Robert Cray Band

On This Time - Robert Cray's first studio LP in five years -- 17th overall, he's packing a (mostly) new backing band alongside an all-new set of deep-soul ballads 'n' urbane blues, mostly penned by Cray himself. Cray -- who honed his chops (and copped a certain amount of his signature guitar style) playing behind the late, great Albert Collins--first stepped out of the sideman shadows and into the solo spotlight way back in 1974, working the Northwest blues circuit out of Portland, Oregon. (You can glimpse him playing bass in Otis Day & The Knights in Animal House, filmed in Portland). He's won five Grammys, cut a fistful of modern blues standards -- "Phone Booth," "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark," "Smoking Gun," "Right Next Door (Because Of Me)" -- racked up a platinum album with 1986's Strong Persuader (the first blues LP to reach the Top 20 since 1972!), and, gone fret-to-fret with Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland on the three-way, guitar-barfight Showdown! in 1985. His last disc was a 2006 double-CD live set recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London opening for his longtime pal/fellow admirer, Eric Clapton. This Time is supremely tasteful, not-a-note-wasted, guitar-oriented blues 'n' soul that hearkens back to the halcyon daze of Stax, Hi, and Muscle Shoals.