There are few things that mix together as well as summertime and the blues, and Robert Cray’s band delivered a 1 ½ hour set that was both good for beating the heat and warming the heart.
His band of Richard Cousins/b, Dover Weinberg/key and Les Falconer/dr was in perfect sync with Cray, creating smoky indigo fogs on “Won’t Be Coming Home” and “It Doesn’t Show” which perfectly melded the B3-sounding keys with Falconer’s brushes that soft shoe’d like Fred Astaire. Clay himself was the master of taste, allowing less to do more on his ability to know what notes NOT to play as he selected like a diamond cutter on the slow and funky “On the Road Down “ and made the strings beg for mercy as they were bent before served together for ominous chords on “Don’t You Even Care.” His voice was able to be as soulful as Al Green on the easy boogie of “Shiver All Over” where he’d land his last note of a chorus like a Cessna, but he could also reach a high yelp like Jackie Wilson on the laid back but foreboding “Your Good Thing (Is About To End)”.
His peppy gospel delivery of “You Move Me” had his guitar sing, sigh, moan, cry and chirp while the rhythm team created a rivulet of a groove as if a flash flood had created it. While the pulse was deep, so were the messages, as Falconer’s sizzling high hat on “It’s Because Of Me” or Weinberg’s string-laden keyboards on “Time Makes Two” betrayed the serious topics that Cray was delivering with heartfelt conviction. Mixing all of these forms of music and message in a palatable and earthy blue plate, Cray and company’s impact on the roots of American music was summarized in title of the encore performance “You’re Everything.” A serving like this can be consumed on a daily basis!
Upcoming shows at The Canyon Club include Jana Kramer Aug 09, Leon Russell Aug 20, Robert Randolph Sept 10, Dr. John Sept 17, Mavis Staples Oct 02, Johnny Lang Oct 31, and The Yardbirds Nov 15