2017 – Eric Hughes Music
By Phillip Smith;
April 28, 2018
If you’ve listened to live music on Beale Street in
Memphis, Tennessee within the past seventeen years, there’s a good chance
you’ve heard Eric Hughes on stage performing his unique and captivating blend
of blues. He took up residency on the
historic Official Home of the Blues in 2001, and plays there on a regular basis
still today. Meet Me in Memphis, marks his fifth album to date, and is an homage
to the city in which he was born and raised.
The Eric Hughes Band consists of Eric Hughes on vocals,
guitars, harmonica, and percussion, Walter Hughes on guitars, mandolin,
lap-steel, Leo Goff on bass guitar, Brian Aylor on drums, Chris
Stephenson on keyboards, Art Edmaiston on saxophone, Marc
Franklin on trumpet, along with Susan Marshall and Reba Russell
on backing vocals.
The nine track album rolls out the gate, ready for
business, with “Freight Train of Pain”. This
southern rocker comes loaded with scads of blues-soaked harp and ripping guitar
riffs. Hearing title track “Meet Me in
Memphis” ushers me right to the heart of the Bluff City with a longing for some
fine music, tasty barbeque, and a tall glass of sweet tea. With a robust horn accompaniment, chords, and
Steve Cropper-like guitar licks, I love how the song gently taps into the soulful
sounds of Stax Records.
Hughes has
a gift for incorporating the lost art of story-telling into his songs. A captivating
tale of outlaw nature is spun in his western ballad “The Day They Hanged the
Kid”. Franklin, on trumpet, suavely
tops the song with a little Spanish seasoning. With poetic truth, and a shovelful of satire, the
troubles of the hipster nation finally get the spotlight in Hughes’ humorously
penned “Midtown Blues”. Once pulled in
by Aylor’s caffeinated beat and Goff’s funky bassline on “Here
Comes the Boogie Man”, there’s no escape from Eric’s magnificent harmonica
performance and Walter’s wonderfully ominous guitar licks.
In joyous celebration of one of America’s favorite pastimes,
the album closes with “Believe I’m Going Fishing”. I simply adore this song. It’s catchy as hell. In fact, the whole record is that catchy. Meet Me
in Memphis is a terrific album, and a splendid delight.
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