Blues guitarist Robert Cray heads to Sage Gateshead on Friday, May 9. Matt Westcott discovers why you might find him searching through a record store near you

FOR Robert Cray, the look and the feel of a record is just as important as the music contained within. So while the five-time Grammy award-winner may use modern processes to bring his creations to life, he has one foot happily in the past when it comes to how they can be experienced.

Take his latest album – In My Soul. It’s a homage to two of the greatest labels in American music, Stax and Chess. And, while it is available in CD form, Cray clearly favours the sound of a vinyl LP. You only have to look at the cover to appreciate that it harks back 40 years.

Set in a blue-grey hue, Cray is pictured, sharpsuited, pork pie hat on head with shades obscuring his gaze, strumming a trademark Fender guitar. The album title and band name are picked out in classic 1960s-style letters and it includes phrases such as “can also be played on mono equipment” and “classic series 33 and a third microgroove”.

“There is a lot of nostalgia that goes with it,”

says the avid record collector. “I like to sit there and listen to the music and grab that big piece of art. That was how the whole concept came about. It was art.

“I look at some of the old Chess records – people put a lot of work into those, the artwork and all that – sometimes the photographer’s signature is at the bottom of the album cover.

“It’s an experience. You get to sit and hold a piece of art and read all the info, listen to the music and learn about it. As I get older, it’s kind of hard to read a CD label.”

On tour, Cray and his bass player and childhood friend, Richard Cousins, head out to the nearest record store.

“We are always in search of old vinyl. We have a completely open mind about what we are looking for,” he says. “We just go in and see what’s available and what’s not too ridiculously expensive.”

Cray’s own work, In My Soul – the title of which is taken from the Bobby Bland song, Deep In My Soul – features original work and covers, but owes much to the past.

“Stax and Chess, both of those labels, represent a big part of what is American music,” says Cray. “Both recorded southern artists. Chess featured those who had migrated up to Chicago, through Memphis, and also contemporary Chicago artists.

“Stax brought together a lot of musicians of different races to play soulful music. It was just incredible. Both those labels were a very important part of American culture.”

Cray says the recording process was made all the more memorable thanks to award-winning producer Steve Jordan.

“Steve Jordan is really good at bringing everybody together in the studio and making everybody feel a part of what is going on in the process,” he says.

“We record together at the same time. I may go back in and do a vocal or a guitar solo, but Steve is in the room with us and a lot of times he is playing percussion, playing the drums or just standing their dancing and that’s how we do it.

“With that kind of feel in the room and that kind of fun, it makes everyone feel relaxed.

The Northern Echo:

That’s what the aim is. More than trying to get a perfect tune, is trying to get a good tape. That’s how we look at it.”

Cray has sold more than 12m records and is now 60, but he has no intention of slowing down. Not while he still derives the pleasure this latest album has given him.

“Doing records the way we did this last one and having fun is what it has always been about,” he says. “It continues to be that.

“When we have opportunities, like we have just had, to work with Steve Jordan and do something a little bit different to what we did on the last record, we look forward to the surprises that may come in the future with new songs and getting out on the road. Those are the things I look forward to.”

Asked if he regards himself as one of the best in the business, Cray is characteristically selfeffacing.

“No, no way,” he says, with a laugh. “There are people who are blues guitar players who cut me up and down the street. I think that what we have is our band and our unit and what we do makes us different from the next band.

“That’s our strength. It’s always been about the band and it’s been about the songs and it’s never been about me standing up there on the golden stage with the guitar and having a bunch of sympathetic dummies behind me just playing a drone. I’ve never worked that way.”