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10073 - ROBERT CRAY - 4 NIGHTS OF 40 YEARS LIVE (DELUXE EDITION), DISC ONE (2015)

THE ROBERT CRAY BAND
''4 NIGHTS OF 40 YEARS LIVE, DISC ONE''
AUGUST 28 2015
98:43

DISC ONE (73:22)
1 I Shiver (Robert Cray) 07:26
2 I'll Always Remember You (Jim Pugh) 06:04
3 Poor Johnny (Robert Cray) 06:05
4 Won't Be Coming Home (Hendrix Ackle, Richard Cousins) 04:57
5 Your Good Thing Is About To End (Isaac Hayes, David Porter) 05:18
6 Sittin' On Top of the World (Chester Burnett) 04:16
7 Wrap It Up (Isaac Hayes, David Porter) 03:46
8 Love Gone To Waste (Thomas Bingham, Willie Mitchell) 05:03
9 Bad Influence (Robert Cray, Mike Vannice) 03:49
10 These Things (Robert Cray) 05:58
11 Right Next Door (Because of Me) (Dennis Walker) 06:49
12 The Forecast (Calls For Pain) (David Plenn, Dennis Walker) 06:39
13 Time Makes Two (Robert Cray) 07:04

DISC TWO (25:21)
1 I Guess I Showed Her (Dennis Walker) 03:41
2 Right Next Door (Because of Me) (Dennis Walker) 04:40
3 Smoking Gun (Bruce Bromberg, Richard Cousins, Robert Cray) 04:33
4 Still Around (Peter Boe) 04:25
5 Too Many Cooks (Willie Dixon) 03:26
6 T-Bone Shuffle (Aaron Walker, T-Bone Walker) 04:34

Peter Boe/Keyboards
Richard Cousins/Bass
Robert Cray/Guitar, Vocals
Les Falconer/Drums, Vocals
Steve Jordan/Drums, Percussion, Producer
Trevor Lawrence/Sax (Tenor)
Steve Madaio/Trumpet
Dave Olson/Drums
Lee Oskar/Harmonica
Dover Weinberg/Keyboards
Kim Wilson/Harmonica, Vocals

REVIEW/AMG
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Decades flash by in the wink of an eye, which may explain how the perennial blues young gun is celebrating his fourth decade of performing in 2015. 4 Nights of 40 Years is a souvenir salute to his longevity, a career that started in earnest with the 1980 release of Who's Been Talkin', but began earlier when he was gigging throughout the '70s. Cray scored an unexpected crossover hit in 1987 thanks to "Smoking Gun" but unlike some of his '80s blues peers, he wasn't content leaning on flash. He deepened his R&B roots, honing his solos so they stung, and settling into a nicely textured soul-blues groove that emphasized rhythms as much as songs or solos. All of this is evident on 2015's Four Nights of 40 Years, a dynamic 13-track live album recorded on the tour supporting his fine 2014 set In My Soul. That record isn't featured here, nor is "Smoking Gun" -- that hit, along with other Strong Persuader material, is on the bonus disc containing live performances for Dutch TV in 1987, plus two performances from the SFO Blues Festival in 1982 -- so the emphasis winds up being on Cray's overall catalog, finding space for covers like Howlin' Wolf's "Sittin' on Top of the World," and room for old friends like Kim Wilson to come out and sing the Fabulous Thunderbirds' "Wrap It Up." What's striking throughout is Cray's ease: he's never reaching too hard, never emphasizing either blues or soul. By just sounding like himself, it's apparent that he's inherited the role of old blues master when nobody was looking.

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
By Bill Dahl

Tin-eared critics have frequently damned him as a yuppie blues wannabe whose slickly soulful offerings bear scant resemblance to the real down-home item. In reality, Robert Cray is one of a precious few young blues-based artists with the talent and vision to successfully usher the idiom into the 21st century without resorting either to slavish imitation or simply playing rock while passing it off as blues. Just as importantly, his immensely popular records helped immeasurably in jump-starting the contemporary blues boom that still holds sway to this day. Blessed with a soulful voice that sometimes recalls '60s great O.V. Wright and a concise lead guitar approach that never wastes notes, Cray's rise to international fame was indeed a heartwarming one. For a guy whose 1980 debut album for Tomato, Who's Been Talkin', proved an instant cutout, his ascendancy was amazingly swift -- in 1986 his breakthrough Strong Persuader album for Mercury (containing "Smoking Gun") won him a Grammy and shot his asking price for a night's work skyward.

Cray was born on August 1, 1953 in Columbus, Georgia. An Army brat who grew up all over the country before his folks settled in Tacoma, Washington in 1968, Cray listened intently to soul and rock before becoming immersed in the blues (in particular, the icy Telecaster of Albert Collins, who played at Cray's high school graduation). Cray formed his first band with longtime bassist Richard Cousins in 1974 . They soon hooked up with Collins as his backup unit before breaking out on their own. The cinematic set caught a brief glimpse of Cray (even if they weren't aware of it) when he anonymously played the bassist of the frat party band Otis Day & the Knights in National Lampoon's Animal House. Cray's Tomato set, also featuring the harp of Curtis Salgado, was an excellent beginning, but it was the guitarist's 1983 set for HighTone, Bad Influence, that really showed just how full of talent Cray was. Another HighTone set, False Accusations, preceded the emergence of the Grammy-winning 1985 guitar summit meeting album Showdown! for Alligator, which found the relative newcomer more than holding his own alongside Collins and Texan Johnny Copeland. Strong Persuader earned two Grammys in two years and made Cray a familiar face even on video-driven MTV.

Unlike many of his peers, Cray continued to experiment within his two presiding genres, blues and soul, on sets for Mercury such as Midnight Stroll in 1990, I Was Warned in 1992, and Shame + A Sin in 1993. After switching to Rykodisc in the late '90s, Cray released Take Your Shoes Off in 1999 and Shoulda Been Home in 2001, proving that the "bluenatics" (as he amusedly labels his purist detractors) have nothing to fear and plenty to anticipate from this innovative, laudably accessible guitarist. Touring regularly with the likes of Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, Cray stayed active in the studio as well, signing with Sanctuary Records and releasing Time Will Tell in 2003, Twenty in 2005, a pair of live albums, Live from Across the Pond in 2006 and Live at the BBC in 2008, and This Time, which was issued by Vanguard Records a year later. Cray released his third live album in four years, Cookin' in Mobile, in 2010. The material that comprised the album was taken from a single performance at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama in February of that year. The Kevin Shirley-produced Nothin But Love, a solid outing featuring narrative songs that circle around the trials and tribulations of love, appeared in 2012. Nearly two years later, he announced details of his 17th album with the Robert Cray Band called In My Soul. Released in spring of 2014, In My Soul saw Cray reuniting with producer Steve Jordan, who had previously helmed Take Your Shoes Off, and settling into a deep, soulful groove. In My Soul topped Billboard's Blues charts and on its supporting tour, Cray gave a celebratory 40th Anniversary concert that was recorded and released in 2015 as 4 Nights and 40 Years Live.

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