Larry McCray – Better Days

A promising blues guitarist in the early 1990s, Larry McCray spent the past 20 years in the wilderness. Thanks to a restart and a new album, Blues Without You, his future looks brighter than ever.

- By Mark McStea

LARRY McCRAY’S NEW album, Blues Without You, is his first record of original material since 2007. McCray burst onto the scene as a major new voice in blues guitar way back in 1991, with the release of his debut album, Ambition, followed two years later by Delta Hurricane. It looked like he was destined for the sort of mainstream crossover appeal enjoyed by the likes of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but his blues train started to derail. By 2001, without a record deal, McCray was releasing his music on his own label. He’d resigned himself to the possibility that his major-label days were behind him, when Joe Bonamassa called to ask if he’d record for Bonamasssa’s label, KTBA (Keeping the Blues Alive).

The result is Blues Without You, not only McCray’s career-best record but also one of the strongest blues albums released for many years. Indeed, it is hard to imagine that there will be a better blues record released in 2022. McCray presents the same kind of two-fisted combo that made giants like B.B. and Freddie King such formidable artists, with not only the ability to play blisteringly effective solos but also a voice that can rival the best blues singers from any bygone age. McCray’s soloing is both fluid and visceral; he is unafraid to hang on to a couple of notes until every last drop of emotion and soul has been wrung from them.