Thirty years ago, next month, Robert Cray appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline announcing: "The Blues are Back and He's the Boss." Last month, Cray released a new album, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, which should garner a new headline: "Soul Is Back and He's the Boss." It marks an extraordinary musical journey.
During the Eighties and Nineties, Cray — with The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughn – led a blues revival that paid homage to the likes of B.B. King and Albert Collins while adding a pop sensibility. Newly modernized and suddenly accessible, the music moved from the basements of dark clubs and back rooms of deserted record shops to the mainstream.
