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Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Band Collection
 
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Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Band Collection [Original recording remastered]

~ Robert Cray
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £4.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Band Collection + Strong Persuader + Twenty
Price For All Three: £14.94

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  • This item: Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Band Collection ~ Robert Cray

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Strong Persuader ~ Robert Cray

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Twenty ~ Robert Cray

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Product details

  • Audio CD (6 Dec 1999)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Original recording remastered
  • Label: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
  • ASIN: B00003001Z
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 25,112 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Phone Booth 3:29£0.69
Listen  2. The Forecast (Calls For Pain) 3:58£0.69
Listen  3. Smoking Gun 4:06£0.69
Listen  4. Playin' In The Dirt 3:45£0.69
Listen  5. Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark 3:45£0.69
Listen  6. Too Many Cooks 2:48£0.69
Listen  7. The Dream 5:31£0.69
Listen  8. Right Next Door (Because Of Me) 4:18£0.69
Listen  9. Consequences 4:24£0.69
Listen10. Bad Influence 2:53£0.69
Listen11. I Guess I Showed Her 3:37£0.69
Listen12. I Shiver 5:06£0.69
Listen13. Trick Or Treat 3:10£0.69
Listen14. I Was Warned 7:14£0.69

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Few blues artists have achieved as much crossover success as Robert Cray. Though it's not infrequent for blues purists to proclaim a dislike for his work, his skillful blend of blues, R&B, and soul has undeniable appeal. Heavy Picks is the first retrospective of Cray's recording career, tracing the route from his early, semi-independent recordings through his final dates for Mercury Records. The collection includes some of Cray's best material, including "Smoking Gun", "Playin' in the Dirt", and "Bad Influence", which testify to his strengths as a songwriter. One of the few blues musicians to have videos on MTV, Cray's style has a consistency that's helped ensure his longevity in the pop and blues arenas. At 14 tracks, Heavy Picks is also a non-intimidating introduction for newer fans. --Genevieve Williams


CD Description

Throughout the '80s, Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan were heralded as the "new hopes" for the blues. Although Vaughan's fiery blues-based playing made this sobriquet more appropriate, Cray's style took as much from Memphis soul as it did Chicago blues. HEAVY PICKS compiles the cream of Cray's material released between 1980 and 1997.
Combining a fluid guitar sound and a creamy vocal style, Robert Cray wrote music often based on the fragility of relationships between menand women. His high-calibre songwriting not only found Craybeing covered by the likes of Albert King ("Phone Booth") and Eric Clapton ("Bad Influence"), but also landed him in the Top 40 ("Smoking Gun"). Although covers of Willie Dixon ("Too Many Cooks") and Otis Redding ("Trick or Treat") bridgedthe blues and soul divide, Cray's R&B strengths leapt out more in his collaborations with the Memphis Horns. On songs such as "Consequences", "Forecast (Calls for Pain)", and "I Guess I Showed Her", Cray's singing not only channels the influence of soul legend O.V. Wright, but his crisp guitar playing also points to Steve Cropper's Stax/Volt legacy.

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Introduction to Robert Cray, 15 Aug 2003
Having heard a few Robert Cray band tracks in the past, this album is confirmation that Robert Cray is the genius that I thought he was.
This compilation of tracks from throughout his career demonstrates his unequalled ability to blend Jazz, Blues and Soul in a way never achieved before. The re-mastering process has given a high quality recording without losing any of the original feel of the music.
I could listen to this album over and over again.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Smokin' Gun, 17 Jun 2004
By Andy Millward (Broxbourne, Herts, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Ignore the other comments. Cray is a master of his art - a smooth soul-blues showcasing Cray's crisp, clinical guitar sound and slick vocals, supported by his regular band (no bad thing at all - top players to a man) and occasional licks from the Memphis horns. The playing truly is first rate, what you'd expect of a band that paid its dues and played with all of the Blues greats before achieving their own greatness. Comes over in the music, too - there's a cool, calm, together feeling to the music, production comes low and musicianship is to the fore.

Cray's material hasn't changed too much over the years - a few are stripped down hard-core blues, and sometimes he mellows down or dallys with country, pop or rocking numbers, but none the worse for that. His lyrics don't change much either - adulterous men and cheating women feature strongly, but all have a tale to tell.

This is a representative selection from several fine albums, including my personal favourite I Was Warned. Shame they didn't include Our Last Time (I once saw Cray perform both songs during his encore at a stunning gig at the Apollo, Manchester - the air was electric that night!), but that's a minor consideration. If you're into variances on the theme of R&B, this album will not disappoint. As the song suggests, Robert Cray is a Smokin' Gun!

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2 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly dull, 5 Oct 2003
By Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
"It's not infrequent for blues purists to proclaim a dislike for [Cray's] work", the editorial review says.

Well, that's probably because Robert Cray's bland and watered-down take on the blues is so far removed from the sweaty, swaggering power of Muddy Waters and the intensity of Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James that it barely qualifies as blues.

I have hundreds of blues records (I really have no idea excactly how many), but I never made it all the way through this album. It all sounds so slick and so similar, more like the kind of pop that some people have the audacity to call "soul" than actual blues.

Well, I'm probably being unfair (no, I'm not). But I just have to warn people who associate the word "blues" with men like Robert Johnson and Son House that this ain't it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction.
I think this is a great cd and an excellent introduction to Robert Cray.
What I like about him is not just his ability to play but also he has a very good voice and range of... Read more
Published on 21 Jul 2007 by RUEBEN AMOS RUNACRE

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