Being a working professional musician I am always looking for music that is true and inspiring. Regardless of if you are a blues fan or not, Robert Cray is one of the best performers out there in any genre. His recent work (Midnight Stroll and newer) leans more towards soul than traditional blues. The subject matter is your typical "she done me wrong" blues cannon but he sells it like it should be sold. It's completely genuine. He's an incomparable vocalist who sings like a bird. His guitar playing, while on the surface seeming simple, portrays exactly the proper "feeling" for the arrangement and song. His playing is a statement; emotionally mature and marked by brevity. It does what music is supposed to do, express feelings that words cannot. It doesn't suffer from the continuous, spaceless, blues-chops-heavy solos that most post-SRV blues players suffer from. This isn't music for chops-meisters. I've seen his live show and it's better live. Great guitar tone, super solid band, it's one of the best shows you'll see. If you're a fan of the groove and soul music check it out.

I was playing this in the office today and my coworker asked, "Is that Al Green?" And it hit me: this record, which I had been sniffing at for the last nine months for being "soft," was actually an amazing recreation of those great '60s soul records that many of us have grown up loving. But these are all new, mostly original, and all tight.

Frankly, I admire Robert Cray for having made this record. It must have taken guts to step away from the electric-blues style that he came up with, but is woodshedding with Albert Collins really all there is to being a successful bluesman in the late 1990s? "Take Your Shoes Off" is a record that you can listen to over and over again and keep appreciating.

If you love that '60s sound, and want something made today with the same vibe, "Take Your Shoes Off" is for you.

Many 'blues purists' (which to me is just a term for an elitist that wants to hear the same exact thing over and over again rather than give something else an objective listen) detract from Cray's work because of its general appeal in comparison to other Blues legends. I think this is silly. His music is great, and he plays a wonderful axe. This album is probably the most 'Soulful' of his albums, but it has some great traditional blues themes and motives.

At first listen, I wasn't really into this CD. I was questioning where did the great guitar work get off to. But then I did what the title said and took my shoes off, kicked back and relaxed. Wow, amazing. The more I listened, the more it reached out to me. Much praise to 'Young Bob' for sharing this mellow, soulful work.

This is the middle of a trio of great CDs I have from Robert Cray (the others: Sweet Potato Pie and Shoulda Been Home). Cray's songs, voice, guitar, and the band are full of soul. The songs are about relationships--some happy, mostly sad--written from a man's perspective. They're honest songs, touching real emotions.

This CD is full of tight, sparse playing and arrangements. The tempo is generally laid back, hence, perhaps, the title. But it's not slow.

The standout songs are "(I'll be your) 24-7 Man" which swings
like mad; "(Grant him a) Pardon" about a guy who's never quite recovered from a lost love; and "Let Me Know (Love, was it that bad?)," with its awesome 'crying to the sky' guitar solo.

If you like the Memphis sound and the Stax records that came out in the 60s, Cray is the one artist I know carrying on that tradition. And he does it in a contemporary fashion without losing any of the feeling.