Boz Scaggs: Out Of The Blues Tour 2022 With Special Guest The Robert Cray Band

Photo: Boz Scaggs, Robert Cray by Chris Phelps

Here’s the lowdown: BOZ SCAGGS: Out of The Blues Tour 2022 with Very Special Guest THE ROBERT CRAY BAND will perform live on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at RiverEdge Park, downtown Aurora’s outdoor concert venue, adding to its already busy summer music calendar, with more concert announcements still to come.

Boz Scaggs is responsible for such 70s classic hits as “Lido Shuffle,” “It’s Over,” and the Grammy-winning “Lowdown.” Robert Cray is famous for his signature blues roots sound at his live shows and on his 20 studio releases, 15 of which have been on the Billboard charts, with five Grammy Award wins.

Together, they make for a fantastic night of live music on the banks of the Fox River. Opening act is JEFF LEBLANC. Gates open at 6 p.m. Show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40, all general admission, and go on sale Friday, April 7 at 10 a.m. at riveredgeaurora.com.

RiverEdge Park is located at 360 N. Broadway in downtown Aurora, across from Metra’s Aurora Transportation Center. For tickets, visit riveredgeaurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by RiverEdge’s satellite box office, Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora, Wednesday-
Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m; Sunday, 11 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.

MEET THE BANDS

Boz Scaggs, born William Royce Scaggs in Canton, Ohio in 1944, grew up in Oklahoma and Texas, where he spent his teens immersed in the blues, R&B and early rock ‘n’ roll. After several years as a journeyman musician, Scaggs eventually settled in Stockholm where he recorded the album Boz.

Photo: Boz Scaggs by Chris Phelps

Returning to the U.S. in 1967, Scaggs joined the Steve Miller Band in San Francisco, performing on that group’s albums Children of the Future and Sailor, before launching his solo career with 1968’s seminal Boz Scaggs LP. Scaggs continued to mine a personalized mix of rock, blues and R&B influences, along with a signature style of ballads on such influential 70s albums as Moments, Boz Scaggs & Band, My Time, Slow Dancer and 1976’s Silk Degrees. The latter became a massive commercial breakthrough, reaching Number Two and remaining on the album charts for 115 weeks. It spawned three Top 40 hits: “It’s Over,” “Lido Shuffle” and the Grammy-winning “Lowdown.” Subsequently, “We’re All Alone” from that same album, would become a #1 single for Rita Coolidge. Silk Degrees was followed by Down Two Then Left and Middle Man, and such hit singles as “Breakdown Dead Ahead,” “Jo Jo” and “Look What You’ve Done to Me.”

Scaggs spent much of the 80s out of the music-biz spotlight, traveling, opening a family business, and founding the San Francisco nightclub, Slim’s. He returned to the studio after an eight-year hiatus and released Other Roads, Some Change, Dig, the Grammy-nominated Come on Home, the unplugged Fade Into Light, the in-concert retrospective Greatest Hits Live as well as a stint touring with Donald Fagen’s New York Rock & Soul Review; all while continuing to maintain a loyal audience in the U.S. and overseas, particularly in Japan. A pair of albums of jazz standards, But Beautiful and Speak Low, the latter topping the Billboard Jazz chart, demonstrated Scaggs’ stylistic mastery, as did the Southern-flavored Memphis and the rhythm & bluesy A Fool to Care. Scaggs’ newest album is Out of the Blues. Boz Scaggs website here. 

Listen to “Little Miss Night And Day” off his new album Out of the Blues. 

Photo: Robert Cray courtesy of Robert Cray

Over the past four decades, Robert Cray has created a sound that rises from American roots, blues, soul and R&B, with five Grammy wins, 20 acclaimed studio albums and a bundle of live albums that punctuate the Blues Hall of Famer’s career. On his newest album, That’s What I Heard, Cray celebrates the music of Curtis Mayfield, Bobby “Blue” Bland, The Sensational Nightingales and more, alongside four newly written songs. “Funky, cool and bad,” is how Robert Cray describes the new album. “I thought if we could get this thing that Sam Cooke used to have, the kind of sound that early Sam Cooke records had, that we could pull this off,” adds producer Steve Jordan.

Cray and Jordan go way back, having met in 1987 during the making of the Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll. They started working together in 1999, when Jordan produced Cray’s Grammy-winning Take Your Shoes Off, and the recent Grammy-nominated LP, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm. That’s What I Heard is their sixth album together. Robert Cray website here. 

Listen to “Right Next Door (Live)”

Jeff LeBlanc earned a history degree and imagined his destiny would likely be as a middle-school teacher. However, LeBlanc’s discovery of songwriting led him down a different path. Since releasing his first album, he has epitomized success as an independent artist – charting on iTunes, netting millions of streams, achieving both satellite and commercial radio play, selling-out headline shows and touring the country with a wide range of artists such as Boz Scaggs, Chaka Khan, Chris Stapleton, Michael McDonald, Tori Kelly, Chris Isaak, Brett Dennen and more. Jeff LeBlanc website here.

Listen to “When You Need Me”

RiverEdge Park, 360 N. Broadway St., in downtown Aurora, Illinois, is an idyllic outdoor summer concert venue, serving up live music, delicious festival food, cool beverages and a great time, all overlooking downtown Aurora and the beautiful Fox River.

RiverEdge is located right across the street from Metra’s Aurora Transportation Center. Drivers can find nearby paid parking in the Metra lot, with more public and private lots around the park and in downtown Aurora. New in 2022, look for new free parking across the river at the city’s Lot W/309 River Street. A ticket booth and entrance to the Park is located on the west side of Aurora’s new pedestrian bridge, which leads directly into RiverEdge Park on the east.

Note: There are no permanent seats set up for this concert. It is all general admission on a first come, first served basis. Guests are encouraged to bring and set up bag chairs on the concrete section. Bag chairs and blankets may be used on the grass. There will be a standing room only section in front of the stage.

Events at RiverEdge Park take place rain or shine, unless conditions endanger the safety of artists and the public. For the latest weather updates, follow @RiverEdgeAurora on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, call the RiverEdge Park Weather Line, (630) 723-2480, or text REPARK to 888777. For tickets and information, visit riveredgeaurora.com or call (630) 896-6666.