Sanctuary Records
2005
Twenty
About This Album
After 25 years and 14 albums, it seems a little churlish to complain that Robert Cray has been mining the same low-key, mellow Memphis soul-blues groove for well over two-thirds of his career. Not only is that kind of the point -- he's found his sound and he's sticking to it -- but many of Cray's influences didn't vary all that much on record, either. Besides, if an artist were going to make a living out of carrying on a tradition, it only makes sense that all his records would be cut from the same cloth. And so is the case with Robert Cray. Not long after Strong Persuader became an unexpected crossover hit in 1986 -- which was hard to imagine then and seems like a near impossibility now -- Cray decided that he would rather pursue the sound of Stax and Hi soul than be a full-fledged bluesman. He punctuated his songs with stinging licks not dissimilar to Albert King, but the sound was closer to O.V. Wright. But what really separated Cray from his forefathers is that instead of getting dirty and gritty, he stayed classy and tasteful. At first, that seemed like it might have been a market concession, but as the years rolled on, it seemed like a conscious matter of taste, which is something Twenty, his 14th proper studio album, confirms.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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