Robert Cray Band at Neighborhood Theatre tonight (2/12/12)

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ROBERT CRAY BAND Critically derided as the Mitt Romney of rockin’ blues — a too perfect automaton with zero soul — Robert Cray has unfairly paid the price for his Grammy-fueled mega success in the ’80s and ’90s. With his radio play days long behind him, Cray should rightly get some love for his lyrical complexity, smooth soulful vocals and fiery-but-carefully-phrased guitar that recalls the stinging telecaster of mentor Albert Collins. Maybe he’s no longer the modern blues innovator he was in his heyday, but Cray proves that smooth and virtuosic doesn’t have to mean lazy and lugubrious. With Shane Pruitt Band. $30. Neighborhood Theatre.