Robert Cray made sure that Malibu had a blue Christmas with his soulful band Thursday night at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theatre. Together with his indigo’d team of Richard Cousins/b, Les Falconer/dr and Dover Weinberg/key, Cray used his 4 guitars and richly expressive voice to create a rich palate of oil colors from the deep south.
Cray is able to create a mood like a late night juke joint that’s jumping on rhythm pieces such as “Chicken in the Kitchen,” but as he stated during the show, “We’re doing the ‘heartbreak’ songs tonight,” so the emphasis was on low-ceilinged and smoky moods of love and love lost. “You’re Everything” displayed Cray’s patented mix of soul and gospel with just a dash of Memphis’ Al Green, as he would reach down into the red clay, and then swoop up in a falsetto as he wailed during “On the Road Down.” With Weinberg’s lurking keyboards and Falconer’s cymbals riding the whip, Cray could deliver both foreboding lyrics while making his guitar gently weep on “Shiver” while he went back to the church foundation of the blues with a gospel backbeat on “Bouncy Bouncy.”
Cousins’ base delivered a rivulet of a pulse during the boogie of “You Move Me” while the instrumental “Hip Tight Onions” felt like a lost STAX session from the halcyon days of Booker T and the MGs. Few artists these days are able to show as much feeling on guitar as Cray, and his strings begged for mercy on pieces like “She’s Got Ways” while it sliced through Weinberg’s foggy B3 like a knife on the peppy “Bad Influence.”
Cray and company keeps the music basic, which is the key to any master. A real chef doesn’t need to add a pound of seasoning, as he trusts the basic flavors of the vegetables as he makes his sauce. The same goes for Cray and company, he can allow a song to gently fade away like a morning mist while his guitar quietly chirps on the closing of “Still a Man” and can create a rich Memphis Soul Stew during “The Forecast (Calls for Pain.”
With rich brush strokes of blue, tasteful use of notes, an inherent feel for groove and a voice that expresses every emotion of hope and hopelessness, Cray was able to summarize his effect on the packed house with his rumbling boogaloo, namely “You Move Me.”
Upcoming shows at Pepperdine’s Lisa Smith Wengler’s Center for the Arts include Rusty Anderson Jan 14 and The Blind Boys of Alabama Jan 28