Larry McCray

Larry McCray has been touted as a “promising young blues voice” for more than a decade (which, knowing the blues, probably puts him in his mid-to-late thirties). McCray has one of those huge, commanding voices somewhere between the gruffness of Bobby “Blue” Bland and the smooth facility of Robert Cray. He scrapes sudden bass depths, then his pipes crack when the woe takes him low. His guitar work on his trademark Gibson Flying V is just as authoritative, adding a layer of rock’s explosiveness to his soulful take on the blues. Twelve years into his career, it’s more accurate to classify McCray as an established blues voice; the next step on his way into the blues canon is legendary. Give him another decade, and he’s bound to nail that milestone, too.