Twenty, like its predecessor Time Will Tell, was co-produced by Cray along with Jim Pugh, his keyboardist of 16 years. Set for May 24 street date, fans can look for U.S. tour dates in July and August.

Cray was seen by thousands in person (and thousands more at home on DVD) at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar festival last year, on which Clapton praises Cray's skills and taste.

Speaking of Twenty, Cray comments, 'What I like most about the album is that the variety of songs. We covered a lot of bases on the record ­ from a touch of jazz with ŒMy Last Regret' and ŒTwo Steps From The End' to ŒDoes It Really Matter' which has a rock feel to it. We have a straight-up blues thing with ŒIt Doesn't Show' and the song ŒPoor Johnny' even has an early reggae or ska kind of beat to it.'

While love in all its many forms is the primary theme on the eleven songs that comprise Twenty, Cray and his cohorts are more than willing to delve into other aspects of life.

Twenty, ironically, is not the Robert Cray band's 20th album but rather its 14th. The album derives its title from the title track 'Twenty,' an honest and pointed commentary on the U.S. war in Iraq.

'The song is about a innocent young guy, who, after the events of 9/11, wants to do his part for his country,' Cray explains. 'He doesn't know he's going to end up in Iraq, watching the horror that's going on thereŠand he ends up losing his life. It's a subject that needs to be spoken about and is in some ways, a continuation from one of the songs we did on the last album (the cut 'Distant Shores' on the 2003 Sanctuary album Time Will Tell,' he explains.

Co-producer Jim Pugh notes that the band used a very specific methodology in recording the album: 'There's always the pressure to come up with something that makes an album different and yes, we could have kinds of Œspecial guests' but unless there's a good reason to do that, it can become tiresome to bring people in just for the sake of it. We made this album fresh by not rehearsing the songs before we went in to record. We all agreed that if you rehearse something over and over for a week, you can become complacent about the material. When we got to the studio this time, we just started playing the songs we'd basically agreed to record and that made the recordings much looser. We took advantage of the fact that we've been playing together for so long that we have a Œfeel' for each of us is going to do. Mostly what you hear on the record are first takes.'

As a result, Twenty has all the energy and flavor of a Œlive' performance with Cray's legendary guitar work and soulful vocals augmented by the sterling musicianship of Pugh on keyboards, Karl Severaid on bass and Kevin Hayes on drums.