Larry McCray

If the future of contemporary blues in the twenty-first century remains secure, guitarist Larry McCray is poised to keep shaping its course. From his opening release, the 1990 album Ambition, onward into the new century, McCray has demonstrated both loyalty to established forms and an eagerness to steer the music toward fresh possibilities.

His earliest guitar inspiration came from his sister Clara, who led the Rockets on regional tours throughout Arkansas. Though she never captured her Freddie King-styled blues on record, her younger brother has helped fill that gap. In 1972 Larry joined Clara in Saginaw, Michigan, where she introduced him to the three Kings—B.B., Freddie, and Albert—along with Albert Collins and Magic Sam. He then incorporated searing rock phrasing drawn from Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers while performing locally alongside brothers Carl on bass and Steve on drums.

After high school, assembly-line work at General Motors claimed most of Larry McCray’s hours, yet he still carved out time to record Ambition for Point Blank inside a friend’s basement studio in Detroit. The striking debut fused blues, rock, and soul into an electrifying whole. Almost immediately the robust guitarist began sharing stages with labelmate Albert Collins. His 1993 Point Blank follow-up, Delta Hurricane, arrived as a more polished production overseen by British blues specialist Mike Vernon, an approach McCray favored over his earlier home-recorded effort. Subsequent releases included Meet Me at the Lake in 1996 and Born to Play the Blues in 1998. Into the 2000s he stayed active with the 2001 albums Believe It and Blues Is My Business, the 2006 live recording Live on Interstate 75—his first concert album, captured in Detroit—and the self-titled Larry McCray in 2007.