Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If life is offering you nothing but Blues, then without any argument or sense of guilt the only thing that should be done is too take in the performance of a true link between the golden heyday of Blues, and its natural platinum standard of the 21st Century, that of the ever graceful American, and passionate guitar player, Robert Cray; it is a performance that thrill the bones of anyone, Anytime.
The sense of the devastating is always one that people assume will be raw, a seismic earthquake like event, the heart being pulled from the body and replaced with the shattering effects of a grandfather clock’s pendulum, forever chiming against the wave of desire of those who see Blues as a spent force. It is devastating, it is a comforting, overwhelming joy, a devastation only in that the end of such a performance is always hanging in the air, one that like Time, needs to be captured and enjoyed for all that it is worth.
Liverpool, and the Philharmonic Hall in particular, have become a second home for The Robert Cray band over the last few years, that sense of explosive dynamic that is played as if by a Greek Muse playing with serenity in her heart, is one in which nobody caught in the middle of a marching solo can ever turn away from. If home is where you are more comfortable, then watching Robert Cray on stage in Liverpool is almost like having the opportunity to sit back in your favourite armchair, having had the good sense to throw out the television, and with the grin of the American and the band within several feet of you, taking in a night of scintillating Blues.
With a set that contained songs such as The Same Love That Made Me Laugh, Made Me Cry, I Don’t Care, On The Road Down, You Don’t Even Care, Saturdays, Bad Influence, the excellent Right Next Door (Because Of Me), and a stunning version of Tony Joe White’s Aspen, Colorado, Robert Cray and the band shook the venue with the expected, but utterly adored, sound of gentlemanly fire and passionate Blues/Funk.
Anytime, anywhere, Robert Cray will thrill the heart and soothe the mind, whilst all the time, gently reminding the listener that the Blues is more that the two distinctive eras, it also is the humble home in which this magnificent guitarist resides, all the time smiling with passionate grace.
Ian D. Hall