In the 1980s, two key figures in blues did much to restore interest in a music that, for the most part, lived only on old records. Most contemporary blues acts seemed content to mimic the greats, or, worse again, simply indulge in endless boring 12-bar jams - often sterile stuff that did little justice to the music itself.
Then along came the two saviours. First, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who appealed to the rock contingent with music that was both noisy and subtle - rock, certainly, but definitely blues. And then Robert Cray, a sophisticated blues player who turned all his influences into a credible adult pop. With the voice of a southern soul singer and the guitar of Albert Collins, Cray had a groove that liberated blues from the turgid 12-bar thrash. And while it was too sweet for some, it reminded the blues fraternity that innovation was not just possible, but necessary.
"I think every generation of blues people had different things in their backgrounds," says Cray. "If you go back to Robert Johnson's days, of course he listened to a lot of people who inspired him to play the blues, but there's that one song, called They're Red Hot, and what is that? Back in the '60s I was listening to all the Stax stuff and, of course, everything that was on the radio - The Beatles, everything.
"So while I started getting into blues right before the end of high school, at the same time I couldn't deny Otis Redding and Sam &Dave and how funky all that stuff was. So in our early days we were playing everything from Elmore James and Bobby Bland to James Brown and Al Green."
Cray was born in Columbus, Georgia, in 1953. Being an army brat he spent some time in Germany before returning to the States, where he lived, for the most part, in Portland, Oregon. As a teenager, after hooking up with some like-minded friends, he spent his time learning guitar and exploring the hidden treasures of his father's record collection - a musical devotion that set young Cray and his pals apart from their contemporaries. In 1974, they set out to be blues musicians proper.
"I guess other kids were listening to rock'n'roll because a lot of them didn't like to listen to their parents' music. I think that still continues because the kids now listen to the hard hip-hop and all that stuff, but it was a whole different thing for us.
"My guitar-playing friends were my immediate friends and we were all in this together. We'd go to each others' houses after school and put on a B.B. King record and try to learn the song - and then move on to the next song. Our whole thing in music was playing what we wanted to play, so we played blues that we liked and we played the r'n'b , and much of Cray's style comes directly from that vital source. Soon, with the reputation of Cray's band growing, Robert found himself on stage with even more of his heroes - John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters - hugely important encounters for the younger man. Bringing him into direct contact with the living tradition, Cray was confirmed as part of a very long line.
"It was very important. For me, everything I knew about Muddy was from listening to his records and reading the books. But then I got that chance and I took every opportunity. We did six shows with him and I knocked on his dressingroom door the first evening and he invited me in and we sat and we talked. And after the show we sat and we talked some more - about how it was to work with Otis Spann and Little Walter.
"He invited me on stage to sing Mannish Boy every night and then, on the last of the shows, I played the full set with him. It was great. He talked about himself in the third person as 'that young Muddy Waters' and just to be in his presence, that meant a whole lot."
But Cray was not content to pursue a career of simply imitating his heroes - or backing them up when they came to town.
He was younger, he had been exposed to different musical influences, and he had things to say about his own life and times. In 1980, the Robert Cray Band released their first album, Who's Been Talkin', to great critical acclaim. The next couple of records brought him yet more praise and attention, but it wasn't until the Grammy award-winning Strong Persuader in 1986 that Cray began to get national recognition. His appeal translated into high-profile appearances with the likes of Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones - the same English blues revivalists of the 1960s who had, perhaps surprisingly, been essential listening for the teenage Robert Cray.
"Well, I didn't think about it that way. Their records made it over here and they got a lot of airplay. So yes, I listened to Peter Green and Eric Clapton. It was very important. I just thought they were cool for playing the music. They brought the music back to the fore. Nobody can fault anybody for that."
On the current album, Shoulda Been Home, Cray revisits another significant part of his teenage listening. Joined by Memphis musicians Andrew Love, Jack Hale and Ben Cauley, Cray returns to that familiar sound of Stax and southern soul. Elmore James's Cry For Me Baby will keep the straight-ahead blues fans happy, but this is a record full of old-school soul. Again, it's an album so clean, sweet and soulful that it probably won't appeal to those who prefer their music dirty, but Cray, for one, is a little tired of people 'Traditional' probably goes back to just playing acoustic guitars - just sitting there - but in the year 2001 how are you going to get to that point? With all the music that you hear going on around you, you can't. There's nobody that innocent any more.
"There's nothing wrong with doing a cover, but what's the point if you do a whole set and don't even deviate from the original? The hardest thing in the world is to make something happen out of that easy 'real thing' I can put a record on."
But with so many of the old guard gone, and only John Lee Hooker, BB King and a few others still around, it's all the more vital that thinking blues performers such as Cray are doing what they do. Yes, it's a sound that is a little to clean for some, but at least it's not a lazy pandering rehash for all those European blues fans with their silly hats and leather ties. And despite all the difficulties and the damage done, the music that Cray (and Stevie Ray Vaughan) did so much to re-invigorate in the 1980s is once again growing in strength.
"Well, it is changing somewhat. Black kids in the States are starting to discover the pleasures of other kinds of music on their own. I'm starting to see it at some of our shows. They are thinking for themselves and I'm talking to younger black kids and they are interested in playing the music."
And so Robert Cray continues doing what he does - bringing together the musics of his teenage years into a soulful, contemporary blues. Shoulda Been Home, recorded in Nashville and later in Willie Mitchell's studios in Memphis, is classic Cray, as once again he makes a record untouched by outside demands on what a "real" blues record should be. Working in that famous room where Al Green made his best recordings, Cray enjoyed making what he describes as the first record where he wasn't thinking too deeply about what it was. And he enjoys the further comfort of knowing that, like the best bluesmen, he can keep this up for as long as he likes. Perhaps he knows that while most ageing rock stars get more ridiculous by the day, bluesmen get more plausible by the decade.
"Well, they say you get better with age. And when you're singing about life you can only know more about it as you get older. And I guess you sing it better when you know what you're singing about."
Robert Cray plays Vicar Street in Dublin on June 28th.