Jedd Hughes
Bio
"Make no mistake, Jedd Hughes is a force of nature" - Tommy Emmanuel
Jedd Hughes describes life with transcendental precision: a sleepless night in Modesto; a childhood on the edge of the sprawling Australian desert; an old friend whose wit is still razor-sharp, finally at peace. Listening to Hughes, you don’t just picture a place or a person. You experience them.
It makes sense, then, that Hughes’s technicolor world has often felt too formidable for three verses and a chorus. He would not settle for making music that was anything but all of him, and so we waited––waited on the kid legends befriended and believed in––to find a way to capture the smoky stories and sounds that danced and beckoned to him, just out of focus.
The wait is over. March of 2025, Jedd Hughes will release “Night Shades” the ever anticipated follow up album, on Truly Handmade Records, a division of Guy Clark records formed by his children to honor his legacy. Hughes is an artist and sonic painter of the highest order, with a sensual grace on the fretboard rarely seen. His ability to combine mesmerizingly deep and inspiring songwriting with heartbreakingly beautiful guitar playing carries listeners to a multitude of unique landscapes, full of witty yet introspective lyrics and lilting, poignant tales of life. When Hughes has a guitar in his hands and is in front of a microphone, hearts find wings for those lucky enough to hear him weave his magic.
A heady list of musical giants spanning generations and artistic styles have long-since counted him as a trusted collaborator and inspiration, including Patty Loveless, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Sarah Jarosz, Ryan Bingham, the late Guy Clark, Jim Lauderdale, Brandy Clark, and more. His recent work has found him being one of the most talked about and revered guitarists in the world, and this is all beyond merited, according to the many magazine features and heaps of endless critical acclaim. With “Night Shades”, a landmark follow-up chapter unfolds for an artist's artist who continues to awe and mystify the rest of us.
His previous release in the summer of 2019, WEST, was a solo album of his expansive roots-anchored rock-and-roll. Hughes’ easy tenor and masterful guitar playing are worthy companions to his songwriting. “I came over here to make my own music––that was my dream,” Hughes says. “I started suppressing that dream for a while in the midst of defining my artistry relative to what commerce driven aspects pushed for. To make my own music, I had to figure out what that even was. I had to get some confidence, to try it again, and believe in myself.” The path is the path. “Recently, I played a session with Emmylou, Buddy Miller, and Sam Bush,” he says. “I was just sitting in the room, thinking, ‘How the hell did I get from the middle of nowhere to moments like these?’”
For Hughes, the middle of nowhere was Quorn, Australia, his tiny hometown hugged by the Flinders Ranges, the Mars-red mountains that stretch into the Outback. “Everything seemed so much bigger,” Hughes says. “The sunsets were so drastic. Because it was so far out, there was no ambient light. There was no sound other than these epic 10,000 cockatoos flying over in massive flocks to the gum trees at sundown. You’d hear them coming from miles away. It only rained a few times a year. So anytime it rained, it was like, ‘Oh my God. It’s raining! Go! Watch the rain!’” He laughs.
Hughes picked up the guitar at about 7 years-old––his father encouraged him, and his home was filled with music. His parents loved hardcore and outlaw country––Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings––and his older brother loved Led Zeppelin and 90s grunge. Hughes loved it all. At age 8, he had a revelation. “I saw a guy named Bill Chambers playing an old Fender Telecaster, and it was just the greatest thing I’d ever heard,” he says. “That was when I decided I was going to take guitar a lot more seriously.” He dropped out of high school at 16, began touring as a guitarist with an Australian country singer, and never looked back.
Paid in cash that he stashed in his freezer, Hughes saved up enough money to make it to Levelland, just west of Lubbock, Texas, where he attended South Plains College. Then, masquerading as a tall, lanky hit songwriter, fate stepped in. Terry McBride came down from Nashville to conduct a workshop at South Plains. Impressed with Hughes, McBride encouraged him to move to Nashville and promised to help in any way he could. “I came to Nashville in 2002, in the middle of March,” Hughes says. “It was still cold. I was terrified. I was so broke.”
Hughes had to find a job. McBride made good on his promise and arranged for Hughes to audition for a spot as acoustic guitarist and harmony singer for Patty Loveless. Hughes nailed it. His first gig in Nashville was at the Grand Ole Opry with Loveless, then Merlefest the following weekend. He played with Loveless for two years, writing songs with heavy hitters whenever he was home. A record deal with MCA followed, and his debut album dropped in 2004. “It all just kind of fell into place, which is funny, because it all fell out of place just as quickly as it fell into place,” Hughes says. MCA merged with another label, the inherited staff was fired, and just like that, he was dropped.
Hughes tried to rally. Friend and mentor Rodney Crowell took him out on the road as a guitarist, and Hughes signed a new deal with Capitol. But the record he made for them was never released, and Hughes asked out of his deal. He continued to play with others. “All the while, I was daydreaming of making my own music, but didn’t know how to do it––didn’t have the confidence to do it,” he says. Tired of a Nashville that had burned him twice, he sought refuge in Los Angeles. “I was just so lost and disenchanted with the whole thing,” he says. “I didn’t know myself––didn’t know what all those years of trying had meant. I never thought I’d come back. I remember driving away, thinking, ‘Thank God that’s over.’ But then things got worse in LA,” he pauses and laughs, sounding a bit sad. “Because I wasn’t dealing with anything.”
But Hughes stopped running. He returned to Nashville and dug in. “I got sober and have been now for all these years,” he says. “As soon as I did that and started to work through some of those things that were lingering in the back of my mind, I started to write songs that I liked again. The first one was called ‘Animal Eyes.’” A windfall ensued, and the songs haven’t stopped coming. “I just found this little nugget of confidence and a piece of music I believed in and had fun playing,” he says. “I started to feel like maybe I could play my own music again––which doesn’t seem like it would be a hard thing, but for me, it really was.”
“Animal Eyes” became a sublime standout on 2019 release WEST. An electric guitar kicks off with full-bodied tone that seems to slither and build toward percussive crashes and winding strings. The song embodies the album’s need to follow the twisted roads that make up the weathered path out of despair. “I’m excited for what’s after all of this, because this is pretty dark,” Jedd says. “I feel like that’s just what is coming out and what needs to be said right now.”
Penned with Guy Clark, slow burner “Hollywood” is heavy, smirking as listeners are invited to be in on the joke. Clark was one of the first heroes Hughes wrote with after first arriving in Nashville, and the two became close friends. “He had such a great sense of humor,” Hughes pauses, remembering his friend, adding, “God, he was funny.” The two wrote the song not long after meeting.
What Jedd’s legendary peers speak about him says it all.
"Jedd Hughes is one of Nashville's brightest writers and instrumentalists who has blessed many great artists records, but rarely makes his own, so I always take note of what he chooses to create and release. Every song is a lesson in taste, mastery and eloquence, never calculated or angling." - Buddy Miller
"Jedd’s guitar playing can be summed up in one word: phenomenal...! What a joy it was to share the stage with this extraordinary musician" - Emmylou Harris
“Jedd Hughes is a modern-day renaissance man. A completely original artist. Writing, playing, singing and producing. He does it all on a frightening level and with the most soul one could ever hope to tap into. (He even builds his own guitars!) Just close your eyes and let Jedd’s music transport you to another galaxy we all should be so lucky to visit.” - Guthrie Trapp
With this newest release Night Shades, which was produced by Rodney Crowell and features John Hiatt, Cory Chisel, and Sarah Buxton, Hughes has set the bar into the stratospheric ether. Ultimately, Hughes is a riveting storyteller. “I hope the stories in these songs resonate with people,” he says. “I hope people listen to Night Shades and can see some of the things I saw.”
