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Cray to open Banff Centre series

Five-time Grammy Award-winning bluesman Robert Cray kicks off The Banff Centre’s Visiting Artist’s Series, Oct. 8 in the Eric Harvie Theatre. Opening for Cray will be Canadian bluesman Colin Linden.
Robert Cray
Robert Cray

Five-time Grammy Award-winning bluesman Robert Cray kicks off The Banff Centre’s Visiting Artist’s Series, Oct. 8 in the Eric Harvie Theatre.

Opening for Cray will be Canadian bluesman Colin Linden.

Cray’s This Time – the first studio album on his own Nozzle Records arrives at a vital juncture in the musician’s career, marked by creative renewal and a key reunion with an old performing partner.

The five-time Grammy winner summarized 35 years of mastery on Live From Across the Pond (2006), an electrifying two-CD concert set drawn from a series of shows (opening for Eric Clapton) at London’s Royal Albert Hall. When the time came to follow up that widely praised collection with a studio recording, Cray viewed it as an opportunity to move his sound in other directions.

He found exactly what he was looking for by turning to one of his oldest friends and colleagues: bassist Richard Cousins, whose tenure with the Robert Cray Band began with its barnstorming regional origins in Eugene, Oregon, in 1974 and extended through 1991, encompassing such early high-water marks as Strong Persuader (1986) and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1988), both winners of the best contemporary blues performance Grammy.

“I’ve known Richard for 40 years,” Cray says. “We go back to 1969, and we grew up in the same area together. We’ve always had a really good rapport together stage-wise.

“Richard and I have remained the best of friends ever since he departed way back in ’91.

“It just so happened that last year, I wanted to make personnel changes in the band. So I asked Richard to come back.”

The refreshed lineup of Cray, Cousins, Jim Pugh (keys), and Tony Braunagel (drums) came together at Santa Barbara Sound Design in Santa Barbara, California, to record what became This Time. Cray produced (though he notes, “Every time I produce, it’s like a communal effort”), with Don Smith engineering.

Tickets available at The Banff Centre ticket office at 762-6301 or 1-800-413-8368.

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