Despite all the hair metal, shred, synth-pop and early-stage hip-hop, the Eighties was actually an incredibly fertile period for blues guitar.

Obviously, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray, and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble were among the primary forces behind the genre’s rebirth (in its traditional and/or modern forms); but, just as the British blues boom of the mid Sixties had inspired young listeners to look beyond Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor and rediscover an earlier generation of American blues masters, fans of the Vaughan brothers started to look backwards and rediscover their heroes’ heroes.

Interestingly, a lot of those heroes – including Albert Collins, Son Seals, Lonnie Mack, Johnny Winter, and Roy Buchanan – had found a home on Chicago’s Alligator Records by the mid-Eighties.

It is against that backdrop that in 1985, Alligator released one of its most popular and successful albums, Showdown!, which brought together three guitar greats – Alligator Records star (and outright Texas legend) Albert Collins, young Strat hero Robert Cray, and Mr. Texas Twister (and big-time Peavey T60 fan), Johnny Copeland.

The two Texans – Collins and Copeland – had known each other since the Fifties; meanwhile, Cray had known Collins since the Seventies. So, in some ways, though not entirely directly, the three were connected prior to the sessions, leading to Alligator dubbing Showdown! an album “thirty years in the making.”

According to Cray, Showdown! took a day or two to assemble, and they felt good about the finished product, though none of the three could have predicted the results. Showdown! became one of Alligator’s best-selling albums, even netting a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording.

“We just had fun,” Cray says. “One thing that cracked me up was for the [Grammy] ceremony, when they called our names, as we were walking to the stage, there were [stairs], and as the three of us walked up, we did the Three Stooges thing, where we all bumped into each other. It just reminded me of all the fun we had in the studio. It was still with us.”

Did you know Albert and Johnny all that well going into the sessions?

“I’d known Albert for a while because we used to work with him quite a bit. Whenever he was on the West Coast, we were his backup band. That started in about ’76 or ’77, long before we did Showdown! But I didn’t know Johnny Copeland. I only met Johnny when he was coming into the studio.

“When we got to the studio, Albert and I were standing outside talking because we’d arrived at the same time, and while we were talking, Johnny pulled up in a car, and he was hunched over. Albert went over and spoke to Johnny – they went way back to the Fifties in Houston – and he asked Johnny what was going on. Johnny said he was fasting.

“Albert was like, ‘What are you doing that for?’ and just started making fun of him. [Laughs] I watched this go down, and we took all of that ribbing, so to speak, into the studio.”

So the vibe going in was nice and light.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool. The idea had actually come about, I guess, with [co-producers] Bruce Iglauer and Bruce Bromberg, who I worked with, wanting to have Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown on the album so that there would be three guys from Texas. I don’t know why Gatemouth didn’t do it, but I was invited.”

Do you remember putting together the set of tracks?

“We went in, did some of those songs and the ones they had in mind, met the rhythm section and started messing around. Then we started laying down tracks.

“Bruce Bromberg and I wrote The Dream [Bromberg used a pen name, David Amy, for his writing credit]. I think Bruce came up with the lyrics, and I put the music together on the spot.

“The idea was for Albert to play the solo in the middle because in all the years I’d played with him, I’d always wanted to hear him play something in a minor key – and he smoked it!”

How did you blend your three styles?

“It was pretty easy for us to get along. Albert is a great comper. When he comes in, he’s like a jazz organist. When you go back and listen to some of those instrumentals he did, that was Albert’s thing. So, with that in mind, I did the counter to that; Johnny just did what he did. There was no stepping on anybody’s toes or anything like that.”

A lot of people are familiar with you and Albert, but not as many people know Johnny’s work. What made him special as a player?

“Johnny is a great singer and a great songwriter, and he has his own thing. I mean… he’s really well-versed in all those things I mentioned, like being a songwriter and performer; it was cool.”

What did you learn from Albert and Johnny?

“I’d been a fan of Albert’s for a long time, and I’d worked with him. With Albert, he just needed great support, and he’d take it to another level from there. The thing with Albert was, you know, one of the great things we were able to do was to be in a position to be in a backup band and watch somebody like Albert, who had some years on us, knew how to work an audience, [and] knew what to do with a guitar and bring out the best.

“It was just killer, man. He was a take-no-prisoners guitar player. There are very few of those around these days.”

What sort of gear did you three bring into the studio?

“We each just brought in one guitar, I think. [Laughs] I think Johnny was playing a Peavey; that’s where he was at. Albert had his Tele, and I had a Strat. It was very simple. We flew in from L.A., Bruce Bromberg and I – or I might have come in from San Francisco – and we all met in Chicago. I only took one guitar as far as I can remember.

“The amps were in the studio, I think. I probably played through a [Fender] Super Reverb, and Albert – I’m not sure what he played through. He might have played through a Super Reverb, but at one point, he had a Quad Reverb, and that was a pretty powerful amp. I don’t know what Johnny played through.”

Did you cut the record live and in the same room for the most part?

“We played together. We might have done some overdubs, but I think it was all done in a day, maybe two. Yeah… it was a short, little thing; it was so much fun that it just happened fast.”

Showdown! was a considerable success, taking home a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording. That must have been rewarding.

“Oh, it was great. It was the first [Grammy] for all of us. But Albert and Johnny – especially Albert – were all teared up. It was just really heartfelt. After all the years he’d been around, it was really touching to feel his emotion, you know? It was really cool.”

Looking back on Showdown! 40 years later, what does it mean to you?

“I look at the cover, and I go, 'Who’s that guy?' [Laughs] It cracks me up! But also, at the same time, it puts a smile on my face.

“I’m really proud of having had the opportunity to record with Albert [who passed away in 1993] and Johnny [who passed away in 1997] – and to have the opportunity to meet Johnny. Having the record be recognized still means a lot.”

• Showdown! is available via Alligator.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Class, please turn your textbooks to page 17, where we have the January 1989 cover of Guitar World. You will note that the blues guitar great Robert Cray is on the cover, an excellent portrait courtesy of Jeff Katz, who really captures Cray's playful side. But what can you tell us about the Fender Stratocaster he is holding on the cover?

Anybody? Anybody?? Okay, we'll go to the source and ask him ourselves. Because this is an unusual choice for Cray. Yes, he has always got a Strat, but this has a maple fingerboard. Here's the man himself to explain all, and to tell us why he got into Strats in the first place.

How did you acquire this guitar?

“I think I got that one from Fender because I needed one in an emergency or something like that, so I grabbed it. I think that’s the one with the maple neck – an American Standard Strat. So it must have been somewhere around the time when we did the shoot for the magazine.”

What are some of the things that made this guitar special?

“What was cool about it is that I didn’t have a maple-neck Strat besides my ’58 Sunburst with a maple neck, and I don’t play that one too often unless I’m in the studio. So I wanted another one, and I liked the way that neck felt. That was my reasoning for that guitar.”

What felt different about the maple neck compared to a rosewood one?

“I’ve always been used to having a rosewood fingerboard, so that’s what I continue to use on stage. But just for a different feel and sound, occasionally I will use a sunburst, but more likely, only in the studio because, live, I’m just so used to having a rosewood fingerboard. 

“And [maple] does have a little bit of a different sound; it’s a different feel. It’s something I’m not so comfortable with, but there is a little bit of a brighter sound with the maple fingerboard, so, on occasion, I will use one.”

Did you use this Strat on any notable recordings?

“I don’t recall off the top of my head. I did take it out on tour. I think it’s in open G tuning or something like that. I left it that way after Sonny Landreth had to borrow a guitar when we did some shows together in Europe, and one of his guitars didn’t make it. So he asked to borrow one, and when I got it back, it was tuned that way; I left it in that tuning – and that’s been some years.”

Why did you choose this Strat for your GW cover shoot?

“I probably just liked the color scheme. It could have been something as simple as that. Because sometimes I do things just to be different, to be honest. [Laughs]”

Do you still own this guitar?

“I still have it. I’ve looked at it probably within the last six months. I have maybe 15 [Strats], I think.”

Did this guitar impact your signature Strat, which came in 1990?

“The one on the cover didn’t have anything to do with the making of the Cray model, but the ’58 Strat with the maple neck and a ’64 rosewood [fingerboard] Strat had a part in it. The feel of the neck was a combination of both of those guitars, and we worked with Fender to try and find a compromise between the two.”

What drew you to Strats, and what’s kept you using them?

“What really got me going on the Strat was I had the opportunity to watch Phil Guy [brother of Buddy] play a Strat. This one concert was in a hall, and he was playing through a [Fender] Super Reverb with just the right amount of reverb, and the way the Strat just tore that amplifier up, it was different from anything I’d heard before. 

“After that, I was on a mission to find a Strat. It just so happened that this was in 1979, and a guy had this ’64 Strat for sale, the Inca Silver one that I’ve used for the longest time. It’s retired now, but that was the first Strat I got. And that was, like I said, in 1979. That’s what drew me to it, and I just stayed with it ever since.”

What does the Strat mean to you?

“It’s just a good, honest workhorse. It’s basically set it and forget it. And the rest is up to you. The only thing I changed is the pickups, but the volume and everything is up to you. It’s just there... it’s there for you, and it’s got everything I want. And it’s also helped me to create the sound that people recognize.”

Robert Cray is back at it, something that's refreshing to see, as he's been “mostly off the road” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, he’s feeling energized and “fortunate to be up and running again,” but, understandably, it took the veteran Strat-slinger a moment or three to regain his form.

“Getting the flow back took a minute,” Cray says, “But we're back at it and did a few European tours, which went great. We're ready to work our butts off here in the States now; it's been going pretty well.”

But that's nothing new, as, for more than four decades, things have been going more than “pretty well” for Cray, who's made quite the name for himself as a sometimes pop-leaning, often blues-inspired, and always über-soulful player capable of slicing and dicing his way through incredibly energetic sets.

Given Cray’s formidable chops – which he couples with oodles of melody and soaring solos – one would assume that, despite the time his Strat spent collecting dust, he’d be back to moving and grooving rather quickly. Then again, idle hours are the devil's playground, and noodling at home is a far different animal than dominating the stage.

“You are correct,” Cray says in agreement. “It is a whole different animal. Getting on stage brings different energy, and more adrenaline is running through my system. Getting back up to speed is tough, so it's important to listen and pay attention, and work through the struggle.”

Having not released a new album since 2020, Cray's muse is patiently waiting. But that's not to say that Cray is unaware of the ticking clock, and his fans' impatiently tapping feet – quite the contrary. 

“I'm just starting that process,” he says. “I was thinking about getting into the studio over the winter, but I need more time.”

“I want to try and summon more material,” he explains. “That way, I'll have something solid when I return to the studio. But hopefully, we'll be back in the studio soon, with an eye to get something going and out in 2024.”

It seems that the juices are flowing for the 70-year-old blues icon, which is timely, as he's got boatloads of new fans – particularly on X (formerly Twitter) – because of Living Colour's Vernon Reid compelling his followers to 're-amp' and follow Cray (along with several other under-appreciated guitarists).

Now in possession of an X account boasting (at the time of this writing) nearly 13,000 followers, Cray looks back on Reid's kindness, saying, “First of all, I'd like to thank Vernon. I've had the opportunity to meet him a few times, and he's lovely.”

As for how he became aware of Reid's campaign, Cray says, “My wife does all the social media stuff, and one day, she said, 'Hey, Vernon Reid has challenged his fans to get you up to 10,000 followers on X!' I said, 'Oh, that's pretty cool,' and she said, 'Yeah, it is.' We didn't think much about it then, so it's fantastic it happened, and we want to thank Vernon for doing it. And thank Guitar World for picking up on it.”

To Reid's point, it's a travesty that a player like Cray – who has 19 solo albums and dozens of studio credits to his name – could be so overlooked in the first place. But that sort of thing doesn't bother Cray, nor does he think too deeply into the reasons behind it, though he does feel it's “fantastic” and “wonderful,” and remains “thankful that Vernon did that.”

“It's great,” he says, “But I don't feel too overlooked because I've had major exposure. But like anybody not currently on the radio, sometimes things like that happen. Playing the kind of music I do, I never expect to be at the same level as the stuff with the highest exposure rating. It's great that Vernon is doing what he's doing, but regardless, we'll be out there having fun. So, the more the merrier – it's a cool thing; keep following!”

How has your songwriting process evolved since your early days?

“I've been fortunate to have contributions from many great players. I’ve worked with people who would paint pictures with how they wrote, so I've always kept that in mind. But I've also realized that only some things need to be so serious when I'm writing. I can have fun, write goofy things, or, depending on the mood, go in a more serious direction. 

“I look at many perspectives, and I've taken account of many things I've learned from working with various people. I keep all of that in mind when writing.”

How does that impact the way you put solos together? Do you work them out beforehand, or are you the type to let it fly in the moment?

“Oh, I'm in the moment when soloing. Practicing a solo ahead of time puts you in a position of being unable to reach it later. I don't subscribe to that theory or that way of doing a solo. My solos have got to come straight out of me at the moment I'm doing them.”

There's something to be said about going into a meditative state when playing.

“Yes, that's how it is for me. But it also stems from doing live shows because I'll go into that state when playing live. The thing I'm always trying to get away from is playing the same song several times a week. If you do that, there's no stretching of your imagination, which is not satisfying. It's always better to reach, even if you're not happy with it, than to play the same boring piece of crap over and over again [laughs].”

Buddy Guy once said something to the effect that if he played the same thing live twice, it wasn't intentional. So, you're not alone!

“That's very true. The way I see it is, once you've left the studio, all bets are off. The moment you record a song in the studio is a specific period, you know? And you won't be able to do it again, or you shouldn't want to. But I have done that; when Strong Persuader was released in '86, I thought I needed to do that. But I got away from that type of thing quickly because of what I just expressed. 

“You can't do that; otherwise, you're not really performing. If you're doing it exactly as you played it on the record, it's not exciting.”

It's interesting how a song can take on a life of its own once you walk out of the studio.

“Every time you get on stage, there will be something different about the way you play that song. And my band and I don't do the same setlist every night; we try to keep that from happening. 

“My drummer may count the song in at a different tempo, or I'll do a thing that changes the song in some way so that the audience will hear something different. There are many ways to approach a song, and I'm always looking; it could be rhythmic, a solo, or whatever. If you're not doing that, in my book, there's no sense in being up on stage.”

When you walk out of the studio, are your gear choices fluid, too?

“With gear, there's not too much difference. I basically take the same amps and guitars that I use in the studio on the road. But there is one exception: I use a Magnatone sound effect, which is homebuilt. It's a vibrato that my guitar tech, Greg Zaccaria, put together years ago.”

How does it work?

“It's a Leslie-style thing that makes it so I don't have to take my old Magnatone amp out on the road. That amp is old and has a bird's nest of wires inside, so it's not too reliable when I'm on the road. It's better that it stays put [laughs].

“So, what Greg made imitates the sound of that amp, which is good because there are new Magnatone amps, but they're a little bit different. But in the studio, I use the old Magnatone. I'll also use my old Matchless Clubman 35, my [Fender] Super Reverb, and Vibro-Champ.”

I assume you're sticking with your signature Strat.

“I am. I use the Stratocaster, as I've been working with Fender since around '89 or '90. We've had the Robert Cray Stratocaster since then, and I pretty much use it on stage all the time. For me, the Strat is just a solid workhorse. It's simple to use, with its three knobs and one toggle switch, allowing me to get behind the microphone and sing. It's perfect for me, and I love the bright sounds I get from it. I love Strats.”

Do you feel at home in today's blues scene, which seems filled with more offshoots than ever before?

“Everybody has their own interpretation, which is fine. If you look at a band like ours, we're different from the generation that came before us, right? And we've had the opportunity to work with those we deem as masters, like Buddy Guy and B.B. King. But at the same time, while we worked with them, we threw a different combination of styles out there than them.

“John Lee Hooker was different from B.B. King, and B.B. was different from Buddy Guy, and so on. And the young and current players today have their own set of ears, and they're taking in the music in the world around them. What they do is their interpretation of the blues, just like I did. We must remember that it's hard to deal with the fact that music evolves and changes. There will never be another Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters. That's a fact.”

So, what's your secret, then? 

“You've just got to play from out of your soul. Dig deep into your soul, have a good head about the whole thing, and put all your emotions into it. If you do that, only then can you come up with a tone that's all your own.”

• Robert Cray tours the US in October and November 2023 – see RobertCray.com for full dates.

It won’t come as much of a surprise to hear that many of the biggest names in electric guitar have social media followings reflective of their status. Joe Bonamassa, for example, boasts nearly 230k X (formerly Twitter) followers. Slash, meanwhile, has a whopping 3.5 million.

Unfortunately, there are several influential guitar players who have struggled to amass an online following that fairly reflects the impact they’ve had on the wider guitar world.

Granted, there’s more to life than Facebook fans and X followers – and these counts aren't always indicative of real-life achievements – but it’s always a shame to see such impactful players fly relatively under the radar.

Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid has sought to remedy the situation by launching a hands-on campaign on X to help under-appreciated guitar geniuses boost their online profiles – and the results so far have been nothing short of miraculous.

The project began last Saturday (September 23), when Reid (follower count: 66.3k) responded to a video clip posted by Procol Harum legend and Stratocaster master Robin Trower, who in turn was plugging his new single, I’ll Be Moving On.

“Excuse me, guitar legend,” wrote Reid, who was clearly shocked by Trower’s lack of followers. “How is it possible that you have less than 10K Followers?? W. T. ACTUAL. F??”

What began as an observation into the injustices of social media transformed into something very different indeed. After one of Reid’s followers dutifully pointed out that he had followed “the under-appreciated genius” in wake of his initial post, the Living Colour icon put out a plea to the rest of his online fans.

“All y’all that follow me, that f*ck with frets (and those that go fretless) should… follow @robintrower. I mean if you HAVE a soul…that is,” he wrote in a follow-up post. Before long, Vernon Reid’s X page turned into a minute-by-minute commentary, with users writing in with updated counts after swathes of six-string fans flocked to follow Trower’s own page.

A day later, Robin Trower’s X account reached the 10k mark, with the skyrocketing count soon becoming a self-sustaining phenomenon: at the time of writing, his follower count stands at the 10.8k mark.

The social media campaign was something of a passion project for Reid, who went on to enthusiastically voice why he thought Trower should be fully recognized for his work on the platform.

“Thank you to everyone that is responding with a follow for @robintrower, one of the foundational Guitar Heroes of my youth & beyond,” he wrote. “Like SRV, Ernie Isley, Eddie Hazel, & Frank Marino, Robin transcended Jimi’s influence to forge his OWN unique musical context & tone…

“Robin made you feel the narrative,” Reid went on in another post. “Vibrato has been practically abandoned as expressive ornamentation in favor of scalar exotica. Trower didn’t HAVE to play fast to be interesting or emotionally affective (sic).

“Robin did something that there was no name for back then. I would almost call it Proto-Shoe Gaze. Bands like Earth, MONO, & @EITS [Explosions in the Sky] owe a debt to Bridge Of Sighs, & its Dark Blue Cinematic Drama. Bridge Of Sighs predicts dead slow Industrial Doom Rock too, in its windswept way.”

Reid’s campaign to help Trower proved to be so successful that the guitarist has now set his sights on directing his legion of online fans to help out other under-appreciated guitarists.

Yesterday, Reid singled out blues veteran Robert Cray, who now can boast 11.9k followers despite having only around 7,000 at the start of the online push. As per a passionate plea from Reid, who lamented Cray's social media count, “This situation is unacceptable.”

“Thank you [Vernon Reid],” Cray posted on his newly bolstered X channel. “Just saw all our new followers. My wife thought we'd been hacked LOL when we saw the numbers this morning! So very kind of you!”

Elliot Easton, Ernie Isley, Mike Stern have now been selected for the “10K Guitar Campaign” and, as you’d expect, their respective follower counts are rising by the minute.

Visit Vernon Reid's X account to keep up to date with his ongoing 10k Guitar Campaigns – we imagine there will be a few more in the coming days...

Five-time Grammy award winner Robert Cray is one of the longest-standing bluesman in the current scene. Still touring with his band, Cray has been active for almost 50 years.

Born in the early 1950s in Columbus, Georgia, Cray’s musical journey began in his high school years, playing in bands and inspired by the famous bluesmen of the day. These included many of the usual suspects including Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Freddie King.

After playing in high school bands, it was in his early 20s that Robert decided to form The Robert Cray Band and pursue his career in music. This was directly due to seeing his heroes Freddie King and Muddy Waters in concert.

In 1980 Cray released his debut album on Tomato records. The album, Who’s Been Talkin’ showcases some robust classic blues tunes with some beautifully played guitar work. Unlike many of his heroes who sported Gibson guitars, Cray has always favoured the Fender Stratocaster, and the album features some of the best classic Strat blues tones you will hear.

As well as being a striking guitarist with a familiar yet personal sound, he is also a strong singer and great storyteller. This element has been an integral part of his career with his strong songwriting capability earning him a plethora of Grammy awards, and Gold or even Platinum albums.

As his success grew, other big stars started to notice his talent and it wasn’t long before he was picked by the likes of Keith Richards and Tina Turner. Richards put Cray in the backing band for Chuck Berry in the 1987 film, Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ’N’ Roll, and Tina asked Robert to be part of her Break Every Rule TV special.

By the late '80s, Cray was becoming a household name, selling out his own tours and appearing as the opener for megastars like Eric Clapton. Not only this, but Cray also had the opportunity to work with one of his heroes, John Lee Hooker. Hooker got Cray to provide a guest solo on his song, Same old Blues Again. 

Hooker also got him to play on his album, The Healer, on which he supplied the solo to Baby Lee. This led to more opportunities with BB King inviting him to play on his 1993 album, Blues Summit. They also performed a duet on the album, Playin’ With My Friends.

On later albums, Robert dabbled in more contemporary sounds such as funk, pop and gospel, but his iconic guitar tone resounds throughout. In these studies we focus on Cray’s phrasing in both minor and major blues contexts. He rarely plays fast, but every note he picks comes from absolute conviction. Now aim to do the same! 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 4, Bass 7, Middle 5, Treble 7, Reverb 5

Robert’s use of Fender Strats is legendary. His amps of choice have been Fender or Matchless, run very loud so that they are almost breaking up. Try a neck single-coil with a full, fat clean tone. 

To emulate his sound without the sheer volume, a compressor pedal will help emulate the sustain of a loud guitar amp at more manageable levels. Add light to medium reverb.

Study 1. Minor ballad

This study focuses on Cray’s wonderful ability to develop soulful melodies in the minor blues context. Make note of the rhythmical variations employed around the same groupings of notes to help bring colour and contrast to his ideas. Above all, aim to make every note count.

Study 2. Major Gospel-blues

This study is an example of Cray’s phrasing in a major gospel-blues context. Notice how he switches between drawing on the straight major scale tonality, and occasionally throwing in the b7 and b3 to provide a Dominant edge. These two intervals add more bluesiness to the otherwise happy major scale sound. 

Robert Cray has told The Washington Post  that he recently felt compelled to end his 35-year friendship with Eric Clapton. 

Cray revealed he made the decision after directly questioning Clapton’s decision to sing certain lines written by Van Morrison on their anti-lockdown protest song, Stand And Deliver.

The blues great took particular issue with the passage, “Do you wanna be a free man/ Or do you wanna be a slave? Do you wanna wear these chains/ Until you’re lying in the grave?”

“His reaction back to me was that he was referring to slaves from, you know, England from way back,” Cray told The WP. 

Cray, who was born in Georgia during the era of segregation, was reportedly unsatisfied with the response. However, he was further saddened by images of Clapton with Texas’ Republican gov. Greg Abbott in September 2021 – a man who, as The WP phrase it, had “recently signed the country’s most restrictive abortion law and a Republican-backed measure to limit who can vote in the state.”

“There’s this great photo [from 2013] at Madison Square Garden after the show, with B.B. King sitting in a chair, Jimmie Vaughan, myself and Eric sitting behind him,” explains Cray.

“And I looked at that picture of Gov. Abbott, Jimmie Vaughan and Eric Clapton in that similar pose, and I’m going, what’s wrong with this picture? Why are you doing this?”

Clapton’s business manager Michael Eaton notes that the picture does not mean Clapton endorses the abortion ban. Abbott is also known to oppose vaccine mandates in Texas businesses and organisations.

“[Clapton] is a great believer in freedom of choice which drives his position on vaccinations,” said Eaton. “And his views on other matters would reflect that belief in freedom of choice.”

The WP goes much further than reporting simply on Cray’s experiences. Entitled What Happened to Eric Clapton?, the piece nails a question that many of the British guitar icon’s fellow musicians and fans have been asking themselves for some time.

At times, it paints an unflattering picture, suggesting Clapton is an “obsessive” struggling with the approach of his final years. All against a backdrop in which lockdowns have denied him the opportunity to follow his most consistent passion: performance.

Later, the article also tries to draw a more nuanced portrait of the guitarist than we’ve perhaps seen in recent months. One that considers events like Clapton's notorious racist rant at a show in Birmingham, UK in 1976, alongside the vast sums (an estimated $20 million) raised by his charitable work and spontaneous acts of kindness.

Notable in his absence is Clapton himself, who reportedly declined several requests for an interview, leaving it to Eaton to correspond with The WP.

“Given the depressingly bad standard of journalism reflected in certain recent articles, Eric Clapton has no desire at the moment to engage with the US Press,” says Eaton. “Anyone in the public eye has to expect and accept negative comment, but it should be balanced.”

The piece offers Cray the last word, though. “I’d just rather not associate with somebody who’s on the extreme and being so selfish,” says the bluesman. “We started playing a music that wasn’t particularly popular to start off with at the time we started playing. We’ve gained some notoriety, and I’m fine with that, but I surely don’t need to hang out with Eric Clapton for that to continue.”

Head to The Washington Post to read the full article.

This Georgia-born guitar-slinger’s style and Strat tone are instantly recognizable.

Robert Cray has recorded with Eric Clapton, performed with a who’s who of blues legends, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to B.B. King to Hubert Sumlin, and just released a funky new album called That’s What I Heard?

But what Guitar World readers really want to know is...

What amps and effects are you using these days? - Jason Allwood

"Right now I play through two Matchless Clubman 35 brains and speaker cabinets and I also use a Fender Vibro-King. I use the Matchless for the times I use vibrato so that I can have it in stereo, and I use the Vibro-King on its own for certain tunes. 

"Other than that it’s a vibrato unit my guitar tech made for me that he got from the schematic of the original Magnatone so I could have that mono vibrato. A little bit of reverb and that’s it."

Why did you call your latest album That’s What I Heard? - K. Fuller

"Because it’s got a little bit of everything. We did a bunch of covers by some of my favorite artists, like Curtis Mayfield and Bobby “Blue” Bland. There’s also a funky groove by Don Gardner (My Baby Likes to Boogaloo) along with a Sensational Nightingales song, Burying Ground, which is a gospel tune. Then there’s some tunes we wrote as well."

The new album has a Sam Cooke vibe to it. Was that by design? - Andrew Narvaez

"The whole idea came about because [producer] Steve Jordan wanted to take us into Capitol Studios [in Hollywood]. It was the first time for us there as a band and it was amazing. Just being in that studio with the great engineers, microphones and the atmosphere that place exudes was exciting.

"Seeing the old photos on the wall and knowing all the great artists who performed there. The reverb system that Les Paul built is still in existence there - as well as all of the charm."

Steve Perry joined in on vocals for Promises You Can’t Keep on the new album. How did he get involved? - S. Robinson

"There’s an upstairs room in Studio B at Capitol that I was in after we had taken a break. I remember coming down the stairs and seeing this guy standing in the doorway. I thought, 'Wow, they must have left the door open and people are just wandering around in the halls.' 

"Then I did a double take when I recognized who it was. Steve had actually come by to visit his friend, Niko Bolas, who was one of the engineers. He wound up hanging out with us all day and we invited him to sing on that track."

How would you personally describe your songwriting process? - Dan Crowley

"Ideas can come from all different kinds of situations. Sometimes I’ll hear music when I’m in the shower or if I’m chopping vegetables or just hanging out. That’s when I’ll go into a little room I work in and try to make the idea come to fruition. Whether it’s just playing on the guitar or recording the idea. However I can get it, I’ll take it."

Do you have any notion or idea when it comes to delivering a solo? - Robert Bauer

"I just improvise and let it fly. I think it works best that way. You just go in and start playing and when it comes time for the solo, it’s what you’re feeling right then and there."

If we went through your record collection, is there anything we might be surprised to find? - Kevin Zarnett

"One is Soulful Saxophone by Gene Ammons. Then there’s Larry Young, Sam Rivers, Grant Green, Jimmy Smith. There’s all kinds of strange and wonderful things."

If you could go back in time, what d'you think you'd say to the early '80s version of yourself? - Mark Mastman

"I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. Everything you do is part of learning."

Why did you gravitate toward using hardtail Strats, and what do you like most about them? - Chris Hudson

"The reason I initially did was because they stayed in tune. I don’t use a whammy bar so there’s no reason to have one. I get the vibrato from my hands and then straight to an amplifier."

What are some of the things you learned about Stevie Ray Vaughan - not only as a guitarist but as a person? - Austin Silvis

"Just how much of a great guy he was. Stevie was always interested in learning something all the time. That was his thing. If he didn’t know the chord I was playing, he’d ask me how to play it. 

"I’m a big Albert Collins fan and he was a big Albert King fan and sometimes we’d argue over which one them we thought was better. He’d go, 'Albert King!' and I’d go, 'Albert Collins!' and we’d go back and forth with each other. It was all in good fun. He also told me that the one person he admired most was his brother, Jimmie."

After the release of 1986’s Strong Persuader, did you find there was a lot of pressure to try to somehow recreate its success? - J. Siddons

"I didn’t think of it as pressure, but the success of that album sure got us back into the studio pretty quickly [Laughs]. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark [1988] was the album that came out afterwards and that did fairly well too."

A lot of the songs from Strong Persuader, like Right Next Door and I Guess I Showed Her, capture truth in life. What’s your technique for conveying that truth from the lyrics and then using the guitar to fill in the emotion? - Kath Galasso

"Once again, it’s doing what the song calls for. Some of those songs were co-writes where someone like Bruce Bromberg or Dennis Walker might have just written the lyrics and then the band would put together the music. We would all just look at the lyrics and they would tell us where the music was supposed to go. 

"Other times we’d be given both the lyrics and music for the song, but our interpretation of that music could change. You just have to put yourself into the moment and feeling of the song."

What made you gravitate toward blues guitar? - T.R. Smith

"When I was a teen I was hanging out with guitar players after school and we had another friend who was listening to the blues. He had guys like BB [King], Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. We were like, 'who are these guys?' 

"They had such cool names and we were fascinated by all the double entendres in the lyrics. Then we heard about Robert Johnson and his so-called association with the devil. 

"All of us wanted to be bluesmen. I remember going to see Albert Collins play at an outdoor festival when I was 15 and he just killed everybody that was before him and afterwards - walking through the audience and everything. It was fantastic."

Who was your greatest influence when you first started playing? - John Ross

"Albert Collins was really influential for myself and the band in the early days. We actually got to work with Albert as his backup band for a period of about a year and a half in the mid '70s. 

"I remember one of the biggest gigs we ever played with him was in 1977 at the San Francisco Blues Festival. At the time, we were all just kids in our early 20s and Albert was like a father figure to us. We learned how to support a frontman of his caliber and he taught us how to collect our money from scrupulous bar owners [Laughs]. I learned a lot from Albert."

You saw Jimi Hendrix perform a few times. Can you talk about that experience and the effect it had on you as an up-and-coming guitarist? - Ian Wyatt

"The first time I heard Jimi’s music it was by a cover band. I heard that dissonant sound of the intro to Purple Haze and was like, 'What is this?!' I saw Hendrix for the first time at the Seattle Center Coliseum. At the time he had Noel Redding’s band, Fat Mattress, open up. 

"That was cool but I was so far away that he looked like a little speck. The last time I saw him was the last show at Sick’s Stadium [in Seattle]. I was really close for that one, and it was fantastic. The thing I liked most about Hendrix’s music was his sense of melody."

When you listen to it, he was a great lyricist as well. Which new artists are you listening to? - Zac Costilla

"They’re not new, but I really dig Derek Trucks and Gary Clark Jr. They’re fantastic."

What are your top three desert island albums? - Floyd C.

"Nucleus of Soul by O.V. Wright. As for the other two I couldn’t tell you [Laughs]. It changes every day."

Of all the highlights of your career, what sticks out as most memorable? - Amy Phillips

"I’d probably go back to when I was a teen and hanging out with my friends, Richard Cousins and Bobby Murray. We all wanted to be blues musicians and years later the three of us had the opportunity to work on BB King’s Blues Summit [1993]. 

"Richard was playing bass on some of the tracks, Bobby was playing guitar on some of the tracks and I played on some tracks. We were all in the room with B.B. and John Lee Hooker. I remember we all just looked at each other and said, 'Wow!'"

You worked a lot with Eric Clapton on Journeyman [1989]. What was that experience like? - Mark Kluk

"It was great. Eric was one of the first guys to come see us play when we made our first trips to London. We became friends and did some dates together and then he asked us to do the record. Being in the studio was so casual and Eric made us feel so comfortable. 

"Toward the end of one day he started playing the beginning chords of Old Love. The two of us started playing it together and I added some bits to the music. After we had the song down he suggested we both go home and each of us write a verse and see what we had when we came back. That’s how we wrote it."

What excites you the most in 2020? - Bill Shaw

"We want to keep doing what we’re doing, and that’s playing and recording. That’s what we hope we can accomplish with this new record. It’s been a lot of fun - and it still is."

You seem to always play the right notes. How did you develop such tasty chops? - Michael Mc

"It’s about being in the song. It’s easy to go into automatic mode, and I think that’s what you should try to avoid. When you go automatic you just start playing notes with no particular direction. I’m constantly trying to keep myself aware at all times of where I am in the tune."

Pat Heath of BIMM Brighton brings you another exciting selection of licks to learn at easy, moderate and advanced levels. On your marks. Get set. Go!

Easy licks: example 1. Johnny Cash

This Am to E chord change can be applied as a tool for melancholic folk songwriting. Try with a pick or fingers, applying steady timing on the changes, and a slight roll of the plucking fingers for a Latin-flamenco feel.

Easy licks: example 2. Robert Cray

His style encompasses blues with a mix of 7th chords and a single-coil tone. Pluck or pick this with a slight groove in the bass and funky staccato on the higher notes.

Intermediate licks: example 3. Richie Sambora

Approach this with a smooth but gutsy tone. Slide in with lots of attitude and picking hand attack, muting with the fretting hand to achieve the percussive sound.

Intermediate licks: Example 4. Oz Noy

Dig in with the pick on this example and use short, sharp notes to accentuate the funky blues vibe. There are quick slides in this lick that are punctuated with cool vibrato, and the same is applied to the final minor 7th voicing.

Advanced licks: example 5. Yngwie Malmsteen

For this example, practice picking the open first string in speedy 16th notes. Keep time by accentuating the first 16th note of each four. Introduce the A Harmonic Minor pattern down the string and lightly fret the diminished arpeggios for the Yngwie sound.

Advanced licks: example 6. Polyphia

Polyphia frequently use this clean jazz element in their prog-rock style. Legato and picking are employed in this example, as well as quick slides and fingerpicking to voice the open-string 7th chord at the end of the passage.

Got a question for your favorite guitarist? Let us be your go-between. The concept is easy: you submit your queries and we pass them on to some of the world's greatest guitarists. Only the sharpest and funniest questions will be used.

This month, we're giving you the chance to ask Robert Cray anything you want! You can grill him about his instantly recognizable tone and signature Fender Strats, his just-announced new album (the Steve Jordan-produced That's What I Heard), performing with Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, or whatever else comes to mind. Nothing's off limits!

Just email your questions to GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com and write 'Robert Cray' in the subject line. Remember to include your name in the body of the email so you can get credited in the magazine and impress your friends, neighbors and random strangers at the 23rd Street PATH station!

While you're thinking about your question, be sure to check out Anything You Want from Cray's new album!

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive live video premiere for all you blues and soul fans out there. Check out Robert Cray's blistering performance of "You Must Believe in Yourself" from this weekend's special edition of Austin City Limits. In case you're wondering, his growly, winding Strat solo kicks off at 1:35.

The track is from Cray's 2017 album, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm.

The episode, which premieres Saturday, November 18, on PBS (check local listings) is ACL's Americana special, featuring highlights from the annual Americana Music Awards. The performances took place September 13 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

Cray received the Lifetime Achievement Award for "Performance" that night, while legendary Memphis soul sidemen Hi Rhythm Section received the Lifetime Achievement Award for "Instrumentalist." In the clip below, Cray is joined by drummer/producer Steve Jordan and two original members of Hi Rhythm Section, Charles and Leroy Hodges, who played on Cray's new album alongside keyboardist Archie "Hubbie" Turner.

The rest of the episode is filled with standout performances from Old Crow Medicine Show, John Prine, Iris DeMent, Rhiannon Giddens, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Amanda Shires, the Lumineers, Drive-By Truckers, Graham Nash, the Milk Carton Kids, Margo Price, Jason Isbell and Van Morrison.

For more about Austin City Limits, visit acltv.com.

DAMIAN FANELLI: damian@guitarworld.com @DamianFanelli @damianfanelligw #damianfanelli

Here's an exclusive interview with Robert Cray and Steve Jordan, live from The Cutting Room in New York City.

Hosted by journalist and author Alan Paul, they discuss the new album, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, plus career highlights and more with these two Grammy Award-winning artists. The interview is part of the BackStory Events series.

Robert Cray has been bridging the lines between blues, soul and R&B for the past four decades, with five Grammy wins and over 20 acclaimed albums. For his latest project, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, the Blues Hall of Famer traveled to Memphis with his friend, renowned Grammy Award-winning producer Steve Jordan, to make a classic soul album with Hi Rhythm, the band that helped create that sound.

Find out more and purchase the album at robertcray.com.

Watch it here:

BackStory Events and Guitar World invite you to join us for the live stream of our exclusive interview with Robert Cray and Steve Jordan, live from The Cutting Room in New York City.

We’ll discuss the new album, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, plus career highlights and more with these two Grammy Award-winning artists.

You can live-stream the event below, starting at 5:30 p.m. EST.

Or, tune in at youtube.com/GuitarWorld.

Robert Cray has been bridging the lines between blues, soul and R&B for the past four decades, with five Grammy wins and over 20 acclaimed albums. For his latest project, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, the Blues Hall of Famer traveled to Memphis with his friend, renowned Grammy Award-winning producer Steve Jordan, to make a classic soul album with Hi Rhythm, the band that helped create that sound.

Find out more and purchase the album at robertcray.com.

We've teamed up with the folks at BackStory Events to present a special, live-streamed interview with Robert Cray and Steve Jordan on Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 5:30pm EST, live from The Cutting Room in New York City.

Tune in at YouTube.com/GuitarWorld as we talk to these legendary musicians about the new album, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, plus discuss career highlights with these two Grammy Award-winning artists. Robert and Steve will be interviewed by New York Times best-selling author and journalist, Alan Paul.

Robert Cray has been bridging the lines between blues, soul and R&B for the past four decades, with five Grammy wins and over 20 acclaimed albums. For his latest project, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm (April 28, 2017/ Jay-Vee Records), the Blues Hall of Famer traveled to Memphis with his friend, renowned Grammy Award winning producer Steve Jordan, to make a classic soul album with Hi Rhythm, the band that helped create that sound.

Jordan and Cray met in 1987 while working on the concert film Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, a tribute to Chuck Berry. Steve produced Robert’s Grammy winning Take Your Shoes Off in 1999 and a number of other albums, including the exciting 4 Nights of 40 Years Live. He knew of Robert’s deep love of O.V. Wright and other Memphis soul legends, and suggested they take up residence at Royal Studios, where Wright, Ann Peebles, Al Green, Syl Johnson, Otis Clay and many others recorded with the venerable producer, songwriter, arranger and engineer, Willie Mitchell. The core of Mitchell’s Hi Rhythm band used on many of those landmark sessions was still around, though Mitchell himself had passed in 2010.

Set inside an old theater, the funky Royal Studios looks much as it did when Al Green was cutting those classics for Hi Records. Guitarist Teenie Hodges has passed away, but his brothers Rev. Charles Hodges (organ and piano) and Leroy “Flick” Hodges (bass), along with cousin Archie “Hubbie” Turner (keyboards), were still there. “It was a soul, rhythm and blues, fantasy camp for us. Those guys have been playing in that room for 50 years,” says Jordan.

“Robert is a great person besides an extraordinary talent,” says Steve. “People gravitate to his guitar playing first, but I think he’s one of the best singers I’ve heard in my life. Not only because of his singing ability, but his interpretations. He’s an honest soul.”

Find out more and purchase the album at robertcray.com.

Eric Clapton has announced a new live album, Live in San Diego.

The album, which was recorded March 15, 2007, at San Diego's iPayOne Center, features several appearances—and compostions—by JJ Cale. At the time, Clapton and Cale—Clapton's good friend and mentor—were casually supporting their new studio album, 2006's Road to Escondido.

“This is the realization of what may have been my last ambition: to work with the man whose music has inspired me for as long as I can remember,” Clapton said of Road to Escondido in 2006. Cale died July 26, 2013.

Cale appears on five tracks, including "Cocaine" and “After Midnight,” two Cale tunes Clapton covered in the Seventies. Other guests include Derek Trucks—who handles the late Duane Allman's slide parts on the album's Derek and the Dominos tunes—plus Doyle Bramhall II and Robert Cray, who guests on "Crossroads." Trucks' tasteful slide work also happens to be featured on Road to Escondido.

Live in San Diego will be available September 30 as a two-disc CD, a three-disc vinyl set and as a digital album. If you pre-order the album at ericclapton.com, you'll receive “Anyway the Wind Blows” (watch it below) immediately, plus two additional songs before the album’s release date. The album also is available for preorder via iTunes.

Eric Clapton, Live in San Diego Track Listing

• “Tell the Truth”
• “Key to the Highway”
• “Got to Get Better in a Little While”
• “Little Wing”
• “Anyday”
• “Anyway the Wind Blows”
• “After Midnight”
• “Who Am I Telling You?”
• “Don’t Cry Sister”
• “Cocaine”
• “Motherless Children”
• “Little Queen of Spades”
• “Further on Up the Road”
• “Wonderful Tonight”
• “Layla”
• “Crossroads”

For more information, visit ericclapton.com.

Robert Cray has premiered "Bad Influence," a track from his new double live album, 4 Nights of 40 Years Live.

The set—which also includes a concert film—will be available in a variety of formats as of August 28 via Mascot Label Group. You can watch the new clip of "Bad Influence," which is included on the album and concert film, below.

You also can pre-order the album right here.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "Poor Johnny," a track from Robert Cray's new double live album, 4 Nights of 40 Years Live.

The set—which also includes a concert film—will be available in a variety of formats as of August 28 via Mascot Label Group.

"Poor Johnny" is from the albums first disc, which was recorded during the Robert Cray Band's recent tour stop in Los Angeles. It features his current band, longtime bassist, collaborator and friend Richard Cousins, keyboardist Dover Weinberg (who was in Cray's first band) and drummer Les Falconer (O'Jays, Keb 'Mo). Disc Two features live cuts from Cray's archives, including a 1982 performance at the San Francisco Blues Festival. You can check out the complete CD track list below.

The 4 Nights of 40 Years Live film features a similar confluence of performances from Cray's career, plus interviews with Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and many others, all of whom discuss Cray and his musical legacy.

The set will be available in the following formats: 2LP with digital download card, 2CD + DVD, Blu-Ray + 2CD and digitally. You can watch a trailer previewing the set below (bottom video).

4 Nights of 40 Years Live includes (disc one) "Shiver," "I'll Always Remember You," "Poor Johnny," "Won't Be Coming Home," "On the Road Down," "Sittin' on Top of the World," "Wrap It Up," "Love Gone to Waste," "Bad Influence," "These Things," "Right Next Door (Because of Me)," "The Forecast (Calls for Pain)" and "Time Makes Two." Disc Two features "I Guess I Showed Her," "Right Next Door (Because of Me)," "Smoking Gun," "Still Around," "Too Many Cooks" and "T-Bone Shuffle." For details on the DVD track listing, visit mascotlabelgroup.com.

The album is available for preorder right here. For more about Cray, visit robertcray.com.

Robert Cray Band on Tour:

• 7/30Paso Robles, CACalifornia Mid-State Fair
• 7/31Agoura Hills, CAThe Canyon
• 8/01Stateline, NVHarrah's Lake Tahoe
• 8/02Mammoth Lakes, CAMammoth Lake Festival of Beers
• 8/04Roseburg, ORMusic on the Half Shell
• 8/08Lebanon, ORGuitar Under The Stars (Cheadle Lake Park)
• 8/09Snoqualmie, WASnoqualmie Casino Ballroom
• 8/11Boise, IDEgyptian Theatre
• 8/13Breckenridge, CORiverwalk Center
• 8/15Boulder, COChautauqua Auditorium
• 8/16Deadwood, SDDeadwood Mountain Hotel & Casino
• 8/18Apple Valley, MNWeesner Family Amphitheater @ MN Zoo
• 9/18Flint, MIThe Whiting
• 9/19Glenellyn, ILMcAninch Arts Center
• 9/22Manhattan, KSMcCain Auditorium
• 9/24Wichita, KSOrpheum Theater

Widely recognized as one of the greatest blues guitarists of our time, Robert Cray has pretty much done it all in his four decades of making music. Cray has written songs or shared the stage with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Copeland and Eric Clapton.

For Cray’s 17th studio album, In My Soul (released April 1), the five-time Grammy winner once again reasserts himself as one of the great musical storytellers with an inspired collection of original blues/soul material as well as takes on songs by Otis Redding, Mable John and Bobby "Blue" Bland.

I recently spoke with Cray about his new album as well as some of the highlights from his 40 years in music.

GUITAR WORLD: How would you describe the new album, In My Soul?

Everybody knows we've been dabbling in the soul vein for the longest time, but I think this record has more soul on it than any record we've ever done. It's got a lot of different flavors of soul on it.

Tell me about a few of the recent personnel changes to the band.

In addition to our longtime bass player Richard Cousins, we recently added Dover Weinberg back to the lineup playing organ and piano. He used to be in the band in the late Seventies, and he rejoined us in late November just before we went into the studio. We also added Les Falconer on drums. He's been in the band for about a year.

What was it like working with producer Steve Jordan?

Fantastic. This was my third time working with Steve, and he's such a great organizer and gets everyone totally involved in the project. He treats every song as an individual and puts 100 percent-plus into every tune.

When you start a new album project, do you ever go in with an idea of what you want it to sound like ahead of time?

We never do. With this record, no one in the band even knew what the others were going to bring in until a week before we went into the studio. When we presented our material to each other as a band, everyone was pretty much on the same page: We had a lot of soul tunes. Steve also offered a few suggestions for songs — Otis Redding’s “Nobody's Fault But Mine” and the Mable John song, "Your Good Thing Is About to End," the one Lou Rawls made famous. We also decided to do a tribute to Bobby “Blue” Bland, "Deep in My Soul," because we just lost him last year.

Where did the idea for the song “You Move Me” come from?

I remember I was standing outside of the hotel after a gig, waiting for the bus to come pick us up and take us to the next town, when I heard the groove and melody in my head. So I took out my iPhone and hummed the melody into the phone. That's how it started.

Where else do you find inspiration for songs?

I'm not the kind of guy who gets up in the morning, sits down and then tries to force out a tune. I just wait for the idea to come. Most of the ideas for songs come to me when I'm off the road at home and am able to pursue them as they come.

What inspired you to start playing?

I started playing guitar around 1965, right after I saw the Beatles play. I saw them on Ed Sullivan's show, just like everyone else did, and persuaded my mother to buy me a guitar. I wound up with a Harmony Sovereign acoustic to start off with and began taking lessons right away.

You had the pleasure of seeing Jimi Hendrix perform a few times. What was that experience like?

It was incredible. The first time I saw him was at the Seattle Center Coliseum. I remember I was really far away trying to take a picture and he looked like a little speck. The second time I saw him was the year he passed, 1970, when he played outdoors at a baseball stadium. I had already been playing for a few years when I heard him for the first time and out of all of the music I had been listening to up to that point, there was nothing like it.

What was it that first attracted you to the blues?

My parents had a great record collection, so there was always a lot of blues music at home. But it wasn't until I was in high school when everything changed. I had two friends, Bobby Murray, who went on to play with Etta James, and Richard Cousins, our bass player, who both grew up in the same area as me and played guitar. I remember Bobby had teamed up with another guy in town who was listening to a lot of B.B. King, Magic Sam and Howlin’ Wolf, and every day after school the three of us would go check out the music and buy all of these great Blues records. That's when I really got into it.

Can you tell me the origin of your 1986 hit, “Smoking Gun”?

It started out as a lyric by one of our producers, Bruce Bromberg. He came in with the lyrics and passed them to me and Richard and we took to putting the music to it. Bruce gave us some lyrics; I read the lyrics and the lyrics told us to play that music. That's how it came about.

What are some of the biggest highlights of your 40 years in music?

There have been a lot of them. As teenagers, we wanted to be blues men and bought all of those records and then got to meet many of the people we idolized. I got to sit in and perform with Muddy Waters; we got to play with John Lee Hooker and Albert Collins and make records with both of them. I played with Eric Clapton and got to be on his Journeyman record and wrote a song with him called "Old Love." There's a whole lot of amazing things that have happened over the years.

What makes the blues so special?

I like the emotion that's brought about in that type of music. The honesty and sincerity. For me, nothing is any more convincing than listening to Elmore James’ voice cracking in “The Sky Is Crying.” It’s so pure and so deep. It's that kind of raw emotion that makes the blues so special.

For more information about Robert Cray, visit his official website and Facebook page.

Photo: Jeff Katz

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metal head who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Robert Cray and his band have debuted a track from their upcoming album, In My Soul, which will be released April 1 through Mascot/Provogue.

Check out "You Move Me" below — and be sure to tell us what you think of it.

One thing is certain: The song features plenty of guitar, which is delivered with the same crisp, slightly driven "Cray tone" we've happily become accustomed to throughout the decades.

The album, which was produced by the Grammy-winning Steve Jordan, also features covers of Lou Rawls’ “Your Good Thing (Is About To End)” and Otis Redding’s “Nobody’s Fault But My Own,” the latter of which features vocals by Cray's new drummer, Les Falconer.

The band also includes keyboardist Dover Weinberg and bassist Richard Cousins, who wrote a tribute to Booker T. and the MGs called “Hip Tight Onions,” a very rare Cray instrumental.

For more about Cray and the new album, visit robertcray.com.

Eric Clapton's fourth Crossroads Guitar Festival took place this past Friday and Saturday night at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

Besides Clapton, this year's lineup included Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan, the Allman Brothers Band, Gary Clark Jr., Robert Cray and Vince Gill.

Below, check out some fan-filmed footage of Clapton performing "Every Day I Have the Blues" with Cray, King and Vaughan. For another video from the Crossroads Guitar Festival, check out Beck and bassist Tal Wilkenfeld performing "I Ain't Superstitious" right here.

The two-night festival was the culmination of Clapton's US tour, which kicked off March 14 in support of his new album, Old Sock. All profits from the festival will benefit The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility founded by Clapton for chemically dependent people.

Last year, this Top 15 list was dominated by new albums by the head honchos of the Allman Brothers gang — Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks.

This year, with no Allmans-related albums filling up the new-releases bin, the blues, blues-rock and roots-rock vacuum has been filled — rather handily — by top Texans ZZ Top and Gary Clark Jr. (pictured), habitual favorites Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt and the powerful, exciting trad blues of the late Michael "Iron Man" Burks, who died of a heart attack earlier this year at age 54.

And don't forget Jack White and his Third Man Records labelmates, Alabama Shakes, who prove the blues is still a vital force in the hands of true believers.

This list also is testament to the fact that 2012 was a particularly strong year for traditional blues; if you're not familiar with some of the choices presented below, be sure to check them out when you can.

And here's a shout out to Kentucky's Boscoe France, winner of Guitar Center's annual Battle of the Blues competition, the finals for which took place this summer in Los Angeles. You can read more about him here.

Anyway, here are Guitar World's 15 favorite blues, blues-rock and roots-rock albums of 2012.

See you in 2013!

I guess you could say this about any recent year, but 2012 often felt a lot like the late '70s.

We got high-profile studio releases by Van Halen, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Neil Young, Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Rush, Kiss, Joe Walsh, Asia, Ringo Starr, Alvin Lee, Jeff Lynne and two members of The Jam, plus a live Led Zeppelin album and a pair of new songs by The Rolling Stones.

But, notwithstanding the throwback angle, it was a solid, exciting year for new music, chock full of stellar guitar music in every genre, including gypsy jazz (It didn't make my list, but be sure to check out the very cool Origins album by gypsy jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel).

Anyway, here are some of my favorite albums of the year. Note that I kept this list to studio albums only. If I were to include a live album, Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day would be in the top five for sure. The band set out to impress that fateful night in December 2007, and that's exactly what they did.

One last thing: If I were to extend this list to a top 20, I'd include albums by two former members of The Jam — frontman Paul Weller (Sonik Kicks) and bassist Bruce Foxton (Back in the Room). Foxton's album, which was recorded with Weller's assistance and at his studio, sounds like a Sound Affects-era Jam album packed with Foxton's easily identifiable bass playing.

Anyway, as fake director Marty DiBergi says in This Is Spinal Tap, "Enough of my yakkin'. Whaddaya say? Let's boogie!"

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World in New York City.

Guitarist Robert Cray has teamed up with producer Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Black Country Communion) to record his new album, Nothin But Love, which will be released August 27.

The 10-song album includes material written by all four Robert Cray Band members, including Cray (vocals/guitar), Jim Pugh (keyboards), Cray Band co-founder Richard Cousins (bass) and Tony Braunagel (drums).

The album features the break-up blues of "Won't Be Coming Home," the jazz chops of "I'll Always Remember You," the soul-drenched "Great Big Old House" and the '50s-flavored rocker "Side Dish."

Shirley describes the vibe of the two weeks he spent at Revolver Studios in Los Angeles as "Dirt under the fingernails."

Here's an interview with guitarist Robert Cray from the January 1989 issue of Guitar World magazine. The original story, which started on page 54, ran with the headline, "His Time is Now."

To see the Robert Cray cover -- and all the GW covers from 1989 -- click here.

No, he can't squeeze strings like Albert King or Albert Collins. And he doesn't have the grit of an Otis Rush or Lowell Fulson. He's got a great voice, but it's not in the same league with all-time greats like B.B. King or Big Joe Turner or Wynonie Harris.

But Robert Cray has one thing all those others don't have: The Look. Handsome, clean-cut, strikingly photogenic, he was tailor-made for the MTV generation. And it's because his videos are broadcast on MTV that the younger generation flocks to his concerts.

Not just the usual assortment of raggedy, pot-smoking, white urban blues guitar freaks who generally show up every time Albert or B.B. or Hubert Sumlin come to town. I'm talking couples. Young men and young women. White and black and yellow and brown, from middle- and upper-class backgrounds.

Yuppies? Plenty. Maybe it's The Look, maybe it's the conviction in his voice, maybe it's his tales of heartbreak and two-timing. Could it be his blistering guitar licks?

Something's drawing 'em in, pulling the Yuppies away from their VCR's and Cuisinarts to actually go out and mingle with plebeian blues fanatics and guitar aficionados.

Whatever the attraction, one point is clear: Robert Cray is making it safe to like the blues again. And in that regard, he's an important figure, regardless of what critics and blues purists/curmudgeons might think of his licks or his tunes or his general demeanor. He's communicating, and he's doing it with loads of sincerity. Robert loves the blues, and although he may be filtering Albert Collins licks through a pop sensibility, it's still the same ol’ feeling coming across.

If you haven't yet seen or heard Robert Cray (which is nearly impossible, given the massive exposure he got in 1987 following his Grammy Award-winning Strong Persuader album, cover stories in dozens of music magazines worldwide, guest shots on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Late Night With David Letterman, appearances on the Grammy Award show alongside the likes of Albert and B.B. King and in the film Hail, Hail Rock 'N Roll alongside the likes of Keith Richards and Chuck Berry), then picture this: Z.Z. Hill with Stanley Jordan's look.

Yet some critics don't buy into The Look. They've called his music watered-down, poppified , Yuppified or downright bland. His own record distribution company (Polygram) alerts retailers with a curious tag on Cray's latest, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. It reads: Place In Pop/Rock Section.

That bit of record company wisdom clearly irked Robert and his comrades. "We got kinda upset by that," he confesses in somber tones. "It was strictly a marketing ploy ... an idea of the record company so they could find a place to put the record. That's since been changed. The sticker was on the first batch they released, but it's gone now."

So the question remains: Where does a record store retailer or critic / curmudgeon looking for a quick and easy tag place Mr. Cray? Is he a bluesman? Pop singer? R&B act? One clue might be the clever bumper sticker slapped on his guitar case: "I Brake For The Blues."

Well, so does John Davidson. And grits ain't gravy. Say he is a bluesman. Are we talkin' blues as in the sweaty, raunchy Buddy Guy-Junior Wells variety, or the more polite kind as practiced by the likes of Eric Clapton? Clearly, Cray has more in common with the latter group. Call it the contempo-blues crowd. But even he admits that the term "blues" does not really accurately describe what he's been doing, particularly over the past few years.

"In the early days, we were doing a lot of straight blues stuff, and also putting in some funky James Brown covers. But when I started to write more of my own material, all the gospel and R&B influences started coming out, and it just turned everything all around. Now, I don't mind being called a blues musician, but it doesn't encompass everything we do. There are better blues musicians out there than myself. And, besides, I don't think I want to stay in one particular bag. I like gospel and R&B and a lot of different kinds of music. I'm influenced a lot by what else is going on around me, so it's not right to just call me a blues musician. It's too confining."

Along with writing partner Dennis Walker (who goes by the nom de plume of D. Amy on record credits), Cray is putting more emphasis on the storytelling, the vocals, the overall band sound, than on his own guitar playing.

"The guitar doesn't have a lot to do with where I'm progressing to as a songwriter. Right now, I think I'm more concerned about writing a real good ballad than coming up with some killer guitar lick. The guitar is probably gonna layout a little bit for a particular song, like a ballad. It's really not as prominent as it used to be, but it's still there."

In spite of this current de-emphasis of guitar in the scheme of his writing, you certainly won't be seeing Cray strolling the stage with a mike in his hand and his guitar in a stand. "No, I couldn't do that. I just couldn't do that," he offers. "I gotta play. I couldn't live without it. And it's an especially satisfying and challenging thing to try and play and sing at the same time, which is what I really dig about the Brazilian musicians I've been listening to lately, particularly Baden Powell."

Not quite a bluesman, not quite a popstar. There’s no doubt that Cray has a strong affinity for the blues. He grew up listening to B.B. and Albert, Little Milton and Otis Rush and all the greats. But he was also keeping an ear open to the Southern soul scene -- Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is," Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" and Bobby Purify's ''I'm Your Puppet" were particular favorites in his formative years.

Hendrix, Clapton and all the great electric blues-based rock players of the day caught his fancy during his high school years, but it was seeing Albert Collins at a rock festival in 1969 that really turned his head around. Two years later, Collins played at Cray's high school graduation party in Tacoma, Washington, and the ice-pick sound really sunk in deep.

"That was it,” Cray recalls. "That changed my whole life around. From that moment I started seriously studying the blues." He began emulating Albert's licks, which were difficult to reproduce on a standard-tuned guitar, and required some ridiculous stretches on the fretboard. "I'd hear something that Albert was playing, not realizing that it maybe took him two fingers pressed down on six strings in D minor or C minor tuning with that capo he uses to get that sound. And with my standard tuning, it usually meant a mile-long stretch. But I worked on it until I finally got it down."

Between 1976 and 1978, the Robert Cray Band opened for Albert Collins on gigs along the Pacific Northwest. During that period, Collins would occasionally hire the group as his backing band, which thrilled Cray to no end.

"He was like a father to us," says the thirty-five-year-old guitarist. "He showed us the ropes, showed us how to travel and get along on the road. It was a great time, and he's become a good friend. And he's still a big inspiration to me as a guitar player. I just love the way he digs in with his fingers, pulls the strings and lets 'em fall. I like that. I think guitars were meant to be abused. Just like that one song he does called 'Don't Lose Your Cool.' Man, he's poppin' the hell outta the thing on that tune. His fingers are just like picks, man. They're hard!

“So lately, I find myself pulling up on the high E string ... just flat out pulling it off the fingerboard with my third or fourth finger. I love the staccato kind of grooves you can get going with that."

The two guitarists recently reunited on the 1986 Alligator album, Showdown!, a blues summit meeting that also involved Texan Johnny Copeland. You can hear the Albert Collins influence on Cray's playing throughout the 1979 recording, Who's Been Talkin', an earthier affair than any of Cray's recent popular albums.

This great blues album, originally released on the now-defunct Tomato label in 1980, has recently been reissued by Atlantic Records. Seek it out if you really want to know what the man can do on the guitar. His solos on the slow blues numbers, "The Welfare Turns Its Back On You" and ''I'd Rather Be A Wino," are excellent examples of the real deal. And his playing on the Chicago blues of Sam Myers' "Sleeping In The Ground" or on his own "Nice As A Fool Can Be" is nastier and raunchier than anything on Strong Persuader or Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark.

But you can't argue with success, and Cray scored big with Strong Persuader. On the strength of that platinum-seller, Cray was named Number One R&B Artist of the Year for '87-'88 by Rolling Stone, Downbeat and Performance magazines. Playboy named Strong Persuader the Best R&B album and "Smoking Gun" the Best R&B song of the year. Cash Box nominated him the Number One Most Promising AOR Male Artist and the Number Two New Video Artist. And he made a clean sweep of the prestigious W.C. Handy Awards (Band of the Year, Vocalist of the Year, Contemporary Male Artist, Contemporary LP, Single of the Year, "Smoking Gun," and Song of the Year, "Right Next Door") for an unprecedented fifth time.

Cray still lets loose with a downhome shuffle now and then, as he does so convincingly on “Across The Line" [

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

], but the bulk of his new material is geared to the pop market.

Perhaps critic Robin Tolleson put it best recently in the opening of his cover story on Robert for Downbeat: "Cray is to blues what the Yellowjackets are to jazz -- close enough."

Cray, an amiable, unassuming presence in person, seems mystified by all the adulation and success raining down on him. "I don't know, man. It makes me feel good, but I don't understand it," he laughs. "I guess people respond to us because we're pretty accessible. We cover a lot of different musical territory. Somebody might be into the bluesier aspects of our show, somebody else might be into the Stax soul thing that we do. And to me, those things aren't too far away from each other, so a lot of people can really get into our music."

So while the Albert Collins-inspired “Across The Line" will satisfy blues purists, “Acting This Way," with its David Sanborn alto solo, will no doubt appeal to MOR listeners. Cray has it both ways.

Aside from his strong solo style and urgent vocals, Cray's real strength is his rhythm playing. In this age of speed licks and two-handed technique, rhythm guitar playing has become a lost art. Cray could lead a seminar on the subject.

"Some people say, 'Hey, you're not doing so many solos anymore.' Well, that's fine and dandy. I mean, solos aren't the most important thing to me. I really like rhythm guitar playing, too. I like to be a part of a band. I like to play songs, not just solo on and on for ten minutes. I guess that comes from all the soul music I listened to coming up -- Steve Cropper playing all that great rhythm guitar with Booker T & The MG's, Teeny Hodges playing behind Al Green and O.V. Wright.

“And one other guy who really impressed me was John Watkins out of Chicago, playing rhythm behind Albert Collins. I listened closely to all them cats, and it must've sunk in along the way."

Perhaps Cray's current interest in Brazilian music may ultimately result in some new kind of hybrid. Anyone for a shuffle samba in E?

''I've always wanted to play nylon-string guitar in a Brazilian groove," he confesses. "That's a dream I have now, but it really takes a long time to get comfortable with that style of playing. I love that music. I guess my interest was sparked during our recent tour through Brazil. Man, they breathe music down there. That music really touches you. It's all around and you just soak it up when you're down there."

He also mentions that his current listening tastes run to jazz. "I dig Thelonious Monk a whole lot, but I could never play anything like him. I just think you should keep your ears open to a lot of different kinds of music and be aware of what's around you. I don't have to play any of this stuff for public consumption, but I still want to know about it. And maybe in some way it does eventually come out in my music."

He may never make another stone blues album again, but one thing is for certain: He ain't gonna starve going in the direction he staked out on Strong Persuader and carried through on Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. Cray already paid his dues playing Howlin' Wolf staples all over Oregon, Washington and Northern California during the seventies.

He's not entirely turned his back on the 12-bar shuffle, but it seems now that he's honing a new reputation as a kind of poet laureate of the contemporary blues scene. There's no turning back after platinum. Strong Persuader was the sound of Cray's ship coming in. Now he's packing arenas all over the free world instead of kicking around funky blues clubs in Eugene.

A movie contract can't be too far off. After all, he's got The Look.

A Robert Cray Axology

FOR HIS FINE debut album, Who's Been Talkin', Cray played a Gibson 345 stereo guitar. It gave him a darker sound than he's currently getting on Stratocasters.

"I had a real deep sound on that album because of all the low end I'd get with the humbuckers, and from the fact that I'd play a lot on the bass pickup. But then maybe a year after that record was recorded, I switched to a Stratocaster. The Gibson was cool 'cause it had a six-position switch, but it was really too much on the low end and too bright at the high end. And I especially like that Fender sound for rhythm playing. I've been a Fender man ever since."

His main ax is an ugly green '64 Strat with jumbo frets. He recorded most of Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark with that one, alternating with a '57 sunburst Strat (pictured on the cover of last year's Grammy Award-winning Strong Persuader). On tour, he also carries a new American Standard Strat that contains the pickups from another '64 Strat he had. He also has a red Japanese reissue Strat with low-impedance pickups. The American Standard Strat has a maple fingerboard; the rest of Cray's guitars are fitted with rosewood.

Live, Cray plays through two Fender Super Reverb amplifiers. In the studio, he uses a set-up of a Super Reverb and a Twin Reverb. On stage, he sets his volume on five, the treble and middle on 10 and the bass at about four. The bright switch remains on and the reverb is set at about three, though he says, "I'm looking for a different reverb sound now ... maybe an SPX90 or some Lexicon system."

Until then, the guitar roadie will continue to walk out on stage and crank up the reverb during Cray's solo on "I Can't Go Home," then turn it back down to three before heading for the wings. It's a primitive method, but then Cray hasn't yet gone in for any pedals or effects whatsoever. "I'm just a plain o1' guy," he laughs. "Just straight to the amp for me and I'm off and running."

He uses D’Addario strings, fairly heavy gauge -- .O11, .013, .018, .028, .036 and .046. He plays with extra heavy tortex picks and will occasionally reach in with his third or fourth finger to pull at the strings, a la Albert Collins.

Cray doesn't use the wang bar, but shakes the strings pretty nicely with a natural vibrato he's developed. "I worked that out a long time ago from listening to B.B. King stuff," he says. "And also, I used to play with real heavy strings, like a .013 on the high E. I didn't know they made lighter strings for the longest time, so I just kept struggling with these heavies. Now, if I ever pick up a guitar with light gauge strings and really let loose on a .009, it goes right off the neck.