Robert Cray performs Saturday at downtown Warren’s Robins Theatre.

Audiences are getting a chance to hear songs from the Robert Cray Band’s “That’s What I Heard” album live a couple of years later than originally planned.

Cray recorded the album in the spring of 2019.

“We decided to wait to release the record,” Cray said. “We didn’t want to release it at Christmastime because we weren’t going to be able to tour at that particular time.”

They held the album for release until Feb. 28, 2020 — two weeks before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We went out just before the release date and were home two weeks later,” he said. “That’s how it goes.”

Expect some songs from “That’s What I Heard,” which received a Grammy nomination for best traditional blues album, when the Robert Cray Band performs Saturday at the Robins Theatre.

Drummer Steve Jordan — whose resume includes everything from playing in the “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with David Letterman” bands to working with artists as Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry and Stevie Nicks — produced the album and plays on it.

An album recommendation he gave Cray helped shaped “That’s What I Heard.”

“Steve told me about this one CD that had a bunch of oldies on it, so I ordered it,” Cray said. “The first song I heard (Don Gardner’s ‘My Baby Likes to Boogaloo’), I said, ‘Steve, that’s a funky tune. Let’s do that one.’ And Steve said, ‘And I’m playing drums on it.’ OK, we got one. I’d been working on some other things and had some (cover) ideas too, the gospel, Sensational Nightingales’ song we did, ‘Burying Ground,’ and the Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions’ tune ‘You’ll Want Me Back.’

“We just kept loose. It’s nice working with Steve. I’ve known him over 30 years and we have a good rapport and a great time in the studio. He knows us, and it’s just a good vibe in the studio.”‘

“My Baby Likes to Boogaloo” is a scorching soul number and one of the album’s standouts, and the song is all the more shocking when you discover that the songwriter, Don Gardner, also wrote “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” (something Cray wasn’t aware of).

Five of the 11 songs were penned by Cray, with most of them hashed out in the studio.

“I’m not a prolific writer,” he said. “I get to work when I know there’s a project. I have a few ideas I’ll scribble down between records and go in with some ideas and also just come up with ideas in the studio. (Opening track) ‘Anything You Want’ was the first thing we played when we started rehearsals. I just started playing the song, it just came out, then everyone else joined in. ‘Well, let’s put a lyric to it and that’s it.’ That was in the first half hour. That’s just the vibe, everyone feeling the spirits, getting into the mood and the mode. That’s how it is. I encourage everybody else to participate in the songwriting process as well.”

Cray has been earning praise for his guitar playing for decades. He got to play with many of his blues idols, recording with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland. He’s won five Grammy Awards and received 16 nominations. He’s been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement honor from the Americana Music Awards.

On “That’s What I Heard,” his vocals are just as worthy of acclaim.

“I think after all these years, I realize the message is the most important thing, the music is just the vessel,” Cray said. “You gotta get the story across. With that in mind, you have to reach out to the people. When I think about my favorite singers, like O.V. Wright and Bobby Bland, the gospel singers and what not, they all have their little thing, their little trademark, that sets them apart and brings you in to listening to their story.”

Cray has released more than 20 albums in his career, so he and his band — Richard Cousins, bass; Dover Weinberg, keyboard; and Les Falconer, drums — have plenty of material to draw from when putting together the setlists.

“What we do basically is we have a few favorites on the setlist, but on a nightly basis we change it up so it’s a little different if you’re going to be like a Deadhead following the Robert Cray Band around. After all these years, the book is getting big, and we like to keep it fresh.”

That means there’s no guarantee certain songs will be in the show. Rock radio hits like “Smoking Gun” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” were absent from many setlists over the summer.

“Certain songs we’ve just run into the ground, and we need to take a break,” Cray said. “The last thing we want to sound like is putting a needle on the record, so you have to get away from some of the things for a little bit. Hopefully you can resurrect them in a way that it’s a little bit different and exciting for us to play. You get to a point, ‘Oh, god, this song.’ I need to find a fresh way of doing it.”

If you go …

WHO: Robert Cray Band

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Robins Theatre, 160 E. Market St., Warren

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $33 to $53 and are available at the Robins box office and online at robinstheatre.com.