112 – Larry McCray – Larry McCray

Hear Larry McCray talk about his self titled CD Larry McCray. If you like Albert King you will love Larry McCray.
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This record of Larry McCray’s came out in August of 2007. Normally I don’t do a show on a record this old but after hearing it there was no way I could wait till Larry puts out another record to do a show on him. Even though this is his seventh record it is simply titled Larry McCray. As Larry says in the show after hearing the three Kings and Albert Collins he just wanted to learn more more and more about playing the guitar. He then started listening to every Blues artist he could find.

Larry’s voice is solid and full of emotion as is his guitar playing. The band is just Larry on guitar and vocals, Noel Neal on bass, Steve McCray on drums and backing vocals and Tony Z. on keyboards. I was surprised because it sounds like a bigger band than what it really is. The lead off track “Run” is a good hard hitting song. “Get My Blue’s On” is more of a R&B song with a bit of a reggae sound mostly due to Larry’s use of the wah-wah pedal on the guitar. Larry does some fine soloing on “Don’t Need No Woman”. “Broken Promise” and “No More” are both in the show so you’ll hear those. Then comes “Big Black Hole”, this was one of the songs I really had trouble leaving out of the show. It’s a good hard-hitting tough song with Larry giving a good emotional performance. “Buck Naked” is an instrumental that works well at showing of Larry’s guitar abilities. It also has some nice keyboard accompaniment from time to time. “Really Knock Me Out” has more of a funky sound with Larry working good leads over a wah-wah rhythm.

Some artists tend to do their guitar solos out in front of everything to be noticed. Larry tends to mix it in with the music more. You’re listening to the songs as a whole and he is just one part of the song. This is not to say he does not have a lot of solos on this record he most certainly does but they are not in your face they are a very important part of the whole song.

The night I saw Larry McCray play he had a different band than on this record but this didn’t matter at all because they were great. The bass player (sorry I don’t remember his name) used a five string bass and was as much fun to watch as Larry was. He was all over that bass laying down some great sounds. The keyboard player was real new to the band and the bass player would give him cues as to when changes were coming up. All the time Larry is standing in front pouring out waves of great guitar licks. If you never saw Albert King or would like to see him again, and who wouldn’t. This is one of closest chances you will ever get. This show went over so good that a few weeks later Larry McCray was asked to come back and be one of headlining acts at the Big Muddy Blues Festival. Please get out and see Larry McCray in concert, it will well be worth your time and until then buy his CD Larry McCray.

If you like the show please go to iTunes store type in A1Blues.Com and write a revue for the show.