If contemporary blues has a long-term future in the 21st
century, it's very likely that guitarist Larry McCray will continue
to play a recurring role in its ongoing development. Beginning with
this 1990 debut album, Ambition, and continuing into the new
millennium, McCray has signaled both a strong commitment to the
tradition and the vision to usher the genre in exciting new
directions.
McCray's first influence on guitar was none other than
his sister, Clara, who toured regionally around Arkansas with her own
combo, the Rockets. Clara never got to record her Freddie King-styled
blues for posterity -- but her little brother has at least partially
made up for that omission. Larry followed Clara up to Saginaw,
Michigan in 1972. She turned him on to the joys of the three Kings
(B.B., Freddie, and Albert), Albert Collins, and Magic Sam, and Larry
added superheated rock licks (à la Jimi Hendrix and the Allman
Brothers) to his arsenal as he began playing the local circuit with
his brothers Carl on bass and Steve on drums.
Working
on General Motors' assembly line occupied a great deal of Larry
McCray's time after he finished high school. But he eventually found
enough free hours to put together Ambition
for Point Blank in a Detroit friend's basement studio. The stunning
debut set was a convincing hybrid of blues, rock, and soul, McCray
combining the interrelated idioms in sizzling fashion. Suddenly, the
stocky young guitarist was touring with labelmate Albert Collins.
His
1993 Point Blank encore, Delta
Hurricane,
was a slicker affair produced by veteran British blues maven Mike
Vernon that McCray much preferred to his homemade debut. He followed
Delta
Hurricane
with Meet
Me at the Lake
in 1996 and Born
to Play the Blues
in 1998. The bluesman has remained active in the 2000s with albums
including 2001's Believe
It and
Blues
Is My Business,
2006's Live
on Interstate 75 (his
first live outing, recorded in Detroit), and the eponymous Larry
McCray
in 2007.
Larry
McCray's been recognized with an Orville H. Gibson Male Blues
Guitarist of the Year award as well as the Top Guitarist prize in
International Blues Matters' 2014 writer's poll. But there's a part
of McCray that has a rock 'n' roll beat too, and he's following that
on his latest release, The
Gibson Sessions.
It's a 12-song set featuring some of his personal
favorites by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger, ZZ Top, Gregg Allman, the
Doobie Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Creendence Clearwater Revival
and others, with help from six-string brethren such as Allman
Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts, Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers
Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Eric Clapton), Los Lobos' David Hidalgo
and Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Allman Brothers Band, The
Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends). "The blues is my favorite, for
sure. I get more out of it, feeling-wise, but I've always been a rock
'n' roll fan and I've always tried to write music that was rock 'n'
roll friendly," McCray explains, "I always try to move
forward and remember where I came from, and this album is a way to do
these songs I love and maybe get them heard by people who like that
music already, but do it in my own way so I can have some of my
personality and
self-identity within the music."
"I
was a little nervous to do all these classic tunes, and especially
classic hits, because you open the door up to 'Who the hell does this
guy think he is?' " McCray notes with a laugh. "But I'll
tell ya, any of the alterations I've done feel natural to me. They're
things I've always heard in my head when I listened to these songs. I
think when you hear them they fit. I thought Jimi Hendrix was white
up until I was about 19, 20; I just figured he was a white rock 'n'
roller, y'know? When I found out he was a black dude, it turned my
whole world upside down."
Britain's
Q magazine trumpeted McCray's "powerhouse energy" and "an
elegance and technical prowess that will delight most exacting blues
and rock aficionado," while Collins and Eric Clapton publicly
stated their praise. The presence of The
Gibson Sessions'
top-shelf guests is yet another indication of the regard his playing
peers have for McCray. "I've been on stage with all those guys
over the years. We've had many encounters," he says. "You've
never seen me have guests on a record. I've never called in favors,
never asked for anything other than camaraderie. But this record
seemed like the right time to do it. I'm at a point and a time in my
life where I'm old enough and I've been out there and established
long enough that it's not like I'm just cashing in." The
Gibson Sessions certainly
offers a different look at McCray's music and opens new artistic
vistas. "For me, success is being accepted and recognized by
your peers and having some people out there who want to hear the
music, and I don't need a whole lot of everything to be happy. I feel
comfortable with who I am” For Larry McCray, the Blues is his
business, and business is good!
The Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival is set for
Thursday through Saturday, August 23-25 at Kenlake State Park in
Aurora, Kentucky. Discount tickets are available at KenlakeBlues.com.
Charities which will benefit from this year's Hot August
Blues Festival include The Shriners, who will be operating festival
shuttles with all tips and proceeds going to the Shriners' Childrens'
Hospitals, and the Knights of Columbus.
