Word: cray
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...Cray sang with Tina Turner for her HBO special, due out this winter, and recently showed up in St. Louis for Chuck Berry's 60th birthday party, a concert extravaganza that featured such luminaries as Keith Richards and Linda Ronstadt and was filmed for theatrical release next year. Cray sang two Berry classics, Come On and Brown-Eyed Handsome Man, and admits, "That was a real kick. But it was also intimidating...
...Cray's presence on the bill highlighted his own drift into rock, in abundant evidence on the Strong Persuader album, where the blues give no quarter but are suddenly danceable. "Lyrically," as Cray hears it, "the songs are blues stories in the sense that they relate with lost love, sneakin' around, cheatin' and things like that, but the music isn't traditional blues music. We're stepping out into new territories. Smoking Gun almost sounds like a rock-'n'-roll song." On the album's opening cut, hard-edged guitar and lyrical economy set up another variation on jealousy...
...strong persuader./ She was just another notch on my guitar./ Now she's going to lose the man who really loves her./ In the silence I can hear their breaking hearts." The sound of Strong Persuader is not the only thing that is different; not even the main thing. Cray offers a uniquely supple narrative that he wields as easily as his '64 rosewood-necked Fender Stratocaster guitar...
...personal life." He has never married, but once lived with a woman for seven years and helped bring up her daughter. Back then he was a rover, but, he insists, "not anymore. I slowed down. It doesn't do anything but get you in a lot of trouble." Watch Cray in performance and it is easy enough to see how he could still get in harm's way. He has a voice that sounds as if he gargles with Old Grand-Dad and a sly smile that looks like an open invitation. The grin does not come easy, but upon...
Gospel was the music Cray heard first and most. Born in Georgia to a career Army man, Cray lived in West Germany and all over the U.S., settling for a time in Tacoma, where he went to high school. His father could handle a little guitar ("Three chords and a few blues licks," his son says. "Nothing to be scared of") and played lots of gospel tapes at home. The sweet, lofting sounds of the Five Blind Boys and the Dixie Hummingbirds complemented services every Sunday at the local Baptist church. Even so, Cray considered becoming an architect -- a desire...