Search - Dobie Gray :: Complete Dobie Gray

"Gimme the beat, boys, and free my soul / I wanna get lost in your rock and roll / And drift away?"


Immediately recognizable. What a voice: velvet over sandpaper, 100% barrel-aged. In a recording career that spans more than four decades, Dobie Gray's body of music embraces and crosses stylistic boundaries with organic ease.



Not only is Dobie one of the few artists to have scored hits on the Pop, R&B, and Country charts, but also one of the tiny handful of African-Americans to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. As a songwriter, Gray has seen his compositions cut by such wide-ranging admirers as Ray Charles, John Denver, Etta James, Julio Iglesias, and George Jones.



What do they know that you don't? We've captured the essence of that answer here, on four dobies that encompass the seven albums Dobie Gray released between 1973 and 1979. Also included are a smattering of late-'60s tracks that prefigure his evolution from straight R&B to the more personal direction he'd pursue in the '70s. In addition to demonstrating that his eclectic, rootsy musical vision was considerably ahead of its time, the collection shows that, regardless of genre, Gray routinely invests his performances with emotional commitment and down-home eloquence. If, of course, anything that superb could be referred to as "routine."