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| Featured Artist Link REALLYMUSICRADIO presentsJEDD HUGHES
Growing up in the small south Australian town of Quorn, Jedd was first given the gift of country music by his father, who loved the sounds of Australian traditional country singer Slim Dusty, and American icons such as Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins.
"My dad had lots of records," Jedd recalls. "I remember listening to Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues' and 'I Walk The Line.' The first guitar solos I ever heard were Luther Perkins', and for some reason that got me excited. I guess that's what got me into guitar playing. And then Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs - it was a reddish/pink cover with Marty dressed in black on the front. Music was always exciting to me. I used to run around the house freaking out because it affected me." When he wasn't listening to music at home, much of Jedd's childhood was spent onstage. At age eight, he won first place at the Port Pirie Country Music Festival. One year later, Jedd's dad gave him a few guitar lessons, and by age 10 he was playing a custom-made De Gruchy acoustic guitar. One night on the radio, Jedd heard the Ricky Skaggs song "Country Boy" and was hooked on Skaggs' rapid-fire blend of country and bluegrass. "That was the fastest music I'd ever heard," he recalls. "It was pretty mind-boggling. Then I started listening to Vince Gill, because my mom was completely in love with him - and still is! I always thought his guitar solo on 'Liza Jane' was amazing." Through a friend who was a bluegrass mandolin champion, Kym Warner, Jedd was introduced to some of the greats of bluegrass music. He heard the sounds of Tony Rice, Del McCoury and Ralph Stanley, and was taken with the music's purity. He was also drawn to country legends like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. "The only new music I had access to was popular music, and it didn't interest me," he admits. "I found early country music and bluegrass more interesting, so that's about all I listened to until I was 18." Around this time Jedd met the man who'd soon be his producer, Terry McBride. Terry, who'd enjoyed much success with his trio McBride and the Ride, did a workshop at the college. Later at a student showcase, he noticed there was something different about the young guitarist who was expertly picking a tribute to Chet Atkins and Roy Nichols on his guitar and singing a Buddy Miller song with soul beyond his years. He talked with Jedd after the show and offered to write with him if he ever made the move to Nashville. Soon after, Jedd called Music City home and the pair began writing. "We probably wrote over 80 songs between April 2002 and March 2003," notes Jedd. Since his move to Nashville, Jedd has earned the respect of Nashville's elite. Jedd hopes his blend of roots-based country will appeal to a wide range of music fans. "I want to get this record to as many people as I can," he declares. "I hope I've made some music that will get inside somebody else and make them feel something. "Country music still excites me like I'm four years old," he adds. "There have always been so many possibilities with country. Cash was doing what he was doing, and Merle was doing his own thing, too. There were all these different country artists, but it was always still country music. And country music is still cool." |
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