Jazz Articles about Robert Cray

Various artists: Alligator Records: 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music

by Jim Trageser
June 18, 2021

Maybe this half-century commemoration of the jny: Chicago-based, blues-focused label should have been titled, “The Last of the Independents." Almost alone of the mid-major labels that formerly thrived in the 1980s and '90s by specializing in non-mainstream styles of music, Alligator has managed to navigate stunning changes in the music business--from the vinyl of LPs and 45s to cassettes and CDs, and then, most recently, the virtual collapse of the retail record business and wholesale pivot to online ...

Robert Cray: Shoulda Been Home

by Al Rearick
September 1, 2001

Who says sticking to a proven formula is a bad thing?

For those of you who thought Cray’s last effort was a nice sizzling slab o’ soul, his follow-up continues the tradition. Shoulda Been Home picks up where Take Your Shoes Off left off, and carries the groove forward in a manner that would have made the folks at Stax proud. In fact, Cray and the band proudly display such influences on most of the tracks here.

A word of ...

Robert Cray: Take Your Shoes Off

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 1999

If ever a title captured the mood of an album, this is it. Take Your Shoes Off, Cray's latest release from Ryko, is a bit of a departure from what we might expect from Robert and his band. The album flows effortlessly from beginning to end, allowing us to listen to it in it's entirety; a true phenomenon these days. The track list here, as the title suggests, is composed mostly of bright melodic tunes, but that's not to say ...