Provogue (label)
01 April 2014 (released)
05 April 2014
I have to admit that I had become a little tired of Robert Cray’s Blues until his most recent album ‘Nothin But Love’ but this collection of soul classics and originals has totally blown me away – his sweet voice and easy playing sound absolutely perfect in the soul medium and it almost makes one wonder why he didn’t do it years ago!
From the kick off of ‘You Move Me’ which has a driving beat and a powerful vocal he sounds in his element and the track just cooks with a sweet and smoky passion.
‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ has a sassy funk to it and a great vocal with pounding drums from Les Falconer.
This isn’t Motown soul or the easy sounds of Philly soul – this is Chess and Stax soul. Big rhythms and strong themes and the delicious ‘Fine Yesterday’ fits right into that Otis/Curtis/Marvin kind of axis; Bluesy and mellow with a haunting feel along with some fine guitar.
Personally I adore ‘Hip Tight Onions’ playing right into the Steve Cropper/Booker T groove and swinging like a go-go dancer on happy pills but measured against the subtle sexiness of ‘Hold On’ it is difficult to work out how it was made by the same musician.
Great soul music is special: it goes deep into your emotions and talks about the things that mean something to a=us all. A lot of great Blues players have dabbled with soul but it isn’t often that they manage an entire album of great soul music – kudos to Robert Cray for proving that his soul is there for us all.
