Silver Welcomes Cray’s Guitar Blues

Local hero Robert Cray returns to these parts Sunday for a mountaintop show at Silver Mountain.

It’s an ideal site for Cray - looser and less sterile than a sit-down theater, more spacious and open than the clubs and small rooms.

Cray’s still promoting his latest CD, “Some Rainy Morning,” a tour that began in spring 1995 in the jam-packed, super-heated Masonic Temple.

Now, as then, he’s playing with a straight quartet - no horns - which turns the spotlight on his guitar playing. That’s a treat for fans who watched this band - and its leader - grow up during its club forays here in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

A quartet is also easier on the pocketbook, a harsh fact of life since Cray’s record sales have dropped after the multiplatinum success “Strong Persuader” album in 1986.

Cray, who’s now working on material for a new record, says his label, Mercury Records, continues to give him creative latitude: “I think everybody’s pretty happy,” he recently said from a road stop in Keene, N.H.

That may be partly due to the fact that few blues musicians move as easily as Cray among the top tiers of the blues and rock worlds.

Muddy Waters has practically adopted him and he’s worked with such greats as Johnny Clyde Copeland and Albert Collins. He and Eric Clapton have become frequent collaborators; he’s played in Keith Richards’ tribute to Chuck Berry, “Hail! Hail!” His long association with the Stones guitarist blossomed last summer into a seven-date gig on the Stones European tour.

“That was the greatest, the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” said Cray. “It was awesome, playing for 60- and 70,000 people.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Robert Cray will perform at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Silver Mountain Amphitheatre. Tickets are $36.50 and $29.50, available at all regional G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, or by calling 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT (credit cards only).