This Was Cray-Cray
Early last month I indicated my desire to cover a particular Robert Cray tune. My brother and one of my readers helped me figure it out, and I watched the performance video pretty carefully to get a sense of how Robert plays these rather unusual chord voicings.
Of course, we couldn't just start with the song, that would have been too simple. The opening acapella is from "Cursed Male":
This seemed like a good idea at the time. It's one of Patrick's favorite songs, and one of mine. When I first bought my 911, shortly after my thirtieth birthday, I'd drive around and feel very smug about myself. I'm no longer feeling smug.
Obviously this is an imperfect performance of the song but have some mercy on me --- this is not a hard song to play, but it's a hard song for me to play and sing at the same time. I can do either pretty well but combining the two and playing chords that only Robert uses is a hassle. Also, I forget to put the pickup selector switch in the correct position until the second verse. Hey, if you want perfect stuff, watch a 12-year-old Japanese kid play it or something.
Equipment used: Patrick's playing my new Fodera Yin-Yang. He is now a convert to the Fodera religion. I'm playing a Robert Cray Signature Stratocaster that a friend of ours rewired with Vintage Vibes pickups and an inexcusable pearloid pickguard through a Red Witch Pentavocal Tremolo, Spaceman Saturn V, and Two-Rock Gain Master 35 combo.
With a few more run-throughs we'd have gotten it as perfect as we could, but where's the fun in that? The important part is to play the music and enjoy it, right?