A Conversation with Robert Cray (continued)

PM: I too have had the pleasure of working with [engineer/producer extraordinaire] Mark Needham in the studio. That cat's a real artist.

RC: You bet he is.

PM: How about a few words on him?

RC: Well, Mark is like the third producer. Jim and I would sit there and we'd come up with ideas, but Mark would translate everything. And then we would let Mark have free reign on what he wanted to do with stuff, most all the time, in the sense of mixing things together.

PM: Oh, I think that's a beautiful way to do a record, because everybody really gets to be who they are and bring the most to the table.

RC: I mean, most guys at an engineering desk produce records too.

PM: Right.

RC: That's common knowledge in the studio. And so Mark was right there.

PM: He's been on a lot of big records, now, too.

RC: Yeah.

PM: I was surprised to see my old friend Bobby Vega credited for VuduBass Tone on "Spirits of Love," along with Kirkwood Rough.

RC: [laughs]

PM: What was that about?

RC: I don't know. Karl [Sevareid, Cray's bassist for many years] had some kind of thing that he got from Bobby.

PM: Was it about those two little Fender Deluxe amps in stereo?

RC: Yeah, I think that's what it was.

PM: Oh, yeah! Because we've done that together too, that's an amazing sound, there. I think Mike Bendinelli at MESA/Boogie hopped up these two little Deluxes in some way and he gets them out of phase in stereo or something like that. But it was a great tone, whatever the hell it was.

RC: Yeah.

PM: So let's talk gear here for a minute. As far as amplifiers on stage, it looked like it was Matchless Amps and the Fender Vibro-King, is that right?

RC: Yes, that's true. And that's certain songs--it was like two or three songs I used the Vibro-King on, and the rest with the Matchless.

PM: That Vibro-King is amazing.

RC: It is, man. I just got it not too long ago, and it's a completely different sound.

PM: Yeah, they're pricey, but I mean, that reverb, wow! [laughs] Aside from the Magnatone I heard that you used in "Up in the Sky," what amps did you use in the studio?

RC: I did use the Matchless. We were able to get around the noise of the Class A circuit.

PM: Yeah, right. It's a buzz.

RC: And I got a really nice, really ripe sounding old Blackface Super Reverb.

PM: There's just nothing like a Super.

RC: And this one just started acting right.

PM: [laughs]

RC: And actually Jim played through it, and it scared the hell out of me, because he was playing that Clavinet with the Echoplex on "Distant Shore"--

PM: Uh-oh!

RC: --so I said, "Be careful with that thing... Don't you mess my amp up," you know. But he was careful.

PM: Oh, yeah, you don't want to see a Clav plugged into your guitar amp.

[laughter]

RC: No way. But I use the Super Reverb. I use the Magnatone. I use the Matchless, and Vibro-King. And there was a couple different Magnatones, the 260 and the 280. continue

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