I discovered Larry McCray years ago when I was working at the Virgin record company office in Beverley Hills, CA in the 90’s. Virgin had a blues imprint called Point Blank featuring all of these great blues artists and up and coming ones like Larry McCray. They released his second album called “Delta Hurricane” and I remember really liking the album and Larry’s playing. So, when I eventually opened my own record imprint BHP Music-Guitar Trax Records years later, I immediately contacted Larry to do a song for one of our compilations. After a couple of months, he sent me the song Buck Naked, his manager told me you won’t be disappointed, and he was damn right! I loved Buck Naked so much that I put it on the Guitar Masters Series 4 release.
I just worked with Larry again on an exciting new project and had him guest solo on a track. He told me when he was a kid, he lived with his older sister for a while, and she turned him on to the guitar. His brothers were also musicians, one playing the drums and the other bass guitar which made a perfect band scenario. He has a great story, after high school he went to work in the auto industry at General Motors’ Saginaw plant. With his two his brothers as rhythm section he continued to fight for his musical career by getting sympathetic and supportive co-workers to cover for him when his gigs conflicted with shifts on the line. It was during this time he was signed to Point Blank records and released his first album “Ambition”. He became an instant blues sensation worldwide with his great blues riffs. Larry is the recipient of the Orville H. Gibson Male Blues Guitarist of the Year award as well as the Top Guitarist prize in International Blues Matters’ 2014 writer’s poll.
you can learn more about Larry here