Hughes Taylor – Roasted
The Bent Note Records
11 songs – 43 minutes
Don’t let the pastoral image on the cover of this one fool you. Guitarist Hughes Taylor is a blues-rocker who simply blazes from the jump of this all-original CD. The sixth full-album release in his career, it’s a welcome and always under control follow-up to his 2024 EP, Roasted Vol. 1.
A native of Macon, Ga., Hughes was already writing and recording demos in his parents’ basement at age 14 while polishing his talent as a performer anywhere he could. At age 18, he was already touring across the Southeast, and he made his recording debut in his with the CD Hear My Melody in 2016, when he was in his early 20s.
Recorded at the legendary Capricorn Sound in his hometown, this set fuses tunes from another EP, Dark Roast — which earned a 2024 Blues Blast Music Award nomination in the best video category for the song “Ballad of Bill McGuire” – with songs he’s labeled Light Roast, more energetic and upbeat material inspired by the work of Gov’t Mule, Joe Bonamassa and the late Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd. It features explosive and steady-driving fretwork atop a heavy beat. And, fortunately, Hughes has a voice to match.
Macon, Ga., is a native of A native of Macon, Ga., who’s been a fixture across the Southeast since debuting with Hear My Melody in 2016, guitarist Hughes Taylor simply blazes from the jump of his sixth, all-original CD. It’s a blues-rock offering that’s loaded with explosive, steady-driving fretwork, a heavy beat and a voice to match. He’s backed throughout by bassist Ben Alford, drummer Nich Gannon and keyboard player Zach Wilson, and Emily Lynn and Evie Somogyi provide backing vocals.
The first of five songs that comprise Dark Roast, which was previously released on Bandcamp, “Moondance Baby” opens the action in style and celebrates his lady, who proves almost everything he needs but becomes something more as soon as the sun goes down and the moon rises. The extended mid-tune solo shines, featuring powerful, single-note runs before allowing the full band to work out. The aforementioned “Ballad of Big Bill McGuire” follows. Built atop a simple, powerful guitar hook, it describes a hard-drinking man from Alabama who’s on the run after shooting someone in cold blood.
The mood changes with jazzy “Until It Hits,” a minor-key number that describes the realization that it’s impossible to quit loving a lady who’s no longer part of the singer’s life. Distorted fretwork opens “Midnight Angel,” a dark ditty that describes the title siren’s call. It casts a spell before the listener realizes what’s happening. The darkness continues from the downbeat of “From the Other Side,” which offers a better view. It opens as a ballad but erupts into a powerful rocker mid-tune.
The six-song Light Roast segment carries forward the intensity of what’s preceded it. It opens with the fiery “(In the Morning) When It’s Over,” which comes to terms with the fact that Hughes isn’t the first lover his lady’s had, nor will she be the last to let him down before yielding to “Beautiful Stranger,” someone who elicits passion from the singer, but – in truth – is looking for something more.
The stop-time rocker “When Love Comes Home,” meanwhile, states that there’ll be a time in a relationship when the woman returns from who-knows-where, smelling of another man’s cologne. The realization that it’s time to take action comes in the tension-filled “Before You Fall” before “Hanging On” stresses that Hughes truly needs his lady and that he believes she truly needs him before the bright instrumental, “Rochester,” concludes the set.
If you’re tired of over-the-top blues-rockers but still like rock with your blues, you’ll love what Hughes Taylor puts out. He walks the razor’s edge between the two worlds in style.
