Grayson Hugh - Save Your Love For Me (CD)

Initially inspired by the Ray Charles album "Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music" (ABC-Paramount 1962), "Save Your Love For Me" is the new Roots album by acclaimed singer-songwriter Grayson Hugh. Five years in the making, "Save Your Love For Me" is a collection of thirteen songs written by Hugh in more of a Country style. Grayson rarely does anyone's music other than his own, but, for this record, he wanted to pay homage to one of his favorite Country songwriters. And so he decided to record his arrangement of his favorite Hank Williams song: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". It's a duet with his wife singer Polly Messer. Grayson has always said that there is a fine line between Country and Soul music. On this record, the two genres blend seamlessly. Grayson has taken some of his earliest influences of Bluegrass, old time Country, The Everly Brothers, added a twist of Cajun and a dash of Rockabilly - and created a unique landscape for his poetic lyrics.

For this project, Hugh assembled some of the top names in Roots music today. Pete Kennedy is on acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and banjo (he's recorded and performed with Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, his duet with his wife Maura - The Kennedys and he is a former member of Nanci Griffith's band); Tony Garnier on acoustic upright and electric bass (Tony has been the bass player Bob Dylan’s band since 1989 and he’s worked with Asleep At The Wheel, Paul Simon, and Rockabilly artists Robert Gordon and Brian Setzer); Cindy Cashdollar on dobro and lap steel guitar (Cindy won 5 time Grammys for her work with Asleep At The Wheel, and has recorded and performed with Paul Butterfield, Levon Helm, Willie Nelson, Van Morrison and Redd Volkaert) ; Gary Oleyar on fiddle and electric guitar (Gary has toured and recorded with Jim Messina, Kenny Chesney, Marty Stuart, Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis and Mick Fleetwood’s band Zoo); Tyger MacNeal on drums (he’s worked with blues legend Johnny Winter, The Average White Band, Freddy Fender, Grayson Hugh & The Moon Hawks and was Jose Feliciano’s drummer from ’92 to 2017); Polly Messer on harmony vocals (Polly toured and recorded with Western Swing band Eight To The Bar, Rockabilly band Eugene Chrysler and with Grayson Hugh in concert halls in the U.S. as well as in Europe).

The songs on “Save Your Love For me” are cinematic. The stories Grayson tells on this record range from the joy of seeing Spring explode in a North Carolina pasture, to a screen door slamming in northern Maine; from a heartbroken wanderer haunted by a long lost Summer, to a cowboy camped up in a high Montana mountainside, writing a letter to his true love back home. So sit back and enjoy this ride through the hills and valleys of the human heart.