The Robert Cray Band
While there's an intrinsic bond between blues and soul, cross-pollination is all too rare these days. Rarer still are artists like Cray, who throughout his Grammy-filled career has shown a keen understanding of both bedrock traditions. Long respected as a blues guitarist's guitarist, Cray has increasingly showcased his skills as a soul songwriter and vocalist, and never more so than here.
Recorded in Memphis, and aided by the punchy sounds of the Memphis Horns, this disc contains enough echoes of Sam and Dave, O.V. Wright and Otis Redding (a great cover of "Trick or Treat") to raise the spirit of Memphis's old Stax studios. Cray may have called his album Sweet Potato Pie, but he has filled it with tasty plums. (Mercury)
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