Lawrence.com

In the world of modern blues, where scrawny Stevie Ray impostors serve up equally scrawny guitar licks, Robert Cray remains an enigma. Though Cray formed his first band in 1974, it was his 1980 debut "Who's Been Talkin'," that caused a quiet storm, eventually revitalizing blues for a whole new generation of fans. The 1986 effort "Strong Persuader," with its massive hit "Smoking Gun," made Cray a genuine superstar for a time ? complete with swooning MTV coverage, movie offers and glossy magazine covers. Things are more mellow these days, though Cray doesn't seem to have lost a step. Now 47 ? a pip-squeak by bluesman standards ? the guitarist seems as timeless as ever, his boyish good looks and stinging chops still wholly intact. Cray phones on a recent Sunday to discuss his ongoing love affair with the blues, young buck six-stringers and his new record, "Shoulda Been Home," set for release May 15.

Q: How would you describe the evolution of your sound?

A: "Overall, I'd like to believe that we've gotten to a point where we play a lot more for the song, as opposed to 'That's a cool solo. Let's see what goes cool with that.' Over time, the guitar playing has settled into that position of playing for the song. The vocals are coming up and talking more about the song. I like singing, and with (producer) Steve Jordan in the studio, he's trying to bring that out more. He's told me, 'You've got a great voice, man. We've got to bring your voice up.' We work with a lot of different microphones so we don't have the 'sameness' on every song."

Q: Is there any sort of process to making a Robert Cray album?

A: "We just bring in what we have. We do it in an organic way. We don't sit down with a concept or a theme ? whether it's gonna be a blues record or soul or whatever. All the songs we bring in tend to capture those elements anyway. We just try to get the grooves going in the studio. We'll record live as a quartet and then I go back over and do the last vocal and some guitar solos and things like that. I think it's kind of fun that way because we never know what we're going to get (laughs)."

Q: What was it like during the huge success of "Strong Persuader" when you were on MTV all the time and so forth?

A: "It was really hectic for us. We had been touring quite heavily at that point. We'd gone all over this country and we'd done a couple, three tours in Europe already. Then we came back to America and "Strong Persuader" hit, and we thought we couldn't take any more work. There was a point when we never saw home for three or four months at a time. A couple of us didn't even have a place to live anymore. We just locked our stuff up in storage and went to work. So that's basically what was going on. And it was great because we were hearing ourselves on the radio and we'd turn on the TV and be on there. So that was pretty exciting."

Q: Do you hear your influence in any of the young blues players coming up today?

A: "No, not particularly. I hear a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan. People tell me that they listen to our stuff, and I talk to people who cover our songs or whatever. But as far as the young kids coming up today, think Stevie's captured all those kids."

Q: You played at his last concert, right?

A: "Yeah, it was devastating. My last memory was we played ? we all were jamming at the end of the night, just having fun. It was great because we played two nights up there at Alpine Valley. And you know, we sat around and we hadn't seen one another for a long time. Eric (Clapton), and Stevie and Jimmie Vaughan was up there. Buddy Guy was up there one night. We were just having a good time. You always figure you're gonna see one another down the road a little bit, but that didn't happen."

Q: Do you think the young audience for blues is still there?

A: "It goes two ways. I know for a lot of young, black kids they don't want to hear the music because it's their parent's music. It's like any young white kid sitting at home doesn't listen to their parent's music. Unless ... some of those kids think it's cool. And a lot do when you consider how many people there are in the world. That's why we have the young blues guitar players coming up. But for the most part the kids don't listen to it. At the same time, there's so many young kids playing and so many blues bands out there or bands who play some blues. There's so many more clubs that are having blues music at their venues and blues societies around the world. That kind of goes totally against the fact that there's no airplay. It's great."

Q: Do you see other forms of music taking on elements of the blues? Do you see blues in hip-hop for example?

A: "Well, without sounding Reagan-esque, it probably trickles down a little bit (laughs). But yeah, I'm sure it has a little bit of that. I've heard some of the stuff where they've lifted some Stax things. But I can't take it when it's pounded into my system. When the car pulls alongside of me (makes rumbling bass noises). How can you listen to the radio like that? Turn it down! But it's current. It's talking about their lifestyle, and it's just like any other music: talking about their loves lost or their lives or whatever. I don't know enough to know whether or not it's about heartbreak and that kind of thing. To me ? and I'm generalizing because I don't know that much ? but there's a lot of braggadocio going on, what money will buy, that kind of thing."