Robert Cray

Cray certainly demonstrated many of the qualities I personally feel are missing from blues music generally… restraint, taste, space and true musicianship in the widest sense of the word. Cray is also a storyteller whose harmonic structures pull off the clever trick of making his tunes sound down-home but interesting. Against all that I found the show very one-dimensional not helped by the absence of keyboard solos and, frankly, once you’ve heard one Cray solo, you’ve kinda heard them all, no mater how many times he changed guitar (which was plenty). There was a lot to admire but there were no surprises. If you’ve heard a Robert Cray track to two… you’ve pretty much heard the show.

Concorde 2, 4 July 2012
Rating:
Mark Ede