''Strong Persuader'' is the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer and guitarist

Robert Cray Robert William Cray (born August 1, 1953) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards. Early life Robert Cray was born on August 1, 1953, in Columbus, Georgia, while his father was statione ...

. It was recorded by Cray at the Los Angeles studios Sage & Sound and Haywood's with producers

Bruce Bromberg Bruce Bromberg (October 31, 1941 - December 27, 2021) was an American Grammy Award winning producer of blues music. He was born in Chicago, and raised there and in Park Forest, Illinois. In 1958 he moved with his family to Los Angeles, and beg ...

and Dennis Walker, before being released on November 17, 1986, by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

and

Hightone Records HighTone Records was an American independent record label based in Oakland, California, United States. HighTone specialized in American roots music including, country, rockabilly, western swing, blues and gospel. The label was created by Larry ...

. ''Strong Persuader'' became his mainstream breakthrough and by 1995 it had sold over two million copies. The record was later ranked #42 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 80's.

Critical reception

''Strong Persuader'' received rave reviews from contemporary critics. In a review for ''

'',

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

from ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' praised Cray's sophisticated blues aesthetic and the songwriting of his supporting studio team, hailing ''Strong Persuader'' as "the best blues record in many, many years, so fervently crafted that it may even get what it deserves and become the first album to break out of the genre's sales ghetto since

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

was a hot item." At the end of 1986, ''Strong Persuader'' was voted the third best album of the year in the

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

, an annual poll of American critics published by ''The Village Voice''. Christgau, the poll's supervisor, ranked it fourth on his own year-end list. In a retrospective review,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Bill Dahl said "it was ray'sinnovative expansion of the genre itself that makes this album a genuine 1980s classic."

Track listing

Smoking Gun The term "smoking gun" is a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act, just short of being caught ''in flagrante delicto''. "Smoking gun" refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence ...

" ( David Amy, Richard Cousins, Robert Cray) – 4:07 #"I Guess I Showed Her" (Dennis Walker) – 3:39 #"Right Next Door (Because of Me)" (Dennis Walker) – 4:19 #"Nothin' But a Woman" (David Amy, Cousins, Cray, Peter Boe, David Olson) – 3:58 #"Still Around" (Peter Boe) – 3:42 #"More Than I Can Stand" (Cray) – 2:57 #"Foul Play" (Dennis Walker) – 4:07 #"I Wonder" (Cray) – 3:57 #"Fantasized" (Dennis Walker) – 4:04 #"New Blood" (David Amy, Peter Boe, Cray, Ozall Washington) – 4:21

Personnel

* Fidel Bell – mixing assistant * Charlie Brocco – mixing assistant * Peter Boe – keyboards *

– producer (songwriting credit: David Amy) * Richard Cousins – bass *

– main performer, guitar, vocals * David Olson – drums * Lee Spath – percussion * Andrew Love – tenor saxophone * Wayne Jackson – trumpet, trombone

Singles

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1986 albums Robert Cray albums Mercury Records albums Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album