August 3, 2017

THE ROBERT KRAFT TRIO - NORTH BISHOP AVE

The vintage rhythm and blues of The Robert Kraft Trio present their frontman behind the microphone as a smooth crooner. North Bishop Ave showcases The Robert Kraft Trio as Soulmen where the Central Texas band pick up the pace to step and strut a pure Pop love letter to a “Beautiful Girl”, strum jazz-flavored guitar chords along with soulful organ swells to profess “I Want to Show You”, and tenderly promise on crisp guitar notes that “You”ve Still Got a Place in My Heart”. The North Bishop Ave title is a nod to Robert’s brother, Stuart Kraft. When a teenage Robert Kraft bunked in Stuart’s place Dallas, Texas, his older sibling would have the radio tuned to KKDA on the AM dial as Soul 73. Robert Kraft recalls that ‘Deep Ellum was not far away. The whole area around Downtown Dallas…Oak Cliff, Fair Park, Deep Ellum, was a steaming mix of Tejano music, Blues, Honky Tonk, Rhythm and Blues and Soul Music. I guess all that music got under my teenaged skin and has sweated out of me in almost all of the music I’ve made over the years’.
North Bishop Ave plays the same jukebox gems as The Robert Kraft Trio reminisce on the slow Soul of “Wonder”, bounce on the rhythm bubbles of “Gotta Have You”, and hitch up to a solid backbeat for “Stand (Song for Ally)”.

-Danny McCloskey