Finding Connecticut

The Garde Arts Center is proud to share that The Robert Cray Band will perform at the Garde Theater at 325 State Street in New London on Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 7:00 p.m with Special Guest: Vance Gilbert. Tickets are $39-$95 and are available here.

Since 1974, The Robert Cray Band has been touring and recording their unique groove, born from a love of Soul, R&B, Gospel, Blues and Rock n Roll.
The five-time Grammy winner has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and earned the Americana Music Awards Lifetime Achievement for Performance.“Having had the opportunity to play with some of our heroes was more than we could have ever imagined,” says Robert.  “Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and the big stages with The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, and Eric Clapton.”Cray’s producer Steve Jordan adds, “People gravitate to his guitar playing first, but I think he’s one of the best singers I’ve heard in my life.”

The Robert Cray Band has released over twenty acclaimed albums and has sold millions worldwide.  “The Band continues with the same enthusiasm and joy in what we do, and no matter the accolades,” says Robert.   “Today is all that matters!”

“If Joni Mitchell and Richie Havens had a love child, with Rodney Dangerfield as the midwife, the results might be something close to the great Vance Gilbert“, says Richmond Magazine.

30 years into his career, the songwriter’s influence can be felt all over the contemporary Folk and Americana realm as he has helped pave the way for many of the BIPOC artists who have followed.

Vance was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. Starting out hoping to be an R&B and jazz singer once at college, there he discovered his affinity for the storytelling sensibilities of the acoustic singer-songwriter thing. Word spread like wildfire about Gilbert’s stage-owning singing and playing, and Shawn Colvin invited him to be special guest on her 1992 Fat City tour where he took much of America by storm and by surprise. “With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god..” wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.