Robert Cray contributed a revelatory "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" to Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, the filmed tribute to Chuck Berry, a bluesman who smelled the American dream and turned to rock & roll. Cray, however, remains a purist, and he has never much strayed from the combination of smooth urban blues and soft but propulsive soul that's made him one of the few blues acts to enjoy sustained major-label backing. As it has turned out, Cray has never caught the mass ear as fully as he did with his single "Smoking Gun" (1986), although it's not for lack of tinkering. The relaxed atmosphere of Shame + a Sin, for which Cray handled the production and wrote most of the songs without collaboration, presumes that calculation isn't going to get Cray further than relying on his own best instincts.

The highlights on Shame capture everything that's great about Cray. "Some Pain, Some Shame" offers a gnarly guitar riff that shreds the line between the blues and hard rock. It's significant, though, that Cray's restrained production and guitar tone take few liberties with a tune that, in more aggressive hands, could make ears bleed. But Cray's more of a lover than a fighter, and on "Shiver" he generates sensual heat by playing a tender vocal off choppy keyboards and an insistent drum pattern and by serving up an equally horny guitar solo. Throughout the album, Cray makes good use of a streamlined horn section, using the tenor sax and trumpet as a dramatic counterpoint in "Leave Well Enough Alone" and adding simple, keyboardlike lines to the plaintive ballad "Don't Break This Ring."

These peaks are unfortunately diminished by songs that, ironically, are either a touch too familiar or are trying too hard to be novel. "1040 Blues" finds Cray roughing up his voice by singing through what sounds like a megaphone. Similarly, "Stay Go" means to be funky but is closer to clunky. That many of the undeniably fine performances on Shame + a Sin still seem slight is the price a traditionalist pays for playing to a pop world that celebrates the new. Cray may be realizing, however, that it might be less important for blues musicians to change than to just dig in deeper. (RS 669)

JOHN MILWARD