Robert Cray Brings Anti-War Message to the Blues

Just what the name says.
mikenycLI
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Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States

Robert Cray Brings Anti-War Message to the Blues

Postby mikenycLI » Fri Jun 27, 2003 8:04 am

It will be nice picking up this release, just to hear some kind alternative opinion.

Has ANYONE else felt the toooooooo obvious, absence of alternative public opinion during these dry, vapid, Bush War Years ????? I've even had to haul out my old Dylan, and Phil Ochs cd's just to get a breath of fresh air. It's like being stuck in a stuffy, dusty room with no windows open.


Courtesy of Reuters...

Robert Cray Brings Anti-War Message to the Blues

Thu June 26, 2003 06:39 PM ET

By Steve James

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blues artists tend to sing about lost love, cheatin' love or just the simple love of booze, dogs, traveling the road, whatever.

The music has rarely been political, even though it sprang from the suffering of blacks under slavery and was a virtual soundtrack to the tumultuous civil rights era of the 1960's.

Rock and folk have rich traditions of political songs and even R&B and soul spawned memorable hits about serious subjects during the Vietnam War years, like Edwin Starr's "War (What Is It Good For?) and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?"

Now, less than two years after America was shattered by terrorist attacks and two months after war in Iraq, bluesman Robert Cray introduces those modern-day issues in his latest album, "Time Will Tell." (Sanctuary Records; July 1)

"You take a little schoolboy/And tell him who to hate/Then you send him to the desert/For the oil near Kuwait," he sings in "Survivor." The song ends with the sound of marching boots and the admonition: "You've got to choose."

On "Distant Shore," written by the Robert Cray Band's keyboardist Jim Pugh, he sings of "an ancient battle/in an ancient land," where "war begat war."

"'Survivor' started out as a song about being happy to still be here," Cray, who has been recording since 1974, told Reuters recently. "But then it became a reflection of where I am now. The last verse was about the state of what's going on, which I disagree with.

"Whether or not a lot of people might be upset by it I wanted the sound of marching boots. It's a statement that you can't go out and change the world with war."

In fact, his father served 26 years in the military, but Cray said he missed out on going to Vietnam because "my draft number was something like 320!"

Alongside the political songs, Cray, a five-time Grammy winning guitarist and singer, shows his allegiance to rock as well as blues. On "Up in the Sky," he even switches his Fender for an electric sitar.

Maybe it was blues guitarist Albert Collins playing at his Oregon high-school graduation, or seeing Jimi Hendrix twice on stage, but Cray moves effortlessly between blues and rock.

"I've always been a fan of the sitar," he said. "It's basically the same as a guitar. There was a slight adjustment but it gives the song a Beatle-esque feel.

"I grew up with the Beatles, they are the reason I got into the electric guitar." he said. "The blues came later."

And the state of the blues now?

"You have to go out and find it. Radio stations and clubs have it and there are festivals, but blues is never in the mainstream."

Cray said he likes blues singer-songwriters like Taj Mahal, Eric Bibb and Shemekia Copeland, who, like him, have adapted traditional blues to modern times. "I think what makes music better is when you take chances and write your own music."

Reuters/VNU

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jht ... ID=2998180