Robert Cray

Songwriter Robert Cray breathed new life into the American blues tradition in the ’80s and ’90s with an infectious style that downplayed showy guitar chops in favor of pared-down pop hooks and lyrical storytelling. Born in Columbus, GA, in 1953, Cray grew up surrounded by music; he studied piano and guitar as a teenager while his Army officer father hipped him to Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. In the late ’70s, Cray formed The Robert Cray Band while living in Oregon and spent several years touring up and down the West Coast. With guidance from mentor Albert Collins, he earned respect in blues circles, gaining a command of multiple blues idioms before breaking out to an even wider audience with his Grammy-winning 1986 album, Strong Persuader. Cray has gone on to win multiple Grammys in his career, all the while solidifying his bona fides in collaborations with elder statesmen like John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton. And Cray’s 2020 effort That’s What I Heard shows him still going strong, dishing out hearty solos while channeling Southern soul.