Guitarist Robert Cray still has the blues

Robert Cray has known these guys for a long time.

The legendary blues guitarist started working with bass player Richard Cousins in 1974. Keyboardist Dover Weinberg came on board in the late 1970s. There have been periods when they’ve gone their separate ways, but the foundation of the Robert Cray Band goes back 40 years.

That band, which also features new drummer Les Falconer, will be at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach on Saturday as Cray wraps up his dual tour with singer-songwriter John Hiatt.

“Forty years, man — it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long,” Cray said by phone from a tour stop in Richmond. “Back then, we just started off playing music that we enjoyed. We’re still doing the same thing now. Blues, soul, whatever we grew up listening to – that’s what we played.”

Cray, who will turn 61 next month, wears those influences on his sleeve on his current album, “In My Soul.” His guitar playing here is the latest reminder that this is the guy who Rolling Stone magazine credited with “reinventing the blues with his distinct, razor-sharp playing.” But his smooth vocal style leans more toward the soulful sounds of the 1960s, particularly when he covers Otis Redding’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Deep in My Soul.”

Cray’s musical roots, both as a singer and a guitarist, trace back to the two years he spent at Denbigh High School in Newport News. That’s where he played in his first band, The One-Way Street, while his father was stationed at Fort Eustis in the late 1960s.

“Back then, we played everything we could learn – the Grass Roots, the Young Rascals, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream had just come out,” Cray said. “We played one or two gigs at a bar in Norfolk. We were actually too young to be in there, so we had to stay on the stage. We were too young to be in the actual bar.”

It was at his next stop, when his family relocated to the state of Washington, that Cray became obsessed with blues guitarists such as Albert Collins and Buddy Guy. That’s where the Robert Cray Band was born, leading to a career that would earn him five Grammy Awards and 15 nominations.

After working with Cousins and Weinberg for the better part of four decades, Cray said he has formed a tight musical bond with them.

“What happens, after all those years, is that there’s an understanding of what the song is supposed to be,” Cray said. “You start working as a team, as a unit, and the familiarity gives you the opportunity to explore what’s already there. You can take liberties to make the song better, try out different tempos.”

That bond is even more important during live performances. There is pride in Cray’s voice when he says he has “never played the same solo twice,” and he knows that his band can keep up as he shifts gears each night.

Cray said he wants his guitar solos to be expressive enough to convey emotions and details to his audience.

“That’s the approach I like to take – it’s a conversation,” Cray said. “Music reflects many things about a person, whether it’s about their love lives or about how they live their lives. The guitar solo is an extension of that conversation you’re having with people.

“I’m not just standing there playing a bunch of notes. It’s conversational. Certain guitar players say a lot, like Buddy Guy, whereas someone like B.B. King says a whole lot with much fewer notes. Whatever I’m playing out there, I’m communicating with the audience. That’s how it has to be.”

Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479.

Want to go?

Who: Robert Cray and John Hiatt

Where: Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: $43-$63

Information: sandlercenter.org or 757-385-2787

Originally Published: July 24, 2014 at 1:28 PM EDT