Robert Cray – Strong Persuader

Strong Persuader is the fifth studio album by American blues guitarist and singer Robert Cray. Recorded by Cray at Sage & Sound and Haywood Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, it was released on November 17, 1986 by Mercury Records and Hightone Records. Strong Persuader became the group’s breakout hit and since 1995 has sold over two million copies, later entering No. 42 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s.

Strong Persuader received good reviews from almost all contemporary critics. In a review for Rolling Stone magazine, Jon Pareles said Cray delivered interesting stories of sex and infidelity with disciplined song and compositions “a version of blues and soul that doesn’t come from any one region, creating an idiom for songs that say with the immediacy of conversation the stories of ordinary people”. On the other hand, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice praised the sophisticated aesthetic of Cray and his studio backing band, calling Strong Persuader “the best blues album in years, so intensely crafted that it takes and what it deserves and become the first album to break out of the genre’s sales ghetto since B.B. King’s reign”.

In late 1986, Strong Persuader was voted the third best album of the year in Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by the Village Voice. Christgau, the head of the poll, ranked it fourth on his own list for 1986. In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Bill Dahl stated that “it was Cray’s innovative expansion of the genre that made this album a from the original classics of the 1980’s.

For this album and the tour that followed, Robert Cray with his silky voice, took a different approach to both his overall appearance and musical style. Although the seed for Cray and his band’s sound in general was already planted by their previous studio album “Bad Influence”, everything here is much more elaborate and complex. From the songwriting to Cray’s tasteful guitar playing, all the elements are right and placed where they should be.

The bulk of the songs were written by Robert Cray, Dennis Walker and David Amy, while the lyrics of all ten tracks drip with emotion and realism, with key themes of love, sex and relationships. One can almost feel the emotion emanating from its speakers. All of this is complemented by Cray’s Stratocaster “bites” and “snaps”, the drive and rhythm of Richard Cousins’ bass, David Olson’s drums, the rhythm added by Peter Boe’s keyboard ambience and the playing of Memphis Horns, featuring Wayne Jackson on trumpet and trombone and Andrew Love on tenor sax, on selected tracks.

In 1988 Cray wins the Best Contemporary Blues Recording award at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards. His next album “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” will also win the same award the following year.

From this excellent album, I choose the track “Right Next Door (Because Of Me)”.

Tracklist

1. Smoking Gun 4:05
2. I Guess I Showed Her 3:37
3. Right Next Door (Because Of Me) 4:16
4. Nothin’ But A Woman 3:50
5. Still Around 3:44
6. More Than I Can Stand 2:57
7. Foul Play 4:08
8. I Wonder 4:00
9. Fantasized 4:06
10. New Blood 4:20