''Strong Persuader'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

singer and guitarist Robert Cray. It was recorded by Cray at the Los Angeles studios Sage & Sound and Haywood's with producers Bruce Bromberg 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. Mercury Records released ...

and Hightone Records. ''Strong Persuader'' became his mainstream breakthrough and by 1995 it had sold over two million copies. The record was later ranked No. 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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''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 said Cray delivered intriguing stories about sex and infidelity with disciplined singing, songwriting, and "a version of blues and soul that doesn't come from any one region, building an idiom for songs that tell with conversational directness the stories of ordinary folks".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

from ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' 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 was a hot item." At the end of 1986, ''Strong Persuader'' was voted the third best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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" ( 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 * Bruce Bromberg – producer (songwriting credit: David Amy) * Richard Cousins – bass * Robert Cray – 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