{"id":256,"date":"2013-06-06T22:58:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T22:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/?page_id=256"},"modified":"2015-07-18T19:14:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T19:14:40","slug":"press","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/?page_id=256","title":{"rendered":"Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cdcover_townandcountrya\"<\/p>\n

Cary Hudson, Town And Country (Daddy Rabbit Records)<\/h3>\n

MARCH 31, 2015 \/ by David Kunian<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cary Hudson\u2019s latest record is a little mellower than his Blue Mountain recordings (if you want to hear a wild tale, check out their \u201cMidnight in Mississippi\u201d cut) but the stories and easy vocals still remain.Town and Country is roots music at its best.<\/p>\n

Hudson\u2019s trio (augmented by fiddle on three tracks) keeps it tight and simple. There is some folk, some country, acoustic guitar, harmonica, and whistling\u2014basically the music of his home state of Mississippi. It\u2019s roadhouse music that veers from the opening waltz of \u201cFiddler\u2019s Green\u201d to the Junco Partner-esque \u201cAugust Afternoon\u201d to the blues stomp of \u201cLocal Honey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudson\u2019s writing encompasses easy vignettes and fun characters whether they are the \u201cMississippi Country Girl\u201d that he gets along with \u201clike Johnny and June\u201d or the romantic evening he has with a woman dancing to \u201cBeast of Burden.\u201d It\u2019s details like this that give his songs an authenticity.<\/p>\n

His songs find truth in the small things, and that\u2019s the mark of a great songwriter. There is no artifice to his playing and writing. The music is up-front yet not shallow\u2014just because it\u2019s not hard to understand what is going on in the songs doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have meaning and depth.<\/p>\n

Even the ominous song \u201cThe Storm Is Coming\u201d works on a deeper-surface level. In that way, Town and Country shows off Hudson\u2019s musical and lyrical strengths with fine songs and fine playing.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"LegendsJune 2013<\/strong> – Article<\/a> from Legends<\/strong> magazine, The Mississippi Arts & Entertainment Review<\/p>\n

Blue Mountain<\/h3>\n

After 25 years Cary Hudson flies solo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cary Hudson has been on the road for more than 25 years, spending most of that time in Blue Mountain, the seminal alternative country-rock band he formed with his former wife.<\/p>\n

It is a career that has been punctuated by highs and lows \u2013 the split of his marriage to longtime partner Laurie Stirratt, the achievement of making Gibson guitar\u2019s \u201cTop 10 Alt-Country Guitarists\u201d list in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had been on the list of Top 10 alternative guitarists or Top 10 country guitarists, I\u2019d be a millionaire. But being in the Top 10 alternative country guitarists means that I am still doing my trade in small clubs,\u201d Hudson laughs. \u201cBut it really was an honor. And I guess I\u2019m a pretty good guitarist, but I\u2019m more of a songwriter. If I couldn\u2019t sing or play, I\u2019d still write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Mountain\u2019s last tour, however, was officially its last. Following a June 29th 2013 date at the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Waterford, the band officially pulled the plug.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Legends\u201cWe had a great run. Nobody\u2019s mad at anybody else. I\u2019m just ready to go in a different direction,\u201d says Hudson, who has made a name for himself with his Neil Young-inspired riffs and who has become synonymous with a Les Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going from Jimmy Page to John Hurt,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m going to be taking a bluesier avenue from now on; more acoustic. You never know what lies ahead, but aside from occasionally in the studio, I think I\u2019m done playing the electric guitar. I\u2019ve been doing it almost non-stop since I was 13. I\u2019m almost 50 now, and it\u2019s out of my system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group had tried in recent years to incorporate some of the more acoustic-based bluesier sounds Hudson wishes to pursue, but those sounds simply did not fit in with the legacy Blue Mountain had created.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people want to see me with a Les Paul when they come to a Blue Mountain gig, and I owe that to them. It\u2019s like going to see AC\/DC. You don\u2019t want to see any acoustic guitars. You want to see Angus Young bopping around with his Gibson SG in a school boy\u2019s uniform,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Hudson, originally from Sumrall, has released a few albums over the years, including the critically acclaimed \u201cThe Phoenix,\u201d but considers this the official beginning of his career as a solo artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cMississippi has a great tradition of guys who just went out there with an acoustic guitar and did it: Jimmie Rodgers, Bukka White, Son House \u2013 I could go on for days. I want to be a part of that tradition. It\u2019s always nice to have an old guy sitting in a chair and playing an acoustic guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LegendsIn addition to the remaining dates for Blue Mountain, Hudson has been playing a number of solo acoustic gigs, including several dates at New Orleans\u2019 Chickie Wah Wah. He isn\u2019t planning a full-fledged tour until he releases a new record \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility of using a band for either the recording or the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m putting together a band, I see it as me, someone on upright bass and a fiddle player. If there is a percussionist, it will be light percussion \u2013 not a full drum kit,\u201d he says. \u201cString bands are another old Mississippi tradition \u2013 those pre-bluegrass bands like the Mississippi Sheiks. The instrumentation is sometimes similar to bluegrass, but it isn\u2019t bluegrass. It\u2019s jazzier and bluesier. But if I put together another band, it definitely won\u2019t be country-punk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudson has about half of the songs written for his official solo debut and hopes to have a release next year. He says he plans to use musicians from Mississippi to his current New Orleans home, for the forthcoming album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to this. I played a Mardi Gras festival in Columbia, South Carolina, earlier this year \u2013 ironic considering that I live in New Orleans,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are all of these bands full of young kids with electric guitars. Me and Drink Small [an 80-year-old S.C. blues legend] were pretty much the only two dudes playing solo acoustic sets. So when people tell me that rock is dead, I think of shows like that. Rock isn\u2019t dead, and I\u2019m not abandoning rock. I\u2019m just shifting gears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LegendsEven though he\u2019s looking forward to launching a solo career, Hudson is certainly not phoning it in for the final Blue Mountain shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirector Thad Lee is doing a documentary of Blue Mountain, which covers the last five years of the band and will include the final two shows,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m gonna strap that electric guitar on and rock. I love what I do in Blue Mountain, and I love what we have created over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

August 2014 saw the release of Cary’s sixth solo album Town and Country, recorded in Bogalusa, Louisiana at the world-famous Studio In The Country. It was mixed by Multi-Grammy winning Trina Shoemaker and has notable musicians as Doug Belote, Ryan C. Brown, David Hyde, and Ferd Moyse.<\/p>\n

Cary can be followed on ReverbNation, Twitter, and Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as gigging goes – anything that comes up, I\u2019m game for it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe main thing for me right now is that I feel like doing what I\u2019m doing. My head’s in it. My heart\u2019s in it. A lot of musicians reach a certain age and get tired. It gets to be too grinding. Some of us have to learn the hard way. I don\u2019t see myself stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cary Hudson, Town And Country (Daddy Rabbit Records) MARCH 31, 2015 \/ by David Kunian Cary Hudson\u2019s latest record is a little mellower than his Blue Mountain recordings (if you want to hear a wild tale, check out their \u201cMidnight in Mississippi\u201d cut) but the stories and easy vocals still remain.Town and Country is roots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_fullwidth.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/256"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/256\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/caryhudson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}