BluesAmericana 2

Back again with yet more info and some interviews with the BluesAmericana musicians who make the music and provide the pleasure.

Robert Cray is a musician who almost literally shot to fame as a new, modern US bluesman. Within no time at all he had attracted a huge number of admirers including many of the music world's finest including Eric Clapton, who remains a good friend and a fan. Cray is an easy going sort of guy, chatty and delightful to catch-up with:

Last Minute Man

For around four decades, Robert Cray has been an explosive, hugely admired bluesman. With Clapton, Jagger and Richards paid-up fans, he has worked with many of the greats of blues music from John Lee Hooker and B.B. King to Stevie Ray. Five Grammys under his belt, and with a new album just out, I caught up with the man out on the road in the USA preparing for the now Covid-cancelled UK and Europe tour his fans were eagerly anticipating.

Robert Cray is waiting to take the stage at a small venue in New Hampshire when we finally connect: “It’s real intimate. About two hundred people. They serve dinner before the gig. We’ve played it maybe ten times before, it’s always great. I love it. You can see the beer, almost smell it, and hear the glasses clang against each other. It’s what it’s all about,” he laughs with evident pleasure and satisfaction.

With a new album, ‘That’s What I Heard,’ about to drop towards the end of March, Cray is out working, promoting the new release on his own label, Nozzle Records, with help from Nashville label Thirty Tigers. His first album in a few years, Cray is optimistic and ready for the road. The album launched in USA a few days before we hook-up and he confirms he’s had a few months downtime as he prepares to hit the international blues highway: “We had a couple of months off. That’s real unusual for us. We’re usually out there, working, but we had been in the studio recording and so had some time set aside. It’s always good to have time to sit back a bit and reflect on what you’ve done in the studio,” he says.

Working again with his clear favourite producer, Steve Jordan, Cray laughs when I ask if he prefers studio work to touring:”I love it all. It’s a different kinda thing. We got in the studio and it all came together real easy. Steve’s great, he knows how I work. A good producer creates the vibe, makes it work for everyone. We’d been touring as a band and came pretty much straight off the road, maybe a three-day break, then into the studio to record.  So we were working well together. We didn’t do any real rehearsal because of that. We had eight days in the studio and it just came together. It was great fun. Steve always says, ‘Don’t overdo it!’  And he’s right. We came off the road and my voice was right, it was warm, so it all worked great. When you go into a studio there can be times when your voice just seems cold. Steve knows all that. He’s great and he can do it!”

The latest album is full of funky get-down grooves and blues that in many ways is reminiscent of when this guy first exploded onto the scene many years ago. I mention this to him and ask how it feels to have been out there, gaining global plaudits for almost half-a-century now: “It’s weird, maybe. You just don’t think of it like that. You don’t think you’re that old, or aged,” Cray bellows with laughter, and adds: “It’s like, we get kids come up to us after a gig and they’ll say ‘My dad loves your music and he introduced me to it.’ And we sort of think to ourselves, ‘What!’ We’re no older than you.’  How did that happen, how has it happened. We’ve been doing it for so long now, it just slips past in a flash and it’s hard to believe the time has gone so quickly and we’re another generation.”

Cray is looking forward to hitting the UK in April and May with the band and the new release. He readily acknowledges and appreciates the hugely loyal fan-base the UK offers and recalls his early gigs in Britain when the likes of Eric Clapton would turn up to watch: “It was amazing really. Eric Clapton was a big-star that seemed to love what we were doing. He’d come to gigs and sometimes ask if he could sit-in with the band. Well, what can you say to that?! It was just so unexpected and a really amazing time.”

I gently suggest that these days, Cray is himself something of a blues legend, and again that roaring, easy and warm laughter erupts: “You just don’t see yourself like that. It’s hard to see oneself in that way, though it’s hard at times to come to terms with what seems to have just happened. I remember going through a stage-door once and finding Mick Jagger waiting behind it, waiting just to say hello. A personal hero. Crazy sort of thing. And Keith Richards, love him, another hero!”

And Cray is a guy who has worked with some of the greatest names in the business, an aspect of his lengthy career that he still finds hard to fathom and which brings yet more genuine laughter and near-disbelief: “I remember we were doing the album, ‘Blues Summit.’ In the studio with B.B. King, Albert Cummings and John Lee Hooker – Gods of blues music - my heroes. I looked over to Richard (Cousins) our bassist and a real old friend, and thought, ‘Wow. We must get these smiles off our faces! We were still only kids.”  When I suggest that must have been an extraordinary experience, he agrees and adds: “It was unbelievable. These were the guys I’d been listening to, the guys that shaped the music I loved. To be working with them in the studio was incredible.” The memory clearly still resonates, as he goes on to add: “John Lee was a great guy to be around. As a teenager I was deep into his music then this opportunity came along to play with him and it was that couldn’t keep the smile of my face thing.”

I ask if he has a personal favourite release and Cray shrugs and pauses before considering the question: “No, not really. Each album is different. They are all of their time. They all have a feeling and an importance at the time. Then you must move on to the next one. They all have their place.” And so was the preparation leading up to the new album, ‘That’s What I Heard,’ lengthy or did it need much thought before putting it all together?: “No, we just poured into the studio with Steve and it came together. I’m a last-minute man!”  Again that laughter echoes as he considers the thought. “I’ve worried some producers in the past over the years because of that way of working.”

“I’ve been doing this now for almost fifty years. Hard to believe, but as a younger person it was what I dreamed of, of being a musician. I’m fortunate to be doing what I do, making the music that I love.”

What about the awards circus, I ask: “It’s all good but you don’t set out for that. If it happens, that’s all great. I haven’t had a Grammy since about 1999, I think. So, it’s not central to our way of working,” he confirms. I quickly refer to one great gospel song included on the new album and Cray recalls his childhood: “Every Sunday my father, a serviceman, would play those gospel records, so it has always been part of my life. I said to Steve maybe we could try one on the new album and he agreed. So I looked through my collection and found ‘Burying Ground’ by the Sensational Nightingales. So we added that. It’s a great song, takes me back.”

As our time draws to a close, I suggest that one track, ‘You’re The One,’ comes from an all too often overlooked blues great, and Cray nods in agreement: “Yea, I love that song and Bobby Blue bland is just too overlooked these days. He was another of those real blues greats, a giant.”

Another great guitar-picker with a style that truly crosses the lines, blurring them forcefully at times, is US lady, Cindy Cashdollar. We caught up as she was in lockdown in Woodstock, upstate New York:

Cindy Cashdoller is more than a memorable name. She’s a five-times Grammy winner, so far, with an impressive history and a rare fretwork talent that has kept her in constant demand as a go-to slide player for many of the greatest names in the music world. And, she rides sidesaddle solo too, with a new album, ‘Waltz for Abilene,’ gaining global, rave reviews we had a fine time chatting about her sparkling career and the music:

Cindy Cashdollar is that rare thing, a musician’s musician. Based in the world-famous Woodstock area of New York State, home to the legendary festival held just over fifty years ago, she is partly grounded by the dreaded Covid-19, with venues across the world now closed, unable to get out on the road, to play, tour or generally promote her new release. With lockdown, stir-crazy fever yet to take hold we chat about the new album and the simply stellar cast of musicians who feature on the release.

“I had to have Albert Lee. He’s amazing and I wanted to take the piece, ‘Memphis Blues’ at a slower pace than we’re all used to with Albert. I didn’t want that rapid machine-gun-fire picking, that rattling bluegrass style or sound, that he’s famous for. I knew he could easily do much more, and with an acoustic guitar, and it all worked beautifully when we managed to get together. I’d been on tour with him and had run nine nights in a row before I could pin him down.” she explains.

And we go on to many of the others, from Sonny Landreth: “We’ve been great friends for just so long. It was a natural thing to have him play. But I had to catch him on tour.”

And Larry Campbell, I ask? Another Woodstock resident and neighbour famed for his versatility and work as both writer, player and producer with countless major US names. Cindy chuckles and says: “Well, I needed fiddle and mandolin, so who else to turn to but one of the best who can play both. Who else are you gonna call?”

The jaw-dropping roll-call continues: “Everybody who plays on the album are good friends. It made it all more fun. There’s Mike Flanagan, Omar Kent Dykes,  Derek O’Brien, Ray Benson, Amy Helm. Jake Langley. Sonny Landreth. Rory Block. Larry Campbell. Marcia Ball.  Arlen Roth, I’d been working on and off with Arlen for so long, he wrote the song I wanted on the album so who better to have play on it?”

With such a range of musicians, all busy with their own recording and touring schedules, I wonder how long it took to put the project together: “Four and a half years,” she confirms, before adding: “I had a bad car accident in 2017 that took a year out. It was the project that just kept going but made it in the end!”

But Cashdollar is a guitarist who moves effortlessly between genres, hopping around with seeming ease, quality and self-assurance. Known for her near-decade with leading US bluegrass giants, Asleep At The Wheel, where she picked up her first Grammy, she laughs when recalling how that one came about, in many ways against the odds: “I’d moved from Woodstock to Nashville. I had a demo-tape and heard the band was looking for a steel player, so sent it in. I got a message from them saying they were interested and we met up and I got the job. They were so patient with me really. I was still learning, my playing a bit rough, but they gave me time and space to develop. It was a great time.”

And what about that awards circus, I venture?: “It’s all good. It’s not about the award itself, it’s the fun and it’s good to get one, it helps with promotion and the like. I love the ceremony itself. I go along and just stand looking around. Thinking, ‘Wow, there’s that one, and that one or that one.’ All those great musicians!” Cindy laughs at the very thought of finding herself in company with many of the players she herself admires, who have influenced her and been the soundtrack of much of her life.

Revered for her steel and slide-guitar work, Cashdollar kicked-off with guitar at home in Woodstock before hearing slide and being turned on to that zinging sound: “I’ve always liked different kinds of music at different times of my life, from starting out with folk-music to Dobro, then slide and steel guitar. Growing up in Woodstock was a loose thing. I don’t mean it was crude or anything. But clubs and bars were open, I could go along even as a fifteen year-old and see some good live music. I remember seeing guys like Happy Traum (another Woodstock resident and a true US folk-blues-roots icon), Billy Spear, Odetta, Van Morrison and John Hammond Junior. John’s always been a favourite, he’s such a great picker. I saw so many of these people at the Woodstock Playhouse. There was so much variety going on.”

“I was a bit of a late bloomer, in my early 20s really. Mike Aldridge was doing such great things with a Dobro back then, so influential and inspiring. But I heard all this music, so many styles and ways of playing. It can never be boring, there’s always so much to learn, so much to try out.”

I’m tempted to raise a query about how she found working with Bob Dylan, a guy with a reputation of being tricky at best of times: “I got on well with him. He’s a really lovely person. I remember being in a studio, I think in Miami, and we were waiting for his arrival. The sound guys were tense, saying, ‘Bob’s coming, Bob’s coming.’ Then he walked in. I was tuning up or something at the time and he came over and introduced himself, as ‘I’m Bob.’  He was absolutely fine, no problem whatever.”

And the same goes for Van Morrison with whom she recorded and toured: “Van is fine, interesting guy. We always got on just fine,” she says, before I turn to another bluesman with a strange reputation, the late Leon Redbone: “I worked with Leon for over eight years.  I was introduced to him and invited to play with him. I kind of knew what was expected. To me it was just another job at first, like any other, and I soon learned his quirks. He was quirky, difficult to get to understand at first. He had that thing with the white suits. I’d go over to his place, say the night before we went on the road, and he’d not be wearing the suit but maybe the white trousers and cooking in the kitchen. He was a great cook, delicious food. And I never saw him wear blue jeans, he was always dressed just so,” she again laughs at the memory of an old buddy before revealing an aspect of his undersurface perfectionism: “We did a gig once and I had thrown in a wild note. Afterwards in the dressing-room Leon asked me if I’d played the extra note. I nodded and he turned and told me, ‘just stick to the rhythm, stick to the melody.’ He obviously wasn’t happy to have me move from the melody line.”

“But when I got the job with Asleep At The Wheel, I was working with Leon. I felt guilty about it, about sort of deserting him. But I told him about it, how it had happened, and he was great, so helpful, understanding. I told him I felt terrible but had to do it.  He said he knew I was able, but asked if I’d be able to keep up with their schedule!  He was so gracious about it all. In the event it was a rough ride for a while, but the guys gave me time to step up to the plate.”

Inevitably thoughts turn to her work with another former Woodstock resident, still based in Upstate New York, blues-slide great, Rory Block. Cashdollar and Block work together as a duo, ‘Sisters of Slide,’ and have gained a huge international following for their astonishingly nuanced, joint slide endevours and fretwork abilities: “I love working and playing with Rory. I actually took some guitar lessons with her when I was young and she was living here in Woodstock. She’s a fabulous player. We’ve become great friends. There was a time when we hadn’t seen each other for maybe twenty years but when we met up again, it was like we’d always been around. We get out together whenever we can but it’s always hard to find the time in both our schedules to get together and tour. We just don’t do it often enough…but that’s only down to our own tour and work schedules really.”

Looking back over her career to date, Cashdollar is always fun, light-hearted and engaging: “There are times when I almost pinch myself and think, ‘where am I. How did that happen. What happened.’  Two guys gave me the best advice I ever had as a musician, both said the same thing. Rick Danko (another former Woodstock resident and member of legendary outfit, The Band) and Paul Butterfield. Both told me never forget ‘less can be more.’ It was very timely advice that I’ve taken to heart. I guess Leon (Redbone) really took it just a step further!” Again Cindy laughs at the oddly accurate thought, as we say our farewells.

Finally for now, veteran US soul-blues singer and songwriter WIlliam Bell has just picked up an important national award that recognises his importance as a standard-bearer, promoter and preserver of his cultural heritage. Bell is always a pleasure to meet and chat to so, as I have his home number, I was able to catch him on the hop, unexpectedly at home in Atlanta, GA, and congratulate him on the latest achievement in a sixty-year career.

Winning Ways with William Bell.

William Bell is one of the USA’s most important soul-blues musicians, a true survivor. And after over sixty years in the business, he has been awarded the 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Award, an award that recognises the cultural significance of his work and its importance in the music heritage he helps promote and preserve. It also comes with a $25, 000 cheque, which no doubt also helps!

We spoke to William a while back and chatted about his Grammy win in 2016.  BluesAmericana took the opportunity to join in the global congratulations to him on this outstanding achievement.

Veteran blues-soulman William Bell smiles when I suggest he’s been working the music business for half a century, before correcting me with a laugh: ‘Sixty years now, in fact,’ he says. Bell was one of the earliest Stax musicians, signed to the label back in 1961 primarily as a songwriter, he always had an ambition to make his mark as both writer and performer. An ambition he readily achieved and three-score years later, he continues to deliver top-notch material with scarcely a trace of effort.

When we catch up at his home in Atlanta, GA, a few months after meeting  back-stage following a gig in  London, Bell is working on a new album, studio-bound though he still loves life out on the road: “ I never tire of the travel, meeting the fans, working hard,’ he confirms. “Right now, I’m working on a bunch of new songs, some for other artists, and some for a new release I’m working with.”

When Bell talks of writing for others, it’s near-impossible to overestimate his past power, a force that remains vital and dynamic. With credits that include co-authoring the massive blues standard, ‘Born Under A Bad Sign,’ and ‘Private Number,’ – recorded with Judy Clay in 1968 – this is a guy to take note of. He is particularly pleased to add: “When Carole King, a wonderful writer, records one of your songs, ‘Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday,’ you know you’re doing something right.”

‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ is one of those songs that has a near-timeless feel to it, a track he originally wrote for Albert King after a chance studio meeting when King was recording an album but urgently needed some additional material: ‘” went off with Booker T Jones (a co-author) to his place and we worked through the night on it. I already had a bass-line, a verse and a bit more in mind, so it came together real quick. Albert loved it and then a few months later, Cream, with Eric Clapton, recorded it and it took on a life of its own. Jimi Hendrix ever did an instrumental take.’”

Bell was initially a backing vocalist, a member of the Del Rios, when he was asked to work with Carla Thomas’s Gee Whizz. He became a great friend of the late soul legend, Rufus Thomas, and considers the entire Thomas clan to be ‘family. “Music is central to my life. I used to go along to the Flamingo on Beale Street in Memphis. Rufus was originally a comedian and dance-man. He eventually had a go at a talent contest and his career took off,’ he laughs. ‘I still miss him. We had some great times together.”

Like many of his generation and background, Bell started out in church: “I started singing in Baptist Church with the choir at about seven years old. By the time I was ten, I was singing solo. My mother was so proud. “

Asked about his own, personal heroes, he quickly singles out Sam Cooke, whom he eventually met with in Atlanta, Georgia, when his then manager fixed up a meeting while Bell was riding high in the US soul music charts with his debut hit, ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water.’

But Bell is also renowned for his connections to another true soul music legend: “I was in the studio with Otis Redding when he was cutting ‘Dock of the Bay,’ “ he says with evident delight.

“When Otis passed many wrote and recorded tribute songs about him. I also wrote one, but it was meant to be a low-scale, private affair, a song I wrote purely for Otis’s widow, Thelma. I didn’t want to be seen as trying to cash-in or anything like that. We were great friends.  But when I played it, ‘A Tribute to a King,’ to Thelma, she loved it and insisted I should record it. I ran it past the guys at Stax and they were the same. So, I reluctantly agreed but recorded it with the sole proviso that it go out as a ‘B’ side.’

Bell was heavily involved in the making of the music documentary film, ‘Take Me to the River,’ where he plays a leading role alongside the late Otis Clay – a near-lifetime friend, - Bell is clearly pleased to have picked up a Grammy in 2016 for his album, ‘This Is Where I Live.’

 “It’s my first Grammy,” he laughs, “And it’s only taken me sixty years.”

With the latest award hitting the news, I rang William at home in Atlanta to congratulate him and catch his initial thoughts on the award. Always a true pleasure to chat with, he was instantly warm and welcoming, grateful for the support:

“I feel blessed, humbled and overjoyed. It’s just a wonderful award. I do know that the award is affirmation of what I do from my peers and many others. I’m just feeling so blessed to receive this wonderful award,” he says.

And when I ask if he’s working on any projects right now, he confirms he’s staying safe at home, writing songs and working in his studio with more video use than before: “I’m working, writing here at home and in the studio, doing more with video and looking ahead to more digital material maybe. With this Covid upheaval there’s gonna be a different world when we get back out, when the dust settles. I miss the tours, getting out there to meet my fan-base. I sure hope we find some cure or way to control this and let us get back out there again sometime soon.”

Well, that's it for now. Take care & stay safe out there, till next time. I'll let William take us out: