Feeling The Blues Robert Cray Brings Warm-Up Tour To Spokane

Tuesday, a new Robert Cray Band record will appear.

“Some Rainy Morning” is the first record the band has made without horns in a 21-year career. Taut and sinuous, it’s laden with songs of love lost, found and longed-for.

“Emotional music,” as Cray calls it.

Shortly after the record is released, Cray and his band will fly to Europe to open seven shows for the Rolling Stones and then do a cross continent tour of their own.

But first they have a date in Spokane.

As part of a short warm-up tour meant to work the kinks out of the new material, Cray will play tonight at the Masonic Temple. It’s his first small-hall show here since the early days at Washboard Willie’s, when the band was based in Tacoma.

Much has happened for Cray in the intervening decade, but when he steps onstage tonight little will seem to have changed at all. Despite the accolades, the honors, the high-profile appearances and even the personnel changes, he’s still singing and playing the same blues-based music he’s always made.

Like most top-flight musicians, Cray is an alchemist, skilled at blending many styles into one. His influences include Howlin’ Wolf and Albert Collins from the blues camp, Otis Redding and Bobby “Blue” Bland from soul, O.V. Wright from gospel and the Beatles and the Stones

from pop.

When you hear people saying they wish he would “go back” to playing pure blues, they’re forgetting that Cray always was too fond of too many styles to be considered exclusively a blues player.

And those who feel he’s not bluesy enough should consider his standing in the blues community. In 1985, he cut a Grammy-winning LP called “Showdown” with guitarists Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins; he’s appeared on three John Lee Hooker records and one by B.B. King.

King even shocked Cray at a show when he handed him the ultimate tribute - his cherished guitar, Lucille. Abashed, Cray did the only thing he could think to do - he tried to play a B.B. King solo.

Eric Clapton considers Cray the most important blues musician working. Muddy Waters liked to call him his adopted son.

It is true that back in the club days, Cray’s sound had a rawer, more urgent attack than it has today. Cray modeled his first band after Albert Collins’ rough-and-ready outfit, and he shared the stage in those early days with Curtis Salgado on harp and vocals.

Salgado, who went on to sing with Roomful of Blues and now has a solo career, played the blues screamer against Cray’s quieter intensity. The combination worked, but Cray steadily grew away from needing a second front man.

Over the years, he’s become a fine performer in his own right. Shy in person, he once seemed uncomfortable onstage. But he’s turned that shyness into a deceptively cool persona. He’s not much for histrionics, but when he closes his eyes and wraps his voice around a searing soul line, the emotion flows.

And his way of sneaking up on a guitar solo will catch you by surprise; a solo that starts out gently and understated builds momentum to become a shuddering howl that seizes a room by its throat.

“Some Rainy Morning” encapsulates the range of Cray’s interests. It opens with a deep Howlin’ Wolf groove on a song called “Moan” and includes Bobby Womack’s soulful “Jealous Love,” a song originally covered by Wilson Pickett.

“Will You Think of Me” has a Latin feel and “Little Boy Big” is a Southern soul ballad in the style of O.V. Wright or Bobby Bland. “Steppin’ Out” - an old song originally recorded by a musician named Syl Johnson - and “Tell the Landlord” carry on the sly humor of “1040 Blues” from 1993’s “Shame + A Sin.”

“Some Rainy Morning” is an exceptional showcase for Cray’s abilities, and because it was written for and recorded by the core band, it should translate well to the stage. The decision to record without horns forces the attention to Cray’s expressive singing and playing and to the keyboard work of Jimmy Pugh. It opens the record up for some good, old-fashioned piano and organ sounds. In some ways, the record is his earthiest effort to date.

Cray used to pop up in his own material as “Young Bob,” and among the acknowledged blues greats, he is one of the young ones. If his artistry continues to deepen, there’s no predicting the impact he could have on the music.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT INFO The Robert Cray Band performs tonight at 8 at the Spokane Masonic Temple. General admission tickets are $26, and you must be at least 21 years old. On Tuesday at 7 p.m., Cray will chat online in the PolyGram section of CompuServe’s music forum; subscribers can access the forum by using the keyword “conference.”