| Who's Been Talkin' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1980 | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Label | Tomato [1] | |||
| Producer | Bruce Bromberg, Dennis Walker | |||
| The Robert Cray Band chronology | ||||
| ||||
Who's Been Talkin' is the first album by the Robert Cray Band, released in 1980. [2] [3] It received little initial notice due to Tomato Records' bankruptcy. [3] It has been rereleased a couple of times, including under the title Too Many Cooks. [2]
Produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, the album was recorded in two sessions. [4] [5] [6] Cray wrote four of its songs. [7] "Too Many Cooks" is a cover of the Willie Dixon song. [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Robert Christgau | B [10] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [1] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | [11] |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [12] |
| Q | [13] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [14] |
Robert Christgau wrote: "Cray can recite his catechism without kowtowing to orthodoxy--guitar like Albert Collins only chillier and more staccato, voice like B.B. King only cleaner and, well, thinner." [10] The New York Times , in a review praising the artistic growth of Cray's Strong Persuader , from 1986, thought that his first three albums "variously recalled the Stax/Volt and Atlantic soul sounds, big-city funk, and bar band rock-and-roll." [15]
The Globe and Mail commended "the winning confidence, the cool reserve, the sense of pure style and the respectful curiosity about the blues tradition." [16] The Toronto Star thought that "even as a young and impressionable guitarist, Cray had amazing strength and versatility, and no appreciation of his work would be complete without this excellent album." [17]
The Rough Guide to Rock called the album "raw and teeming with promise." [6]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Too Many Cooks (by Willie Dixon)" | 2:49 |
| 2. | "The Score" | 4:06 |
| 3. | "The Welfare (Turns Its Back on You) (by Lucious Weaver, Sonny Thompson)" | 3:19 |
| 4. | "That's What I'll Do" | 2:37 |
| 5. | "I'd Rather Be a Wino" | 4:49 |
| 6. | "Who's Been Talkin' (by Chester Burnett)" | 3:45 |
| 7. | "Sleeping in the Ground (by Sam Myers)" | 3:19 |
| 8. | "I'm Gonna Forget About You (by O.V. Wright)" | 3:10 |
| 9. | "Nice as a Fool Can Be" | 3:14 |
| 10. | "If You're Thinkin' What I'm Thinkin'" | 4:26 |
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Robert William Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards.
Strong Persuader is the fifth studio album by American blues 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 and Hightone Records. 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's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 80's.
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Royal Garden Blues is an album by the American saxophonist Branford Marsalis, released in 1986. Marsalis promoted it with a North American tour.
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