The Robert Cray Band Nothin but Love LP (Light Blue Vinyl)

Nothin but Love is the sixteenth studio album, and his first on Provogue, for the 5x Grammy winner, 15x Grammy nominee and multi-platinum-selling artist Robert Cray.

Produced by Kevin "The Caveman" Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart), Nothin but Love captures Cray at his finest with an outstanding 10-song collection that showcases his trademark guitar playing and his extraordinary vocals.

Lyrically detailed story ballads about the trials and tribulations of love, with an emphasis on broken relationships, remain [Cray's] strong suit...Yet there are enough change-ups and excellent songs here to keep the pace varied. Horns that Cray hasn't utilized in a while make a welcome appearance on a few key tunes...A little Chuck Berry rocking in the snappy and humorous 'Side Dish' shows that this band can crank up the energy when the occasion calls for it.... But the album's emotional and philosophical centerpiece is the nearly nine-minute 'I'm Done Cryin'.' This searing, contemporary portrait is of a male protagonist who has lost his home and his job to outsourcing but retains his dignity 'because I'm still a man.' Shirley adds understated but beautifully arranged strings to emphasize the sheer desperation of the situation then strips them away, leaving just Cray's soulful voice. Add one of the guitarist's patented terse, quivering solos that feels like a crying vocal, and you get a tour de force track that is one of the highlights of Cray's bulging catalog. And with 15 previous albums, that's saying plenty....Even if the guitarist has worked this terrain plenty of times before, he is still refining and even improving the template. That makes this another quality entry in a catalog of albums over a three-decade-and-counting-year career that has remarkably few weak spots.