This Time [Digipak]

Performer: Robert Cray
Engineer: Don Smith; Bob White
Producer: Robert Cray
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Robert Cray (vocals, guitar); Jim Pugh (keyboards); Richard Cousins (bass guitar); Tony Braunagel (drums). Audio Mixers: Don Smith ; Martin Pradler. Recording information: Santa Barbara Sound Design, Santa Barbara, CA. Photographer: Erika Goldring. Because of the five-year gap between studio albums and a major overhaul of his touring and recording band, THIS TIME is being touted as the beginning of a new era in soul/bluesman Robert Cray's long career. For better or worse, that's not really the case, as this is another in a long line of classy, well- produced, and immaculately played and sung releases from the always dependable Cray. The ballads, especially the slow-burning seven-minute title track, are some of the finest he has penned, although the singer/guitarist's well-worn themes of the emotional disconnects between the sexes haven't changed. Upbeat, more lighthearted material such as the opening "Chicken in the Kitchen," the organ-led jazzy "That's What Keeps Me Rockin'," and the tough Memphis groove of "Trouble & Pain," a tune that sounds like an Otis Redding outtake, alter the generally serious mood. The same holds for the jaunty Caribbean-inflected rhythms of "To Be True." But even though this isn't much different from Cray's previous 14 studio releases, it's a consistently engaging set that will please his existing fans..

Grammy Award-winning guitar great Robert Cray fuses blues and Memphis-style R&B in his music, often evoking the funky soul sounds of O.V. Wright in the process. Cray is justly praised for his understated approach; the subtlety of his singing and playing indeed set him apart from much of the modern blues scene, and the songs he and partner Dennis Walker write bear the mark of true storytelling. Bursting onto the music scene in 1983 with BAD INFLUENCE, Cray continues to create stellar blues into the 21st century.

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