybody has a different approach, even to the same songs. It’s how one person attacks the instrument, and how they hear it. It’s probably easier to see in person than it is to explain.
The cover of Robert Cray’s 1986 album, “Strong Persuader.”
Q: Of course, a lot of the blues musicians who I’m sure you grew up listening to and who inspired you, are not around anymore. Now, after 50 years, you’ve obviously become one of the real veterans in that scene. Do you feel a responsibility to mentor or — whatever the right word is — work with younger artists, and try to inspire them the same way people inspired you?
A. That’s an interesting thing. We do what we do, and we’ve had people who have come up and said that they’ve been inspired by what we do, and I’m flattered, I’m honored. But I also think that it’s a whole different thing. Our opportunities having Muddy (Waters) and John Lee Hooker and people like that around — and even for them … I’ve heard that Muddy was one that mentored a lot of people and had them in his band and whatnot. But I also know at the same time, somebody like John Lee Hooker or Albert Collins would just say. “Do what you do.” And no words were spoken outside of that. If you’re invited onstage, you just do what you do. If they liked what you’re doing, you were around more often. You would be on the co-bill, or you might get up onstage to jam at the end. And that was their way of showing that they liked what you did. For us, I think maybe the way that we can mentor or help people is to have them on more of the show. So we can invite people to see what they do.
Q: Sometimes there seems to be a lot of interest in the blues, but at other times, people can kind of forget about it. Do you have a feeling that now is a good time, or not such a good time, for the blues?
A: I don’t know. It’s always been a big part of my life: listening to it and enjoying it — and other music as well. So in my world, it never goes away (laughs). I know that when we first started playing this kind of music, and started to enjoy listening to it, sometimes it’s on the radio, on a college radio station, and I know when to tune in and listen to it, when I want to. So that’s the way it’s always been in my world. It wasn’t like Muddy (Waters) was on AM radio when I started playing guitar.
Q: Certainly, though, blues fans are the most loyal fans. Year in, year out, they stick with it.
A: You start off hearing it from however you heard it and then you have to go out and find it. You’ve got to look for it. And it becomes your music. And you’re stuck with it (laughs).
Q: Have you ever thought about trying to make more mainstream music?
A: I think that our music has become mainstream, because of the fact that blues hasn’t been all that we do. We have a mixture of a lot of different things. So we kind of cracked that, but we’re still fixed in that genre of blues — which is great. I dig that. But, to answer your question, no. Not purposely, to try to get out there.
The Robert Cray Band will perform at The Union County Performing Arts Center, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. Visit ucpac.org.
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