Robert Cray has never equaled the commercial heights he reached with
1986’s classic Strong Persuader. One of the decade’s most well-crafted
and soulful song cycles and one of the few legitimate crossover blues records
of the last couple of decades, Strong Persuader would be hard for
anyone to top. But in the decade and a half since that peak, the California-
based triple threat (writer/guitarist/singer) has built a legacy that makes
him one of his era’s signal blues artists. Two steps from the blues in the
Bobby Bland tradition (meaning two steps in the direction of Southern soul
music), Cray’s style is consistent and consistently rewarding. His latest,
Shoulda Been Home, is a nod to Memphis soul, and this week Cray will be
in the city performing on Monday, September 3rd, at the Memphis Botanic
Garden. Opening act and local blues phenom Alvin Youngblood Hart’s take on the
music is as wide-ranging as Cray’s is tightly focused, but the two should make
for a fine double bill.
On Saturday, September 1st, Shangri-La Records will celebrate the release
of Playing For a Piece of the Door: A History of Memphis Garage and Frat
Bands in Memphis, 1960-1975, a book that comes with a companion CD.
The release concert will reunite several prominent local garage-rock bands of
the era, with currently scheduled performers including Jim Dickinson and
The Catmandu Quartet, The Guilloteens, The Rapscallions,
The Castels, The Coachmen, and B.B. Cunningham of the
Hombres. Show begins at 3 p.m. at Shangri-La.
— Chris Herrington
Could I be more excited about a double bill of local musicians? No, I
could not. Automusik, that digitized trio of rockin’ robots, will be
opening for Shelby Bryant (the musical mad scientist who invented
Cloud Wow Music) at the Hi-Tone CafÇ on Friday, August 31st.
For those who have spun Automusik’s disc The Statistical
Probability of Automusik and found it wanting, all I can do is say, “See
them live!!!” That’s right, three exclamation points — count ’em. Their
winking Kraftwerk-meets-agitprop-meets-Samuel Beckett take on everything from
hardware to babies to beach parties is the most innovative and interesting
thing to appear on the Memphis scene in the last couple of decades. The
digital animation that syncs up perfectly with Automusik’s onstage antics is
brilliant, amazingly funny, and surprisingly insightful and self-aware. Who
knew that a flat affect could be so exciting? Bryant (the key player at the
gates of dawn?) is an off-kilter wordsmith whose best work can stand up
against Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. He has built himself a cozy musical
home in a sweetly psychedelic landscape where J.S. Bach has secret midnight
rendezvous with Syd Barrett. Bryant plays so seldomly that missing even one
performance is a crime.
An early heads-up for fans of American Deathray Music
(formerly Deathray, formerly American Deathray). Those glam-punks will be
having a record-release party on Friday, Sept 7th, at 2282 Park Ave. More to
come on this highly anticipated event next week. — Chris Davis
