Soul Survivor

Robert Cray has always leaned in the direction of soul music. On his latest record, he's fallen in that direction head first.

The five-time Grammy Award winner released my soul "In My Soul" in April of this year. On the album, he covers icons such as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes in addition to performing several soul-oriented originals.

"I'm a big fan (of soul)," says Cray by phone from his home in Southern California. "But we've never really jumped in."

The idea this time came from a renewed partnership with Steve Jordan, a producer who has worked with artists such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and BB King, among many others. Jordan also toured in the John Mayer Trio and worked with him on several albums.

Cray and Jordan collaborated on "Take Your Shoes Off," the 1999 album that earned Cray a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album and Jordan one for his production work on the same release.

Jordan requested Cray try the Redding cover "Nobody's Fault But Mine." At the same time, when Cray assembled his band to start work on a new record, his collaborators also were independently looking at soul-style songs. The Robert Cray Band's tour in support of the record will take them across this country and to Europe later this fall, but not before a stop in Eureka Springs on Saturday night. The 8 p.m. concert at The Auditorium will featuring an opening set by the Oklahoma-based Steve Pryor Band.

"In My Soul" is the most recent album of Cray's 40-year career, so it remains a point of focus during live events like the one in Arkansas. But he's certainly not forgotten the blues, and he promises many fan favorites will find their way into his set list, too.

There are plenty from which to choose.

Cray got his start when blues great Albert Collins needed a backing band for a series of European shows. Cray and his band were at the club already, he told Rolling Stone magazine, and they took the gig. That gave them some instant credibility, but it wasn't until the mid-1980s that a series of albums including the Grammy-winning "Strong Persuader" that he found mainstream success. He's widely considered one of the blues world's best guitarists, and he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 at the relatively young age of 57.

The same backing band that recorded the album "In My Soul" also tours with him, and it involves many longtime musical partners. Bassist Richard Cousins joined the Robert Cray Band in 1979. He left the group in 1991 but rejoined in 2007. That's similar to the experience of keyboard player Dover Weinberg, who was in the band from 1974-1979 and then rejoined recently. The quartet is rounded out by Les Falconer, who joined the band in 2013.

Cray says the quartet will record a live album in December after the band returns from the European dates.