Take Your Shoes Off (CD - 1999)

Personnel: Robert Cray (vocals, guitar, bajo sexto); Steve Jordan (guitar, bajo sexto, keyboards, bass, drums, snare drum, percussion, background vocals); Jo-El Sonnier (accordion); Jim Horn (tenor & baritone saxophones); Bobby Keys, Jim Spake, Doug Moffet (tenor saxophone); James Mitchell (baritone saxophone); Scott Thompson (trumpet); Jack Hale (trombone); Jim Pugh (keyboards); Karl Sevareid (bass); Kevin Hayes (drums); The Nashelles (background vocals).

The Memphis Horns: Andrew Love (tenor saxophone); Wayne Jackson (trumpet).

Engineers: Niko Bolas, Don Smith, Steve Jordan.

Recorded at Woodland Studios, Nashville, Tennessee and Knotek, New York, New York.

TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Recording information: Kontek, New York, NY; Woodland Studios, Nashville, TN.

It's evident right from the start that Robert Cray's aiming for a Memphis soul groove on Take Your Shoes Off. Willie Mitchell of Hi Records fame co-wrote and did the horn arrangements for the lead-off cut, "Love Gone to Waste," and Jim Pugh's burbling organ would have fit snugly into the mix of an early '70s Al Green record. The blues is not missing from this effort, but is most present in Cray's usual assertive blues guitar lines. Otherwise, this is far more appropriately pegged as a blues-soul album, or even just a retro-soul album, than a straight blues one. Cray, indeed, only writes about half of the songs, covering soul classics identified with Mack Rice's "24-7 Man" and Solomon Burke's "Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)," as well as Willie Dixon's "Tollin' Bells." No one would be claiming that this disc plows new territory, but to Cray's credit, he fits the quasi-Hi and (less frequently) Stax-type grooves with an unforced ease. It's a lot harder to do than it sounds -- for Cray or anyone in the late 1990s -- and it's frankly more interesting than a straightahead blues album from the singer-guitarist would have been. ~ Richie Unterberger

TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF finds Robert Cray picking up the Memphis soul thread that infused so much of 1997's SWEET POTATO PIE. Joined by the always-reliable Memphis Horns, Cray delivers another masterful batch of tunes that are as much a tip of the hat to Stax as they are to Chess. The bluesman's creamy vocals fall somewhere between Sam Cooke and Otis Redding and are particularly effective on the brassy "24-7 Man" and the pleading "Let Me Know." The R&B map is well traversed with Jim Pugh's flickering organ licks and Steve Jordan's solid playing (turning "It's All Gone" into a lost Hi track), while the strolling tempo on "There's Nothing Wrong" brings to mind Motown's finer moments.

As always, the talented guitarist's choice of covers is an interesting mix. Willie Dixon's "Tollin' Bells" is presented with brushed drums and a reverberating chord that eerily replicates the song's title. Most interesting is a reading of Solomon Burke's "Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)" that finds Cray being joined by Cajun accordionist Jo-El Sonnier on an arrangement that Taj Mahal might have suggested.

REVEIWS:

Rolling Stone (5/27/99, pp.63-64) - 3 1/2 Stars (out of 5) - "...this is a slow-burning soul record - and one of the most focused of Cray's twenty-five year career..."

Q (5/99, p.104) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...there are moments...incisive solo...punchy soul feel...cajun touches and funky riffs...which turn this into a thoroughly enjoyable album..."

Melody Maker (5/1/99, p.36) - 4 stars (out of 5) - "...Think Al Green, Stax and a time before machines ruled the world. Lovely."

Living Blues (7-8/99, p.52) - "...his strongest in ages....Robert Cray has long brought a rich, subtle strength to his innovative blues/soul hybrid....TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF is something special."

Entertainment Weekly (4/30/99, p.97) - "...Sure, Cray doesn't sound all that anguished on the heartache-got-me tracks, but overall his Southern soul is winning." - Rating: B minimize