Grayson Hugh

     PRESS FOR RECENT LIVE SHOWS

"Grayson Hugh's debut appearance on the Towne Crier's stage was a smashing success. His songs are first-rate, and his powerful & volcanic voice was complimented by the beautiful harmony singing of Polly Messer. I look forward to his return!"

- Phil Ciganer, Owner, Towne Crier Cafe, February 21, 2013

"Grayson Hugh is the real deal. Great songs, a classic voice and a passionate performer. Grayson and Polly tore the roof off of The Cutting Room. Can't wait for them to come back and do it again!"

- Lincoln Foley Schofield, Talent Buyer, The Cutting Room, New York, NY, January 21, 2013

"It was a really lively and fantastic night at Free Blues Club when Grayson Hugh performed on the 16th of September here in Szczecin, Poland. It was simply amazing. From the sweet, soulful songs with his wife Polly Messer to the excellent rock’n’roll sung with power. Everything of course with brilliant solos on Hammond organ and piano! Awesome music! "

- Andrzej Malcherek, Owner, Free Blues Club, Szczecin, Poland, October 29, 2012

"Grayson Hugh did a spectacular show the other night at Infinity Music Hall. Blue-Eyed Soul's Prodigal Son is back - and stronger than ever."

- Jack Forchette, Director of Entertainment and Business Development, Infinity Music Hall, May 21, 2012

“Once again, Grayson Hugh rocked the Kate leaving our audience begging for more. A lot of people play our piano, but nobody whips it into a frenzy like Grayson.”

- Chuck Still, Executive Director, Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, April 10, 2012 

Grayson Hugh is a class axe, as we say here at Bridge Street Live. From Soundcheck all the way until the meet and greet it was a pleasure working with him. Not to mention how much the crowd loved him and Polly Messer. Dynamite songs, fantastic energy, a true crowd-pleaser!

- Pat Ryan, Entertainment Director, Bridge Street Live, April 2, 2013

"Grayson Hugh is a soulful vocalist with great tunes. His wife Polly Messer adds great harmonies - making for a great night of music!"

- Patrick Norton, Executive Director, The Narrows Center For The Arts, April 10, 2013

"Amazing show last night!!! I always expect great music from Grayson Hugh and am never disappointed. But at last night's concert at The Katherine Hepburn Theater, he took us all up to a new level because of the musical chemistry with Polly. It's a magical blend!"
 

- Colin McEnroe, Host of The Colin McEnroe Show, WPNR/CPBN, April 10, 2011

"Grayson Hugh and his wife, singer Polly Messer, put on an phenomenal show recently at The Songwriter's Beat at The Christopher Street Coffeehouse.  A critically-acclaimed singer/songwriter, Grayson wowed us with his powerful and funky piano playing, soulful voice and poetic lyrics.  Polly Messer added beautiful musical backup harmonies - their voices blending together as one. It is SO good to see Grayson back on the scene, stronger than ever!"

- Valerie Ghent, founder of The Songwriter's Beat at Christopher Street Coffeehouse, NYC., January 21, 2011

"Grayson is an incredibly soulful singer and amazing songwriter. I never forget an artist I love and Grayson is one of those artists. His recent performance with his wife Polly Messer at The Knickerbocker on blew my socks off!  I'm so glad he's back on the performance scene." 

- Greg Piccolo, talent booker, The Knickerbocker Cafe, Westerly, Rhode Island, August 2009

I jumped at the chance to book Grayson Hugh and Polly Messer into Smokin With Chris. Grayson is an amazing songwriter, incredible singer and pianist. The harmonies that he and Polly create are truly remarkable. Their residency here (they play every few weeks, since the winter of '09) has been a bright spot in our calender. Laura & I (and the audiences here) are blessed to have them. In this world of mediocre music, Grayson and Polly are the real deal - original, soulful, meaningful. Playing a mix of Grayson's radio hits and songs from his recently released "An American Record", his music is a national treasure.

 - Chris Conlon, owner, Smokin With Chris, Southington, Ct., June 2009

 REVIEWS FOR "AN AMERICAN RECORD"

   Thoughts On An American Record" by Leonard Pitts, Jr.

       Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

    On his brand new CD, Grayson Hugh sings of harbor towns and roads that don't look back, of thin trees and snow mountains, of mists rising from the sea and woods seen in soft southern light.  He sings of mourning and disillusionment, of remembered love and lost time, of life scraped from the bottom of a lobster pot.
    This is "An American Record". Some of us have been waiting for it a very long time.
    I've been listening to Grayson for - Lord, has it really been that long? - 20 years, since I was a writer for Casey Kasem's countdown show and he was a young guy making his major label debut with a shades-of-Sam-Cooke soul stirrer called "Talk It Over".  That song did everything except imprint itself on my DNA.  His follow-up CD, "Road To Freedom", sealed the deal.  I wrote about Grayson for Casey's show, wrote about him for Musician magazine, wrote about him in my music column for The Miami Herald, did everything but quit my job to follow him on tour, though I may even have considered that for half a second.
    I wanted people to listen, to hear what I heard.  Because this was music that told the truth.
    Do you know how rare that is?  Surely you've had that feeling, while flipping the radio dial, that American music has come to sound like a shopping mall - all shiny glass, gleaming contrivance and bright artifice, all surface shimmer with nothing underneath.  But Grayson is another kind of cat.  In a world where music is often a brittle artificiality, the music he makes is hard and strong, convicted and convincing.  And true.  Most of all, true.
    It's there in the gritty lament of his voice, in the roughhouse eloquence of his piano, and the atmospheric poetry of his words.  He has that thing Sam Cooke and Ray Charles had, that thing you still hear sometimes in Bruce Springsteen, that lonely, train whistle in the dark thing, that yearning, keening thing that gets right to the heart of what it means to be alive, what it means to be a human, being.
    It is soul music in a way that has nothing to do with soul in the sense of Motown or Stax, the Godfather or the Queen, nothing to do, really, with any of the usual genres by which we demarcate American music.  Country?  Jazz?  R&B?  Rock?  Grayson sounds like none of them, sounds like all of them.  Because his music is soul in the sense that it looks you in the eye and speaks to you from the gut, that it is real, honest and -  we keep coming back to that word - true.
    "An American Record" is an ambitious journey across a vast landscape of American sounds and American places, from the cantankerous down east funk of "Swamp Yankee" to the elegiac lament that rises from a cemetery in "North Ohio", from a jazz-inflected meditation on a day when the snow in Connecticut lies in shades of "Bluewhite" to "What It's All About", a meeting of hearts at a beach on a Georgia island between two lovers wounded by life but loving, still.  
    This is, Grayson will tell you, an album of places, an autobiographical survey of his life's wanderings: "Evangeline" recounts his days in coastal North Carolina, "Angel of Mercy" recalls time spent in Manhattan and London, the barrelhouse piano of "Tell Me How You Feel" is a remembrance of lonely days in Buzzards Bay, Mass. But as much as or more than "An American Record" surveys places on the map, it also surveys (apologies to Sally Field) places in the heart, those tender and broken spots where the things you regret live side by side with those you still foolishly hope.  "Give me one good reason to give it up," sings Grayson in "Give Me One Good Reason".  "We can't stop believing in what we've got."
   And we can't.  Because it's the believing that makes us human.
   On his new CD, Grayson Hugh sings of blue twilight turning black, and a thunderstorm looming on the horizon, of a catlike girl on a Boston train and an angel walking down on concrete, of life that flickers like a candle and of flying high above the tears.  He sings of who we are beneath brittle artifice, what we regret beneath gleaming contrivance and how, at the end of the day, when everything else has conspired to pull us apart, loves mends us together again.
   This is "An American Record".  Some of us are glad the wait is over at last.

- Leonard Pitts. Jr., Miami Herald, March 8, 2010

         GRAYSON HUGH - AN AMERICAN RECORD

Grayson Hugh called his new album AN AMERICAN RECORD for a reason. One listen tells you why. AN  AMERICAN RECORD features funk, blues, country, rock, zydeco, folk, jazz, soul and R&B music with a little bit of gospel mixed in. Basically, any kind of authentically American music that has been a part of this country's musical soundtrack for more than a century can be found on this recording.

For those who first got introduced to Hugh's soulful and raspy voice from his 1989 blue-eyed soul smash "Talk It Over," AN AMERICAN RECORD's  amalgamation of sounds may come as a shock. For those who knew a little more about Hugh's biography, the new record will not be nearly as shocking. Having that background knowledge will make it a more pleasing experience from the outset. However, patience will reward those who lost track of Hugh after he stopped being a presence in the early 1990s.

The fact of the matter is that there is a lot of soul, blues, R&B and funk on this album. Songs like "Give Me One Good Reason" and "Long and Lonely Night" will reintroduce fans to the soulful crooner many of us first met in 1989. "Tell Me How You Feel," is a rollicking blues, soul and gospel tune that shows where the barrelhouse blues meets the Baptist and sanctified church. The song features an extensive blues/jazz solo and ends with an energetic Hugh calling out from the pulpit of love how much he needs his woman's love. The song then takes listener to the church choir stand with band playing some ‘shouting and handclapping music.' "Give Me One Good Reason" revives the lost art of the soul duet with Hugh and his wife, Polly Messer, taking turns leading the song.

For those willing to move out of their comfort zone, AN AMERICAN RECORD features solid work in other genres. "Evangeline" is a nice mid-tempo country tune that tells the story of how the love of a beautiful and good woman inspired the singer to leave a dead end town while "Zoe On the T Train" is a rock song that tells of an encounter with a woman on a train. Other strong songs include "Bluewhite" and "North Ohio."

Grayson Hugh hails from a family of musicians and actors. The vocalists in his family sang everything from classical to show tunes. Hugh definitely inherited the family's musical curiosity - a characteristic that doesn't always get rewarded in today's music market. People have limited time to listen, and they often spend it listening to the known quantity. Fortunately, there is a lot of quality soul on AN AMERICAN RECORD, and a lot of other good music as well. This is a journey through America that is worth a try. RECOMMENDED.

- Howard Dukes, SoulTracks.com, September 26, 2010

Grayson Hugh had just finished writing a statement for his Facebook page. He’d wanted to get something off his chest for a while. Having done that, he pointed toward the “Send” button … and paused.

“I was about to post a very vitriolic comment about the mediocrity of the music in …” And here, one might imagine the name of a film whose soundtrack had been pretty widely acclaimed for its authenticity. “But then I didn’t publish it because what’s the point of being negative? I’ve learned that lesson in a lot of ways. Negativity just breeds negativity. Sometimes it’s best to keep your vitriolic thoughts to yourself.”

That’s just one bit of wisdom that Hugh has picked up on his ramble through spotlights and shadows. His path has led him to the summit as a musician, performer and writer; his multifaceted talents manifested in formats as varied as soul, jazz, Western swing, study with piano legends Ran Blake and Jaki Byard, a gig playing piano in an African-American church as well as accompaniment and composition for modern dance.

All of these elements and more came together in his own unique sound when Hugh burst onto the scene with Blind to Reason, his major-label debut in 1988. The album impacted, lofting the single “Talk It Over” into the Top 20 and featuring a duet with R&B star Betty Wright on “How ‘Bout Us.” Billboard would laud his second album, Road to Freedom, as one of the ten best of 1992; his songs were featured on soundtracks for Fried Green Tomatoes and Thelma & Louise.

Then, in 1994, after being dropped by his label in a moment of misguided restructuring, Hugh suddenly found himself without the financial support necessary to keep a band on the road.  He moved to rural North Carolina and attempted to rejuvenate his career in surroundings far-removed from New York and Los Angeles.  After a year of slowly going broke and unable to find a new record label, he moved back north where he landed a job teaching songwriting at Berklee College Of Music in Boston.  While there, he continued to write songs prolifically and was even commissioned to compose some scores for several modern dance companies. But in 2001, he spun into a free-fall and a near-fatal relapse with alcohol and drugs that left him for more than two years with no way to pay the rent other than through a job at McDonald’s.

Hugh's rise from that point to his present renaissance owes to two factors: his determination to apply everything he has experienced, the worst as well as the best, to redefining and strengthening himself as an artist, and the invaluable help of his wife, backup singer and soul mate Polly Messer, who met him in 1980 but would enter his life years later as his best friend, greatest inspiration and true artistic partner. "Polly's contribution as co-producer on this record was invaluable," says Hugh. "She kept encouraging me to raise the bar."

Hugh's recent personal and artistic achievements inform every track on his new album, An American Record. This overlay of art and heart breathes a gospel air into the irresistibly churchy “Tell Me How You Feel,” paints a stark yet beckoning landscape on “North Ohio,” cranks up the funk in the cocky, horn-stabbed strut and haunting chanted coda of “Swamp Yankee,” hangs a lover’s plea over an elegant and unforgettable chorus hook on “Give Me One Good Reason” … Every track tells its story with a mix of passion, craft and impact that’s rare in our time. In flaunting the discipline and knack for accessibility that distinguished his earlier recordings and compositions, An American Record confirms his return as a commercial as well as artistic force.

From the worst of his times, Hugh emerged with a strength and focus that filters now into his work. “I had to confront a lot of my faults, and that self-reflection has reformed my music,” he explains. “It got simpler because I learned how to let the feeling of a song distill in silence for months. They’re kind of cooking, so that when I actually write, it comes quickly.”

It also empowered Hugh to find universal meaning in his lyrics, which draw from what he’s witnessed but convey that emotion directly to listeners and their lives. “For instance, ‘North Ohio’ came from my visiting my grandmother’s grave by the banks of the Maumee River in Ohio,” he explains. “But it’s about the emotion, not that specific place and time. Look at Thomas Wolfe: Look Homeward, Angel, You Can’t Go Home Again and  Of Time and the River. Images of rivers figure prominently in them all. It’s all universal.”

That, too, explains the range of An American Record, whose embrace is wide enough to encompass working-man’s rock, roadhouse blues, calls to glory answered from the amen corner, a smatter of jazz and more. “It’s a record and it’s American, with all kinds of musical references,” Hugh says. “There’s bluegrass, soul, funk, folk, rock … There’s no single musical theme, but it’s all human.”

It’s all human: In three words, that’s what Grayson Hugh has learned about music and its power to touch and move, inform and inspire. It also explains why he takes it personally when he hears something that fails to achieve these goals, to the point of almost taking it to the world on Facebook.

“I write for myself ultimately because that’s the way I spit out how I see the world,” he says. “It’s a cathartic process. But when a fan writes to me and says, ‘This affects me,’ that’s the payoff.”

With An American Record, the payoff is just beginning.  Grayson Hugh has been there and is back again. His story – our story – has to be heard.

- Robert Doerschuk, CMAworld.com, May 10, 2010

             GRAYSON HUGH "An American Record"   

  We didn't reckon on a record like this anymore!  After all, the last serious feat by Grayson Hugh dated from 1992 when, with "Road to Freedom", he not only delivered a succesor to his fabulous major label-début "Blind to reason" which was released 4 years before, but also one of THE greatest records of that year.  Then things became very silent around the man who, with his voice filled with soul, poetic lyrics and sophisticated keyboard playing, had created fans worldwide. You enjoyed his mega radio hits such as "Talk It Over" and also "Bring It All Back". Now, some eighteen years later, after all his radio hits, songs featured in hit films and acclaim as a singer/songwriter, Grayson Hugh has made an amazing comeback with "An American Record", his fourth full length album.  And with this record he shows he hasn't lost his abilities.  
  With 14 new songs Hugh sparkles once more on this record, which has a substantionally less overly-polished sound.  Three years of hard labour went into this record.  For Hugh this was a unique opportunity to pick up the thread of his life to some degree, after recovering from a near fatal relapse with alcohol and drugs.  The man himself said : "It is a record of places, times, rivers, hills, loves and tides of the heart. This became my path and I am grateful that I was always able to see the light around the bend and finish it".  And this finds an echo in the songs.
  Whether it's the funky opening song "Swamp Yankee", which has been dedicated to Dean Gilmore who helped Hugh to get back on the right track, or the long spun piano ballad "Bluewhite".  From the playful lovesong "Evangeline", spiced with a pinch of country, to "Zoe on the T Train" which flirts with R&B in a relaxing way.  Or the perfect rootsy pop songs like "Never To Come Down" and "Sweet Summer Rain" and the calm soulful "North Ohio".  On to the radiogenic "Angel Of Mercy" with it's nice twangy guitar sound - and the duets "Long & Lonely Night" and "Give Me One Good Reason" that both remind us of the old days with their blue-eyed soul sound.  And the cheerful pop-Americana of "Time Is Like A River". And throughout this record, Hugh's piano playing is a veritable cyclone of soul, drawing its energy from such diverse regions as the swampland funk of Professor Longhair, the testifying soul of Ray Charles, with rhythms of African drumming and American bluegrass thrown in the mix.

   With all these songs and others Hugh seizes every opportunity to show you that he's not only back, but also a magnificent vocalist and sublime songsmith.  Welcome back, man! FIVE STARS!

 - Benny Metten, CTRL. ALT. COUNTRY, August, 2010 (a website from The Netherlands dedicated to Alternative Country, Roots Rock, Blues, Rockabilly & Americana Singer Songwriters)

GRAYSON HUGH "AN AMERICAN RECORD"

The title tells it all as Connecticut piano man Grayson Hugh blends all the facets that make American music into AN AMERICAN RECORD, using blues as the floor boards in the majority of the tunes here. The funky (and I mean that in a good way) title cut starts it off, thanks to Hugh's B3 and the steady drumming of Rob Gottfried. The majority of the cuts here could be described as soulful rockers, with "Zoe On The T Train". "Never To Come Down" and "Time Is Like A River" as prime examples.

"Give Me One Good Reason" would have been at home in the 1960's on a release by R&B legendary Stax Records and Tom Majesky does some nice guitar work during "Angel Of Mercy". With Grayson's wife Polly Messer on harmony vocals, gospel gets touched on during "Sweet Summer Rain" and "Tell Me How You Feel", with the latter ignited by Hugh's boogie woogie piano.

Americana gets a spotlight during "Evangeline", due to Jim Chapdelaine's banjo picking as Hugh's pennywhistle adds to the lonliness factor of "What It's All About".

Coming up on 40 years writing about music, I've been at a ton of promo parties over the years. One memorable one was from late 1988, when invited to an RCA party at Beachwood Studios. It was for Grayson Hugh's first project BLIND TO REASON and, after giving the media and retail folks some liquid refreshments and finger food as Side 1 of the new record played, the RCA promo man told us to go to Studio B to hear Grayson play Side 2 live. The presentation was impressive, because I have never since seen a national label go to those lengths at a promo party.

When Grayson Hugh releases a new album, it is always worthy of your attention. This is one of the most eclectic discs he's ever had out and it might be hard to track down, so I'll direct you to his website at wwwgraysonhugh.net.

- Peanuts, The Greater Cleveland Blues News, March 2013

     REVIEWS FOR "ROAD TO FREEDOM"

As impressive as Grayson Hugh's 1989 debut album "Blind To Reason" was, "Road To Freedom" represents a quantum leap beyond it. While Hugh's blue-eyed vocals and affinity for gospel-style Hammond organ remain, his music adds a welcome infusion of rock 'n roll punch. "Hideaway", "Forever Yours, Forever Mine" and "When She Comes Walking" bristle with radio-friendly hooks, while Hugh's Rod Stewart-meets-Sam-Cooke vocals on "I Can't Untie You From Me" and the ballad "Walking Through The Fire" are sublime.

 - Dan Kening (five-star review), Chicago Tribune, Nov. 19, 1992

               BILLBOARD'S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 1992

Grayson Hugh's "Road To Freedom" - Gutsy, melodic, heartland style soul-rock that really fills a hole.

- Jim Bessman, Billboard Magazine, Nov. 29, 1992

           NEWCOMER'S SOUND IS SHEER POETRY

Grayson Hugh's music, lyrics are stirring. 

I don't want to get your hopes up about Grayson Hugh. Don't want to oversell him so you put 1988's Blind To Reason or the new Road To Freedom in the CD player and expect light to flow forth, healing cancer and removing cataracts. But ask me about him straight up and I'd have to answer you this way:

Have I heard any newcomer in the last decade who excites me more than this guy?

No.

Have I heard any newcomer in the last decade who excites me as much as this guy?

No.

Your next question is obvious as the chin on Leno's face: Well, what's the guy sound like? And therein lies a problem, because while there are a lot of obvious comparisons, none gives a complete picture.

He's the thoughtful singer-songwriter type, like James Taylor or Paul Simon, but there’s more pure soul in him than that comparison would imply.

Well then, how about Marvin Gaye, Rod Stewart or Sam Cooke? Yeah, he’s got the requisite gravel and rasp and anguish in his voice. But there’s more poetry and grace in his lyrics than theirs.

 Bruce Springsteen? The introspection’s there. The fist-cranking Born To Run adrenaline rush isn’t.

So what does he sound like? Like everything you’ve heard before. And nothing you've heard before. No risk-taker or barrier-breaker like, say, Prince or R.E.M or Nirvana or Me Phi Me. But yet, a haunting sound, a rock ’n’ soul groove, greasy with Hammon organ, spangled with guitars, it’s melodies framed by understated piano accents, it’s choruses and bridges braced with harmonies as plaintive as a train whistle at midnight.

PICTURES IN LYRICS

  And his lyrics! If you love words, if you’re one of those people for whom heaven is a rainy day and a good book, then know this: Hugh doesn’t write words — he writes pictures.

  Like "Forever Yours, Forever Mine", which speaks of “steep September daylight when the shadows fall at four” and “eyes just staring down the college street strewn with the paper of sycamore leaves.”

 Like "Road To Freedom", which offers a breathtaking view — “over the tops of mountains over the western snow, watching the river wander, just a vein of silver far below” — and adds a hard observation certain to strike a chord with any Native American or African American — “They take away your money, and they take away your name, and they take the ground that you’re standing on but never, ever take the blame.”

  And then there is the stark, painful ballad called "For The Innocent". Hugh wrote it for his grandfather, Dr. Frank Rawlinson, a missionary in Shanghai who wal killed during the Second World War. Hugh sings: “In trees and fields the snowflakes fell, gently on the gravestone of one I knew well. Cut down before his time on some rocky road, caught in someone else’s war for some cause of old. He was a writer and a peaceful man, never held a rifle in his hand.But upon that fateful day, a bullet from a gun sought him out as if to say, I’ll find the meekest one.”

  Hugh, a thirtysomething native of Hartford, Conn., who quit school at 15, says, “I remember the English teacher said, ‘You should really consider being a poet.’ I didn’t want to hear it. [But] I read from when I was 14 on. Every poet I could get my hands on. James Joyce, Faulkner, James Agee, Dylan Thomas, Archibald MacLeish. I read voraciously. I quit high school and just kind of educated myself.

  “I was lucky enough to have parents who said “That’s cool if you want to do that. You’ve just got to get a job.” One year I had something like 55 jobs — a lot of odd jobs. Then I discovered I could make money playing in bands.”

MOVING AROUND

  During those years, Hugh’s family was moving around, alighting in South Carolina, Louisiana and Maine. Musically, he was moving around a lot too.

  “I played organ and piano [for a black church in Hartford]… That was really my introduction to [gospel], a form of music I love to this day. I sort of got into that and combined that with my rock roots.

  “Then there’s a lot of other music that I grew up with. My dad is a classical DJ in Connecticut and he always had an extensive record collection, all different kinds of music — classical, jazz, rock, folk. I grew up with a lot of different inlfuences.”

 Asked to describe the sound those influences have fostered in him, he’s at a loss.

 “I don’t know what you call it. My girlfriend half-seriously said “When people ask you what you play, say country gothic.”

  Why not? Works about as well as anything else.

  Hugh’s debut album Blind To Reason was the result of a chance meeting with producer Michael Baker in the elevator of a New York apartment building.

  “I was carrying a keyboard, we started talking…I was going to my manager’s apartment; we asked him in, played him the tape, and he introduced me to the people at RCA.”

  RCA sent Hugh into the studio with Baker, and the result was Blind To Reason. There are some great tracks on that disc, including the raw-dog blues of the title number and the old-school, Sam Cooke soul of Talk It Over.

  Hugh says now it was a little too smooth, a little overproduced for his taste. “I felt I was being pigeonholed… I needed to branch out.”

BRANCHING OUT

  Four years later, he’s branched out to MCA Records, where veteran R&B producer Bernard Edwards took the helm on Road To Freedom.

 “Basically, it’s much more raw,” Hugh says of the new album. “And it’s really the way I always was. Basically, I always was a real rocker. All my bands were pretty hard-edged.

 My producer, Bernard Edwards, encouraged me to just be myself in the studio. We laughed a lot. It was real easy working with him…he kept it fresh. It’s kind of the way I approach my writing.”

  It’s always risky business to play fortune-teller in this game — especially when dealing with an artist eight out of 10 record-buyers have never heard of. And your humble music writer here has a great track record of proclaiming superstardom for acts that never even get out of the starting gate.

  So, tempting as it is, no predictions here.

  Except one. You’ll enjoy Grayson Hugh.

 - Leonard Pitts, Jr., The Miami Herald, Oct. 19, 1992  

Here's a CD I'm having trouble keeping out of my player. The long-delayed follow-up to "Blind To Reason", Hugh's killer 1989 blue-eyed soul release, "Road To Freedom", is well worth the wait. Led by Hugh on a Hammond B-3 organ, "Hideaway" sets a swirling tone for the project. His soulful vocals, from the reflective "Soul Cat Girl" to an anti-war masterpiece titled "For The Innocent" are heartfelt, to say the least. The grand finale is a gospel assault on Bob Dylan's "I'll Remember You" that could raise the dead. Any year with a Grayson Hugh release in it can't be all bad.

- Peanuts, The Cleveland Sun, Dec. 3, 1992  

Whoever said truthful soul and rock 'n roll was dying has yet to hear singer/songwriter/keyboardist Grayson Hugh's "Road To Freedom".

Hugh is a unique but diverting cross between Otis Redding and Hank Williams. His creation of a tight, four-piece band has a fascinating way of producing a distinct sound very seldom heard.

"Road To Freedom" features the song "I'll Remember You", Hugh's arrangement of a Bob Dylan song. It plays over the credits to 1992's hit film "Fried Green Tomatoes". Another of Hugh's songs from the album, "I Can't Untie You From Me", was featured in the runaway hit "Thelma and Louise".

His album also features "Road to Freedom" (inspired by Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990), "Soul Cat Girl", "Forever Yours, Forever Mine", "Lost Avenue", "There's A Time" (which he wrote at age sixteen), "Walking Through The Fire" and four other hits - all prime examples of Hugh's powerful singing, soulful songwriting and unequaled keyboarding.

Hugh, raised in a small New England town, says in a press release "I remember being fascinated by old-time blues singers...I've been writing poetry since grade school, and I was always playing piano and organ". Throughout the album Hugh displays his talent and distinguished organic sound, which is a little bit rock 'n roll, a little bit country, and alot of soul. And Hugh says "I love that fine line between country and soul".

He admits his true obsession is his Hammond B3 organ.

"It's an integral part of my sound", he explains. "I had it custom-made with a wah-wah pedal and other modifications. I want to extend the sound of that instrument, to use it almost like a guitar".

Along with his sound, Hugh's lyrics are also distinguished and profound. His songs are filled with life, loss, good times and bad times. The words will touch you. In short, with "Road To Freedom", Grayson Hugh has come up with a style that is all his own - eloquent, entertaining and extremely enjoyable.

- Jennifer Derrick, The Penn, Indiana University, October 12, 1992.

      REVIEWS FOR "BLIND TO REASON"

                        GRAYSON HUGH'S HIT

 One of the summer’s most engaging hits is Grayson Hugh’s recording of Talk It Over. Without sounding like too much of an imitation, the 30-year-old’s performance echoes the style and timbre of Sam Cooke with its winning warmth and sweetness. The song is included on his debut album, Blind To Reason(RCA).

  “To be honest, Sam Cooke was before my time; I didn’t know about him until a few years ago,” said Mr. Hugh, who was reared in West Hartford, Conn., and who now lives in New York. Growing up, he said, the singer he was most aware of was Marvin Gaye.

  Unlike the vast majority of pop singers and songwriters, Mr. Hugh has had extensive musical training. At the age of 11, he said, he wanted to be Gustav Mahler. Later he studied with the avan-garde composer Ran Blake and was part of a trio called the Wild Goose, which tried to incorporate ideas from Stavinsky, Stockhausen and Lukas Foss. But rock-and-roll, which he had discovered at 14, also attracted him.

  The most crucial experience leading up to his recording career, however, was a yearlong stint playing the piano in a black gospel church in Hartford 11 years ago.

  “My dad, who was a friend of the minister, heard that their pianist had quit,” he said. “I auditioned for the job and got it. In that year I learned more than in all my years of formal training.”

- Steven Holden, The New York Times, Aug. 30, 1989   

                              New On The Charts

The beginning of newcomer Grayson Hugh’s recording career took place in an apartment elevator on Manhattan, New York’s Upper East Side. That is where he met Michael Baker, co-producer of Blind To Reason, his debut album on RCA records.

A self-taught piano player, Hugh grew up listening to and admiring great black singers of his age like Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. He spent a year playing piano in a black gospel church and later founded several Connecticut bands.

The chance encounter with Baker, one-time producer of Wet, Wet, Wet and the Blow Monkeys, eventually led to a recording contract with RCA. Baker noticed Hugh playing a synthesizer in an elevator and found himself listening to his demo tape 15 minutes later. Of that meeting, he says, “I was immediately struck by the dichotomy – here’s this quiet, sort of shy white guy with a leather jacket and long hair, who sounds like all the greatest black singers in the world rolled together.”

“Talk It Over, the first single from Blind To Reason, has entered the hot 100 singles chart is already a top 10 hit on the Hot Adult Contemporary charts.

 - Jim Richliano, Billboard Magazine, Jul. 8, 1989  

 I think I was heading to work across the bridge this summer when it hit me: "Talk It Over" may be the most perfect pop record of the year. I'd heard it maybe 10 times earlier, but at that moment its lilting, fluttering recreation of Sam Cooke's style, its flawless doo-wop harmonies and its mellifluous melody were like an epiphany. Grayson Hugh is a white guy in long hair and black leather who has apparently soaked himself in the sounds of Otis Redding, Al Green and the late, great Cooke. His LP debut is a revelation, every note as wonderful as the single that stole my heart that summer day.

-  The Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 17, 1989

                 Have You Met Grayson Hugh?

                  Grayson Hugh - Soul In The Suburbs

  Irony fans, please note: The soul man is a dinosaur in decline, right? Al Green went and got religion, Dennis Edwards is in exile from The Temptations again and, let's face it, Luther Vandross is way too cool to sweat.

  So who's left to save the genre? Some down-and-dirty black powerhouse who grew up in a suburb of Hell, singing in the local church? Not quite. He's a white guy from a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut. And the first time he was ever in a black church and saw somebody whip out a tambourine, he jumped a mile. Meet Grayson Hugh and the music he likes to call "poetry with an attitude".

  "That's sort of a phrase I've come up with that seems to describe my music", he says. "It's loud and it's a little audacious and it's moody and it's in the setting of a band playing live. It's not just a beat with empty words."

  Nothing empty about Hugh's brilliant debut album, "Blind To Reason". The single "Talk It Over" is a smooth, deftly executed Sam Cooke reprise; the album's title track is brutal, raw dog blues. Nothing empty about his resume, either. The gravel-voiced 31-year-old grew up with the prerequisite love for black music. Unlike so many other "blue-eyed" soul men, though, he followed the music to its spawning ground, walking in "audaciously" to apply for a job as pianist at a little black church.

  "Y'know", he says, "the first few times I played people were a little amazed to see me, being the only white and really young. But after two or three Sundays I remember this woman, the mother of one of the singers, got up and just said, in the middle of the service, 'I know this boy is doing something a little different, but he sound okay to me'".

  Of course, after nine months they fired him, Hugh says, because "they really wanted an all-black church."

  He survived. And roughly a decade later Hugh is back with a debut album that serves notice: Of the currently active soul men, he is, arguably, the best in class. It's hard to improve on what the woman said: Yeah, he's doing something a little different, but he sounds okay to me.

  - Leonard Pitts, Jr., Musician Magazine, Nov. 1989 

  REVIEWS OF GRAYSON LIVE ON TOUR

                            A Natural Soul Man

  Music fans had their choice Sunday night between down-home gritty Delta blues or contemporary blue-eyed soul as venerably legend John Lee Hooker and rising pop star Grayson Hugh performed at the Omni/New Daisy Theater and Peabody Alley (at The Peabody Hotel) respectively.

  While there were some pronounced differences in approach, technique and sound between Hooker and Hugh, a firm foundation in the black music tradition was the underlying theme linking both performers.

  While the Hooker set attracted casually dressed blues lovers, the more sophisticated classy bunch filled Peabody Alley for Grayson Hugh.

  Hugh displayed the complete range of his influences. He played a string of rolling chords and flashy phrases on electric keyboard that reflected his gospel and jazz background, while his deliver and singing method were straight out of the R & B/Soul school. Hugh's a natural soul man, right down to his stage mannerisms, which included playing on his knees and behind his back. He did two stinging cover songs, one a sizzling "Bring It On Home To Me".

  While the packed house of over 450 people at first seemed more interested in hearing Hugh than reacting to him, by the middle of his set the dance floor was also packed.

   - Ron Wynn, The Memphis Daily News, Oct. 12, 1989

                                        A QUIET GIANT

  The first time THE STREET ran into Grayson Hugh: November 1rst, 1988. The scene: The Dickie Betts Record Party at The Lone Star Roadhouse in New York. It's wall-to-wall people inside. Loyal Allman Brothers fans who did manage to get into the sold-out show have been waiting in line for hours. There are lights, cameras, cables everywhere. Technicians working video/audio hookups for MTV and TV broadcast coverage. The SRO show includes many musicians and industry VIPs. "No Shows" - despite rumors to the contrary - are Jimmy Page and Gregg Allman. But nobody cares. that's because on stage, it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime lineups of the legends of rock n' roll.

  Dickie Betts - former ace guitarist of The Allman Brothers - is center stage playing with his current sidemen. There's Jack Bruce, bassist extraordinaire of the legendary group Cream. There's also Rolling Stones ex-guitarist Mick Taylor, and still yet another world-class axeman - Rick Derringer. 

  No one on keyboards yet. But a buzz goes through the crowd as a tall, long-haired musician wearing a cowboy hat emerges from stage left to sit at the piano, joining the others for a scorching set of southern rock 'n roll. The all-star jam rocks out the crowd and when it's all over, a lot of folks are asking "Who was that hot keyboardist?"

  None other than Grayson Hugh, THE STREET finally learns from the mystery man himself during a recent phone interview. Hugh and his seven-piece had opened for Dickie on a tour through the South and the Midwest, so Betts invited him to sit in for the show at The Roadhouse.

  That memorable jam was just for starters in the unusual career of Grayson Hugh. Hugh is getting his share of notice currently, due to the release of his RCA debut album "Blind To Reason". The blue-eyed singer of Welsh ancestry penned all the songs on this powerful record and he is an authentic and authentic soul singer - reminiscent of such artists as Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. But he is quick to point out that his roots are also very much rock 'n roll.

  These days, Grayson is busy working on new material and getting ready for some concert dates in the U.K. and another upcoming U.S. tour.

 - Carol Tormey, The Street, October 1989  

                               AMAZING GRAYSON

 Grayson Hugh is an American music original. 

 Hugh brought his diverse souffle of rock, gospel, balladry and poetry to a slow simmer last night at the Lyric Theatre in sleepy little downtown Stuart, Florida. The building threatened to rise from its foundations, but the trembling rafters weren't caused by passing trains. It was just Hugh's voice soaring for the stratosphere, strong and emotional, sweet and assured.

  Releasing only two albums in five years, 1989's "Blind To Reason" and "Road To Freedom" in 1992, Hugh is still considered an artist on the rise. After last night's experience, however, the audience must have wondered why this man is not recognized as one of the country's most enduring talents.

  - Gary Shipes, The Stuart News, May 6, 1994

        REVIEW FOR "GRAYSON HUGH"

                       A Jazzy Rock-and-Blues Homebrew