http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20094717&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id\
=665231&rfi=6

08/27/2008
Robert Cray is about keeping all options open
Don Wilcock , The Record

Thirty-some years in the business, 17 successful albums, five Grammys,
13 Grammy nominations, a recent world tour with Eric Clapton and
Robert Cray still keeps looking forward, never back. The day before
our phoned interview in anticipation of his Friday concert at The Egg,
he was cementing a deal to play with B.B. King's band at the opening
of the Blues King's new $9 million museum in Indianola , MS.
This man never gets a swelled head.
"Well, it's something that's happened and that's that," he says about
the Grammys. "It's great and every once in a while I'm digging through
old boxes I find some award or something like that and it goes back
into the box, but that's how it is because tomorrow is another day."
Cray is like a boxer, bobbing and weaving, staying cool no matter
what, keeping all his options open. He doesn't use a set list in concert.
"By the time we're finishing up one number, I'm trying to put in my
head real quick what we're gonna do next so I can turn around and call
it" he said. "Then, sometimes before we even get started, I ask Kevin
(Hayes, drummer). We're standing in the wings. I go to Kevin. I say,
'What do ya wanna do, Kevin?' And he thinks about it for a second, and
he picks out a song, and that's what we do."
Cray's latest studio album, "Twenty," was created from song bits and
ideas. Will he do that again? Maybe. Maybe not.
"I guess it would all depend on the material. Somehow I don't think
it's gonna go that way this time," he said. "That was an idea, and it
worked, but I don't know. I don't wanna try and do something that we
did the last time. So, we'll see."
It's a tight rope. How to be perfect and remain loose at the same
time? Writing songs in this mindset is a challenge. Cray says the band
is going into the studio in November to create music for their next CD
he expects to finish in January. Nothing is written for it yet.
He can't write on the road.
"I can't really physically concentrate on the road. I get home, and it
works different for me. When I'm home I'm not concerned about what's
happening out on the road," he said. "For me everything just seems to
start flowing. It's like I get up in the morning, and say I'm gonna
write a song, but I'm open to material coming into my head when I'm at
home. So, then, I'm just like out in the garden, and just because I'm
home and in that mode, songs will start popping in, so I have to run
back in and get 'em down."
"Twenty," the title cut from his last studio album, came to Cray that
way. It's a song about soldiers caught in the middle of the Iraq war,
and it becomes more poignant with every passing day.
'"Twenty' came to me. I was in the writing mode, and it was something
that was always pressing," he said. "Reading the newspaper and reading
the obituaries for the soldiers and noticing the age of the soldiers,
and so that's how the title 'Twenty' came about, and just
understanding the young soldiers do what they're told. They're in the
service. My dad was in the service for 27 years, so I understand that,
but I also knew that they had questions. They couldn't pose the
questions to the uppers because that's not allowed. So, I posed the
questions for them and asking what are we here for and that sort of
thing. So, kinda try to put myself in their shoes."
Keep bobbing and weaving, Robert, and you may have another 30 good years.
"We had the good fortune for a bit, and there's a lot of other bands
out here, and there's a lot of new music all the time. So, the most
important thing is to go out there and try and kick butt."