Chords for Robert Cray - Interview UK July 2010

[Eb] Robert Cray knows guitars like the back of his hand.
His distinctive blues sound has led to collaborations
with legends like BB King, Tina Turner, and Eric Clapton.
Robert has received five Grammy Awards
and his new album, which is called Cooking in Mobile,
which is in Alabama, is out later this month.
Robert's here.
Morning.
Morning.
Nice to see you.
Thank you very much.
[Ab] First, we're gonna have a little listen to your [Em] album.
Okay.
Here we go. _ _
♪ I [D] _ [G] [Em] set a constant busy signal ♪
♪ And I call you on the phone ♪
♪ Get a strong uneasy feeling ♪
♪ You're not sitting there alone ♪
♪ _ [Am] _ Nasty, nasty vision _ ♪
[Ab] _ _ [G] ♪ _
[F] _ _ [Eb] _ Soon as the [Dm] sweat _ [C] begins to dry [F] ♪
[Eb] _ ♪ And you begin [Dm] to forget [Cm] why you [F] came [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
[Cm] _ _ _ _ [E] ♪
[G] ♪ [Gb] _ [Gm] _ [Bb] You can come by [Eb] _ _
[Bb] late [Eb] [C] at night, [Bb] _ _ _
[Db] [Gm] anytime _ ♪
_ ♪ [Bb] I'm around [Eb] here _ [Bb] early in the [C] morning, _ [Gm] _ anytime ♪
Yeah, [Ab] well, sit down, Brett.
We're just talking to Robert about,
that's the DVD that accompanies the _ CD, isn't it?
The CD, yes, right.
Cooking in Mobile.
So it was all done live?
It's all done live, yeah.
The audience were very quiet and respectful, weren't they?
The audience were quiet, but it's a sit-down theater,
so they _ respond after the songs are over.
_ Why did you choose Mobile?
Because the only other musical reference
I remember from Mobile is,
was it Bob Dylan to be stuck inside of _ Mobile
with the Memphis Blues again? _ _
I don't know about the Bob Dylan thing,
but _ _ _
[Fm] we did it because it's a nice venue,
the Sanger Theater in Mobile, [Eb] Alabama.
It's an old classic.
_ Part of the _ _ theater is on the front cover,
and it's just a really nice old venue.
When did you first pick up a musical instrument
and think, this is what I want to do?
Well, I picked up the guitar when I was 12 years old,
and it was [Ab] because of the Beatles.
Oh, was it?
I wanted to be like George Harrison.
Really?
And that was in the mid-60s,
and when I got a guitar, I just kept playing.
I never really [Eb] quit.
So?
And your favorite guitars are?
Fender Stratocaster.
_ [Ab] Why do you get a different sound from that than other,
I mean, just to a novice who knows nothing about guitars,
why is that the key guitar to play on?
Well, [C] it's what I like.
[Fm] I like it because it's just a [Ab] basic workhorse of a guitar,
no frills.
_ And _ there's a lot of people
that play the Stratocaster, obviously,
but it all depends on the way you handle it,
how you touch it.
It gives you your own distinct style and sound.
Fundamental divide, isn't there,
in the electric guitar world?
I'm speaking as a complete novice here.
You've got the Stratocaster, the Fender,
and is it the [Cm] Gibson or is it the Les Paul?
Gibson is the rivalry, yeah.
We're getting very technical now.
We're talking about various_
Hendrix had a Stratocaster, didn't he?
And he was a big influence on you?
Hendrix was, and actually, I lived in Tacoma, Washington,
for the longest time, which is near Seattle.
And I got to see Jimmy a couple of times, yeah.
I did, yeah.
Before he went to_
Before he moved over here?
No, after he came here, yeah.
[Ab] A lot of the reviews that I've read have said
you've got a very distinctive style,
that you tend to mix lots of different styles together.
Right, we do.
You do?
Do you think you have created something
out of the ordinary?
[Eb] Well, I think we've added to what _
_ _ is everybody's perception of what the [Ab] band is.
People _ like to say that we're a blues band,
but we incorporate _ rock, we incorporate blues,
a little gospel, a little bit of jazz,
and that kind of thing into our music. _ _
I don't know when you got_
When did you get into the country?
How long ago? _
Just a week.
Just a week, okay.
Just actually when catching our World Cup _ hangover.
Right.
Perhaps for your tour, you _ should_
People would appreciate it if you wrote a song
singing [N] about the World Cup blues.
_ As an American, too, because_
Well, we went out before Britain did, so, yeah. _
No.
_ _ It's not that bad.
It's only a game.
I woke up this morning and my side had lost again.
So _ what are you doing [Am] in the UK?
How [Eb] many days a week? _
Well, we've been to_
We started in Belfast.
We went to Liverpool, Leicester, _ _ Norwich, [N] _ and Brighton.
Wow, so you've done quite a full [Ab] tour, really.
We'll do [Cm] London, we'll do Manchester, _ _ _ Cambridge.
Do British audiences react [D] differently to your music
from those elsewhere in the world, particularly in [Eb] America? _ _ _ _
The [Ab] _ _ reaction, I think, is _ attributed to
a little bit more knowledge about our music here.
Really?
_ _ Than in the States.
And it started_
We know more about blues here than they do in the States?
I think that people pay more attention to blues music here
than _ they do possibly in the States,
because I know that we were more successful here in Britain
than we were in the States [Eb] earlier on.
Oh, that's interesting.
We've obviously had a successful tour so far.
You've enjoyed it, very [N] busy.
Yeah, it's good, yeah.
So how much longer have you got?
Until the 17th.
Okay, all right.
Well, enjoy it.
Thank you very much for coming on.
And thanks for paying us, Brits, the compliment
of knowing more about the blues than the people_
Than the Americans.
_read
the blues. Yeah,