''"That's What I Heard'' " was met with widespread critical acclaim. At
Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 83, based on 6 reviews. Reviewing in his "Consumer Guide" column,
Robert Christgau highlighted the songs "This Man", "Burying Ground", and "My Baby Likes to Boogalo", while writing in the summary of the album: "At 66, one of the sharpest songwriters ever to identify bluesman identifies the abuser in the house and invents a dance called the FBI". Mark Deming of
AllMusic wrote in his review: "At a time when deep Southern soul isn't doing a whole lot better than the blues in the marketplace, Robert Cray is an effective cheerleader for both forms." ==Awards==