Red Cadillac has been nominated for the Blues Music Awards Soul Blues Album of the Year. Red Cadillac is a major hit for Johnny Rawls. It was #1 for US and International blues radio airplay in August as reported by Living Blues Magazine and stayed in the top 20 for three months. The album has received rave reviews, including both from Blues Revue and Living Blues.
Johnny Rawls recruited some of the best musicians of his career to back him on Red Cadillac, including Texas band, The Rays. When the Rays backed him on No Boundaries, it was the one of the most played blues albums of 2005, making it to #7 on the Living Blues radio airplay charts, staying in the top 10 for two months and the top 25 for four months. Blues Revue wrote "powerful and inspired, replete with top-notch instrumental and vocal performances and a superb, soulful batch of songs." No Boundaries received rave reviews from all the major blues publications and a rare 4 star rating from Downbeat.
All songs on Red Cadillac were written by Johnny Rawls or Rays bassist Bob Trenchard. It is Rawls' best album, a wonderful collection of songs that covers the full range of soul/blues. While not ranging outside the genre as the critically acclaimed No Boundaries did, these are truly original songs performed by an artist at the top of his game.
Red Cadillac has been compared to the great soul music of Stax, Motown and Hi Records but it has a 21st century attitude. It has love songs, cheating and lost love songs, good time party songs but also social commentary about the current condition of our country and our world.