"When She Comes Walking" is from Grayson Hugh's 1992 MCA album "Road To Freedom". In Hugh's own words: "The song is a cross between the electric 12 string guitars of The Byrds, and the head-buzzing harmonies I love to sing with Polly Messer".

Road To Freedom

When She Comes Walking

Buy on Amazon

I'M DONE TALKIN' TO YOU
~ words & music by Grayson Hugh ~


Don't ever trust a thing
to yourself be true
It don't matter what they think
cause they haven't got a clue
try to read my mind
til your brain turns blue
you know I ain't got the time
to explain
so say what you want but
I'm done talkin' to you

The moon it needs no name
when she comes sailing down
me I'm just the same
and I ain't gonna be your clown
you can try to read my mind
try to tell me what to do
but I think you're gonna find
you're wastin' your time
so say what you want but
I'm done talkin' to you

What do you think you're gonna gain?
What are you clingin' to?
Well to me you're just a train
with a noisy whistle
goin' right on through
right on through, right on through

So pack up all your questions
take all your answers, too
go find some eager victim
there must be one or two
try to read my mind
til your brain turn blue
you know I ain't got the time, now
I got better things to do
you'll never read my mind
besides, who asked you?
I ain't playin' your game
am I makin' it plain?
I don't mean to be rude but
I'm done talkin' to you

Go ask Elvis
head down to Washington, D.C.
you might find somethin' there
but you ain't gonna find it here with me
I can tell you that right now
hey, stop talkin' to me
baby, I want you to stop your talkin' to me
I don't need you no more
take it out that door
it's got to stop
stop talkin' to me

© 1995/2024 by River Soul Music/ASCAP


The people who recorded this song of mine were: 
Grayson Hugh: Vocals, Hammond XB-2 organ, Twang Keyboard Bender
Zach Alford: Drums
Cindy Rickmond: Electric Bass
Mick Gaffney: Acoustic Guitar
[Recorded & Mixed by Dave Dale in New York City, 1994]

On Great Blue Heron Creek

I'm Done Talkin' To You

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT
                                words & music by Grayson Hugh

In the lighthouse late at night
she drinks her coffee
above the rocks and waves below
whales sleep beneath the sea
stars and moon are hiding
I can hear the distant foghorn blow

She’s watching out for me
keeper of the light
she’s the keeper of my heart tonight

The little town is fast asleep
no lamps are burning
except the one I’m headed for
and I can see her long brown hair
down her denim jacket
standing in her tower on the shore

She’s watching out for me
keeper of the light
she’s the keeper of my heart tonight

I’ve been out five hundred miles or more
from Nova Scotia down to Maine
I’ve see  the northern lights
and felt the moon
pulling me to her once again
pull me on, pull me on, pull me on

I’ve been lost and gone
I can’t go on
I’ve been drifting way too long
I can’t wait to see the land again
I’m gonna sell the ship
and buy a farm
and lie beneath the willow’s arm
grow some roots
and live til who knows when

I’m looking for the flash
to bring me home
and no more oceans will I roam

She’s watching out for me
keeper of the light
she’s the keeper of my heart tonight
keeper of the light
keeper of the light
keeper of the light

© 1992 by River Soul/ASCAP

At The Far End Of This Island Earth

Keeper Of The Light

1955 Songs

Tiny Little Snowflakes

It was 1953. Veteran radio announcer Ivor Hugh, that's my dad) greeted his in laws at the train station, eager to get the scoop about the arrival of the famous Dr. Alfred Rawlinson. He got the story. And so much more. Oh yes. So very, very much more.

A Hugh Thanksgiving 1953

This is an excerpt from music I performed for the late Viola Farber at two performances at her studio in New York in November 1983. The music was different each time, being largely improvised over a framework of notated bones. When I asked her what she wanted in the music, she told me to "just keep doing what you did", referring to the first time I walked cold one day into her studio, introduced myself and began playing as her dancers moved. She really liked it. But she believed music and dance could exist on stage simultaneously without any dogmatic or direct relationship to each other. As she once said “if a dance had internal or set musical cues, we changed the music."
When I offered to record it for her later use, she said she would like that but, again, didn't offer any particular suggestions as to what elements of the improvisation to recreate.

Solo Piano 

Excerpt from "21 minutes"

Singer-songwriter- keyboardist Grayson Hugh wrote the song "Monday Morning" in the mid 80's after seeing the Chinese New Year parade in San Franciso's Chinatown with his girlfriend at the time. The song was recorded in 1991 at The Power Station in NYC, with Grayson's band from his "Road To Freedom" album, featuring Grayson on lead and background vocals, piano, clavinet and Hammond B3 organ bass bass; Jeff Golub on guitar; Bernard Edwards on bass and Larry Aberman on drums. For the horn section, Tower of Power co-founder Lenny Pickett wrote the sax/trumpet arrangement based  the one Grayson had created on his demo. Pickett played baritone and tenor sax and Earl Gardner played trumpet . Also, on background vocals: Robin Clark, Tawatha Agee, Vivien Sessoms and Fonzi Thornton. Arranged by Grayson Hugh and Produced by Bernard Edwards.

1991 Songs

Monday Morning

Are you ready for: dancing all night to 45s blasting out of a funky old stereo system: we played the songs by Tyrone Davis, Willie DeVaughn, The Stylistics, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, James Brown, Archie Bell & The Drells, Arthur Conley, Jpoe Tex, the list goes on & on - all night long.... )  
And here's the song I wrote about that house where me and my friends used to gather to drink and dance to old soul records. 797 Farmington Avenue was the address of my girlfriend Barbaras Knudsen. The Knudsens moved from Union, Maine to West Hartford, Connecticut and Barbara and I met in our sophomore year in high school. Our relationship was pretty stormy, but I have to say she threw great parties. 
The lineup was me on vocals, piano, tom toms (on live concerts with my band Grayson Hugh & The Wildtones, Johnnu Ventura played timbales) ; Tom Majesky on guitar and vocals; David Stoltz on bass; Rob Gottfried on drums.

Days Of Dreaming

Are You Ready For That?

My Southern Roots: After doing a U.S. tour in support of my RCA album "Blind To Reason", along with Dickie Betts in '88, Dickie asked me (on the left in this photo, seated at keyboard) to join him and some friends (Warren Haynes, Jack Bruce, Mick Taylor and Rick Derringer, who played on my "Blind To Reason" album) for a show at The Lone Star Roadhouse in NY, which was broadcast live on WNEW-FM. Here's us all doing "Southbound" in the style of Big Fat Georgia Jam - all 11 minutes of it! Enjoy!

Here's a review of the show by 'The Street' reporter Carol Tormey:

                       A QUIET GIANT


  The first time THE STREET ran into Grayson Hugh: November 1rst, 1988. The scene: The Dickie Betts Record Party at The Lone Star Roadhouse in New York. It's wall-to-wall people inside. Loyal Allman Brothers fans who did manage to get into the sold-out show have been waiting in line for hours. There are lights, cameras, cables everywhere. Technicians working video/audio hookups for MTV and TV broadcast coverage. The SRO show includes many musicians and industry VIPs. "No Shows" - despite rumors to the contrary - are Jimmy Page and Gregg Allman. But nobody cares. that's because on stage, it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime lineups of the legends of rock n' roll.

  Dickie Betts - former ace guitarist of The Allman Brothers - is center stage playing with his current sidemen. There's Jack Bruce, bassist extraordinaire of the legendary group Cream. There's also Rolling Stones ex-guitarist Mick Taylor, and still yet another world-class axeman - Rick Derringer. 

  No one on keyboards yet. But a buzz goes through the crowd as a tall, long-haired musician wearing a cowboy hat emerges from stage left to sit at the piano, joining the others for a scorching set of southern rock 'n roll. The all-star jam rocks out the crowd and when it's all over, a lot of folks are asking "Who was that hot keyboardist?"

  None other than Grayson Hugh, THE STREET finally learns from the mystery man himself during a recent phone interview. Hugh and his seven-piece had opened for Dickie on a tour through the South and the Midwest, so Betts invited him to sit in for the show at The Roadhouse.

  That memorable jam was just for starters in the unusual career of Grayson Hugh. Hugh is getting his share of notice currently, due to the release of his RCA debut album "Blind To Reason". The blue-eyed singer of Welsh ancestry penned all the songs on this powerful record and he is an authentic and authentic soul singer - reminiscent of such artists as Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. But he is quick to point out that his roots are also very much rock 'n roll.

  These days, Grayson is busy working on new material and getting ready for some concert dates in the U.K. and another upcoming U.S. tour.

 - Carol Tormey, The Street, October 1989

Southbound (Grayson Hugh Live @ The Lone Star Roadhouse w/ Dickie Betts & Friends)

Here is a live version of Grayson Hugh's song "Who Are You & How Are You", from his concert on October 15, 1988 at The Club Soda in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was during his RCA "Blind To Reason" Tour across the U.S.  Grayson wrote the song in 1969, when he was a young teenager. Since then it has seen several different versions, from it's original folk style, to a jazz-styled arrangement and this more rock-flavored one. This recording features Grayson and his touring band which was" Tom Majesky on guitar and backup vocals, Winston Roye on bass, Zach Alford on drums, Jeff Jacobs on backup synthesizers, and Joe Adams and Nate Burgess (of The Black Flames) on backup vocals.

Live On Tour '88 @ CLUB SODA, Kalamzoo, Michigan

Who Are You & How Are You

"The first time THE STREET ran into Grayson Hugh: November 1st, 1988. The scene: The Dickie Betts Record Party at the Lone Star Roadhouse. It’s wall-to-wall people inside. Loyal Allman Brothers fans who did manage to get into the sold-out show had been waiting in line for hours. There are lights, cameras, cables everywhere. Technicians working video/audio hookups for MTV and TV broadcast coverage. 

 The SRO show includes many musicians and industry VIPs. “No Shows” – despite rumors to the contrary – are Jimmy Page and Gregg Allman. But nobody cares. That’s because on stage, it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime lineups of the legends of rock ‘n’ roll.     Dickie Betts–former ace guitarist of the Allman Brothers–is center stage playing with his current sidemen. There’s Jack Bruce, bassist extraordinaire of the legendary group Cream. There’s also Rolling Stones ex-guitarist Mick Taylor, and still another world-class axeman, Rick Derringer. 

    No one on keyboards yet. But a buzz goes through the crowd as a tall, dark-haired musician wearing a cowboy hat emerges from stage left to play keyboards, joining the others for a scorching set of southern rock ‘n’ roll. The all-star jam rocks out the crowd and when it’s all over, a lot of folks are asking, “Who was the hot keyboardist?”     

 None other than Grayson Hugh, THE STREET finally learns from the tall, dark mystery man himself, during a recent phone interview. Hugh and his seven-piece band had opened for Dickie on a tour through the South and Midwest, so Betts invited him to sit in for the show at the Roadhouse. Dickie didn’t tell him what songs they were going to play, but Hugh just heard what key they were in and went for it. As a result, Rick Derringer ended up playing on five tracks of Grayson’s album.     

 That memorable jam was just for starters in the unusual career of Grayson Hugh. Hugh is getting his share of notice currently, due to the release of his RCA debut album “Blind To Reason”. The blue-eyed singer of Welsh ancestry penned all of the ten songs on the LP and merges on this powerful album as an authentic and unforgettable soul singer–remeniscent of such artists as Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. But he is quick to point out that his roots are also very much in rock ‘n’ roll even though this album concentrates on soul.     

 The 30-year-old vocalist grew up listening to the sounds of Wilson Pickettt, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye in his home town of West Hartford, Connecticut. A two year stint as the pianist at a black Gospel Church in Hartford Connecticut only deepened his love of soul music.

 Grayson quit school at 15 and went on the road Jack Kerouac style – even writing his own “bad book” as he puts it. He educated himself and read a lot of poetry which highly influenced his music. Listening to all that soul music, Hugh started out mimicking those great voices, taught himself to play piano and learned to play saxophone, studying for eight years. He dabbled in folk music and had a year of private study in classical composition at the New England Conservatory. In the late ‘70s, he spent two years in a “free jazz” period, listening to  composers like Stravinsky, Stockhausen and Ornette Coleman. Then there was the avant garde stage. He was into exotic world instruments, African drums… “weird combinations,” says Hugh. “I had an improvisational group called The Wild Goose Trio, that played mainly in church basements.” 

 He founded and fronted a couple Connecticut rock bands but quickly grew tired with the local scene. THE STREET asked him what his philosophy was.

 “I really believe in just going full speed ahead and realizing things that you envision,” says Grayson. “I don't accepting the normal bleak outlook that’s given to you, because I’m an incurable optimist.”

- Carol Tormey – THE STREET, November 1988

One Way Out (Grayson Hugh Live @ The Lone Star Roadhouse w/ Dickie Betts & Friends)

"There's A Time" is a song I wrote at age 16. It's a song about death and rebirth and the resilience of love and hope. I was influenced by Leo Tolstoy's the novel "Resurrection" and was especially moved by the recurring passages in which the central character, Count Nekhlyudov, hears the sound of the ice breaking up down by the river. I borrowed this metaphor for the reawakening of faith and transformed this song about a dream of death into a blues-rock tribute testimony to the rebirth of the spirit.

While still in junior high school I performed it solo in coffeehouses like The Bitter End in NYC, and opening for Phil Ochs at a place called Flingo East in East Hartford, Connecticut. I also performed it with my rock band The Braekirk Aggregation. The song was also part of my second band Portrait Blues' repertoire, where it was performed in churches, Jewish Community Centers, YMCA dances, coffee houses, American Legion Halls and outdoor festivals in the late 60s and early 70s. 

Years later, in 1990, after the success of my major label RCA debut album "Blind To Reason", I began assembling the songs for his next album, which would become "Road To Freedom", released on MCA in 1992.

I was looking for a song to feature my Hammond B3 organ playing (and my brand new Hammond B3, custom-built by Hammond Organ master Al Goff).  I remembered my song "There's A Time" and added a different chorus to it, and recorded it with my "Road To Freedom" backing band, featuring Jeff Golub on guitar, and the drums-and-bass combo of Larry Aberman and Al Berry, who had just provided the grooves for Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn's "Family Style" album. A gospel-style trio of backing vocals added a churchy feel.

I'm glad I featured my Hammond B3 playing prominently on this song. Al Goff did a tremendous job adding the wah-wah pedal and the Leslie Speaker switch on the floor next to the volume pedal, so that I could easily play standing up as the spirit moved him. 

Written in the tumultuous time of my adolescence, I think this song transcends the musical style of the decades since it's composition with its universal questioning and hope.

There's A Time

In 1981, I released my song "In The Hour Of The Loon", It was on my first album "Grayson Hugh" (Nineteen Records, 1980). To set the scene of this soul-jazz music poem, my good friend and producer the late great Ron Scalise recorded several tracks of crickets in the bushes outside his recording studio in South Glastonbury, Connecticut.

The lyrics are two parallel verses, sung by the lead singer and the group of harmony singers (all sung by myself). The imagery grows, collides, slides off each other, bumps, throws and stacks of pictures in a visual tangle that is suddenly calmed by the gurgling brook of a Hammond B3 organ solo. The masterful and sensitive playing of my band completes the mood: Tom Majesky - guitar; David Soltz - bass; Rob Gottfied - drums and congas. I played piano, Hammond B3 organ and sang all the vocals.

The song talks about that wild happiness "when you're young and in the picture" and having a party down by the Connecticut shore. One of my favorite writers, James Agee, remembering the backyard of his Knoxville, Tennessee childhood, said "the night is one blue dew". The dusk fades to dark, the people start to arrive, the sweet soul music on the record player music starts, the crickets are chirping, the fire in the front yard pit glows. In the dimming dusk, you hear a loon far off, down by the tidal river. Looking up at the moon, you are suddenly eternal and a deep ecstasy begins to grow within you. 

Everything is wonderful, you're in love, you're alive, you love the ocean, the trees, the bushes, the dark, the raccoons, the mute August moon traveling from itself onto the new world earth at night.

In the hour of the loon.

LYRICS:

Let me tell you of a time
when all is new
when your life begins again
and dreams come true
in the hour of the loon
as we drink beneath the moon

You said you'd come down today           
about four
meet us at the house or else
on the shore
after we go for a swim
soon the party will begin

(Come down to the sea and see me
with the sand and the waves in the
sea with the sun in them
hurry down, come on down
we'll be walking on the shore
la lalala, oooh)

When the music starts to play
you want to dance
and once again the wine will give your heart
a magic chance
as you're dancing next to me
the night becomes an ecstasy

(Hey!  When the music starts to play
the house full of voices and the
leaves of the bushes outside in the
dark growing damp and cold
raccoon in the garden
slowly crawling by the vine
beautiful, it's only you that I see
 my eyes breathe in you)

How good it will be to see
you again
who knows what might possibly
happen then?
so I'm thinking, waiting here
waiting for you to appear

(All day I walked on the rocks
following the sunbleached shoreline rocks
full of feldspar spots
where the salt makes the red seaweed hair rust
bare feet on the bones of the backs of rocks
the afternoon, pale haze of the air
the burned hours'  foam falling down
in a slow white wave
to the cool of the blue
and the smell of the clean white
shirt on your warm skin
honeysuckle small lights on
in the dim dusk air
sail the moonlight me)

Waiting in the afternoon
for the night
waiting in the hazy gloom
of twilight
The sun is shining on the sea
where tonight
moonlight will be

@ 1980 by Grayson Hugh, © 2009 by Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

Grayson Hugh

In The Hour Of The Loon

Buy on iTunes

~ HALLOWEEN MAN ~
words & music by Grayson Hugh


Put on your coat, grab your hat
and wrap your scarf around
let's get in the car
and go to the dirty old town
just for something to do
on this grey afternoon
and though it's only October
it looks like the snow might start soon

We'll walk down the streets
where dead leaves in the doorways lie
and look in the windows
at clothes too expensive to buy
the crows in the graveyard trees
aren't making a sound
til the ancient winter wind
comes up once again through the town

We'll stop at the club for some lunch
and a tall glass of beer
in the air-pocket room with a rug
and a dim chandelier
in the silence of silver and plates
we'll talk until two
and get a bit drunk
then go look for a good river view
if you'd like to

And it's just a few blocks to the riverbank
right across the highway
and no one knows
down below the road where the traffic flows
down near the homes of the water rats
where the wind is freezing when it blows
over the water and through our clothes
that's where we'll go

We'll sit on the rocks
and wait for the darkness to come
watching the geese
and wondering where they've come from
and when they'll get
to where they're so restless to go
and thinking how we'd rather stay up here
in the snow

The evening is distant
there's still half the day left to hide
from your lonely apartment
and all those dumb hours inside
where your life is a ghost
who waits in the wood of the walls
watching you drink coffee
and wonder why nobody calls

Look at the water
that's warm to the fish and the frogs
dead trees sit on the shore
like strange water dogs
and the sky's half asleep
in a pale and frozen light
and I've got some money
we just might stay out all night
if you say alright

'Cause the air's just right for taking off
for going somewhere far and new
beneath the autumn midnight blue
and as we look upon the waves
a sudden breeze begins to blow
the river seems to whisper low
it says "where will you go?"

And on this sudden breeze
coming around the bend
a barge comes floating up
and on it stand a man
wearing a hat of blue
waving his little hand
he steers the boat right up to the bank
plants his long pole in the sand

He looks at us with deep dark eyes
in a soft voice says "hello"
he asks us if we would like to
on a journey go

When we ask him "where to?"
he says "wherever you like,
deep within the countryside
and far into the night"

It's so much like a dream
but here he is
right before our eyes
just like the river is
leaning on his pole
awaiting our reply

We get on the boat
and he pushes away from the bank
he chuckles and says
"this here pole beats any gas tank"
our bones and our blood
start to fill up with a cold river thrill
and the birds are singing under the bridge
as we float toward the hills

As we're moving along
the sky starts to suddenly clear
and the moon-like sun
puts a strange purple glow in the air
"it's that old river light
that lives only here", says our friend
"it's the sunset and dawn
and the days of dead river men"

"And the chance to ride with me
only comes now and then,
when the stillness of your life
needs a fast moving wind

When the magic's in your heart
I'll come floating by
and off we'll go without a reason why
if you'd like to try

‘Cause there's nothing between you and the world
except what you're afraid to do
and everything they told you to
and with the next breath that you take
your life again belongs to you
and happiness will happen, too
it belongs to you"

                           
© 1978, 2023 by RIVER SOUL MUSIC/ASCAP

Early Grayson

Halloween Man

In the middle of my 1989 "Blind To Reason" Tour (aka The Waffle House Tour), I took a two day break and flew to London to film the video for my single "Bring It All Back". Upon returning to the States, I rejoined my band in Nashville. We were slated to do a show that same night at a place called The Ace Of Clubs, which was located at the end of Second Avenue, in "The District", Nashville's version of New Orlean's French Quarter. I remember sleeping for a couple hours, waking up, having a coffee and feeling great and energized and had a wonderful time at the show that night. A promoter had flown all the way from Australia to meet me . He wanted to bring me over to Australia and New Zealand, where "Talk It Over" first went Gold and was already a huge hit. Of course I wanted to go and for the life of me I can't recall why we didn't go there. It had something to do with "saving money". Ha! All those tours and videos were charged back to me anyway. What would another $100,000 be? Oh well, it was a really satisfying show that night in Nashville.
The lineup was: me on lead vocals and electric piano, Tom Majesky on guitar, Valerie Ghent on synth, Winston Roye on bass, Larry Aberman on drums, Vivian Sessoms and Tim Bryant on backup vocals.
LYRICS:

          FINALLY FOUND A FRIEND
      words & music by Grayson Hugh

The streets of the city
are headlight white filled with rain
all the cobblestones glisten
down by the river
out on the highway
there's a lonely kind of pain
passing lonely towns and lonely times
that you remember
traveling into a chilly spring
from a long cold winter of everything
thinking how lucky you have been
how you finally
you finally found a friend
how you finally
you finally found a friend

Sometimes you know you feel
just like stormy weather
I can't seem to rain enough
some people you might meet
think you got it all together
what they don't know
is that your heart has it rough
sorrow like a storm moves on
and the sun comes shining when it's gone
ain't it funny how life moves on
how you finally
you finally found a friend
how you finally
you finally found a friend
someone to love you
to love you til the end

Shadows move across the moon
you'll be thinking of your love
you'll see your lover soon
sorrow like a storm moves on
and the sun comes shining when it's gone
ain't it funny how life moves on
now you finally
you finally found a friend
how you finally
you finally found a friend
finally
finally found a friend
how you finally
you finally found a friend
I'm so glad baby
that I found you


© 1988 by Swamp Yankee Music/EMI April Music/ASCAP

Grayson Hugh: Live @ The Ace Of Clubs

Finally Found A Friend

Finally Found A Friend (Live At The Ace Of Clubs, Nashville TN 10/2/89)

BLUEWHITE
Words & Music by Grayson Hugh 

                      Here we are now 
        driving through these small stick towns 
                    on a winter day. 
              Thin trees on the hill snow. 
                       Grey wood bone 
      stumps and driftwood on the frozen pond. 
              Crow stands on a pine top. 
      Shall we follow this falling of winter light? 
                And go where it takes us 
                        into the late day 
           where the snow in the shell of the afternoon 
               is a cold bluewhite.
                      Then toast the twilight 
                          pale indigo. 

                  Up in the cornstub fields 
                grey hulls of barns sleeping 
                          leaning, old. 
             Owls know where the moon is. 
                The pale iris imprint bloom. 
                    The town is melting.   
                  Pull our windows down,
       hear the tires whisper black wet smooth. 
         The brook is rising up the stone mill wall.
                   And deep in the forest 
     where the dirt road goes by the high cliff banks 
                    the moss is showing 
                     beneath the snow. 

                        I look at you. 
                   You you you you you.
                My heart starts to bloom. 
               Bloom bloom bloom bloom 
                             bloom 
                      cold bluewhite.
 
                 To the distant fields 
           our eyes travel over the valley 
              to those Bruegel woods
          where the worn light's blurring 
   the candle glow of a foxes’ fur by the stone wall spine.
                    Stars are growing.
      To where shall we go in the shadow of the night? 
               Somewhere foreign and far away.
                  At four o'clock in the morning 
                       by the lake hill shapes 
                           we're wide awake. 
                       Just our small voices
                          snow brume pines.
 
                           I look at you. 
                      You you you you you. 
                    My heart starts to bloom. 
                  Bloom bloom bloom bloom 
                                bloom 
                            I love you.
                   You you you you you. 
                           I love you. 
                     You you you you     
                               you 
                      cold bluewhite. 



© 2010 by Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

An American Record

Bluewhite

Not only does my brother Robbie play acoustic guitar on this song, he took the photo of the album this track is on ("On Great Blue Heron Creek").
4 & 20 CATFISH
~ words & music by Grayson Hugh ~

Four and twenty catfish
swimmin' down the stream, just movin' along
under the brooks' edge
sleepin' in the shade by the big old log
swimmin' along and so satisfied
happy as can be just to be alive
there's that one wants to take the line
Be with me, with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me, with me

Ten thousand people
livin' all together but we're all alone
under roof, tower and steeple
huddlled 'gainst the dark and the big unknown
drivin' down the highway side by side
everyone's out on a Sunday drive
every now and then you got to run and hide
Be with me, with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me, with me

Somebody tell me what you see
when you've been reeled up from the sea
tell me

I wish I could just grow a fin
and leave my boat and the body I'm in
find out whether I'd sink or swim
Be with me, with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me, with me
Somebody tell me what you see
when you've been reeled up from the sea
tell me

Four and twenty catfish
crowded all together and gettin' along
in bunches and batches
no government but they know what's goin' on
the sky above is bright and blue
the fish all know just what to do
they don't care about me and you
Be with me, with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me
be with me, with me, with me, with me
be with me, oh yeah, be with me
yeah, yeah, four and twenty catfish
come on now

© 1994 by River Soul Music/ASCAP

4 & 20 Catfish

Here is Grayson Hugh performing his song "Blind To Reason" live at The Ace Of Clubs, in Nashville Tennessee on October 2, 1989. This was during his Blind To Reason Tour 1989. Onstage the lineup was: Grayson Hugh - lead vocals, piano & electric piano; Tom Majesky - guitar & backup vocals; Larry Aberman - drums; Winston Roye - bass; Valerie Ghent - backup keyboards; Vivien Sessoms and Tim Clark - backup vocals.

Blind To Reason (Live At The Ace Of Clubs, Nashville TN 10/2/89)

In the Fall of 1987, I recorded a vocal on a very interesting album produced by jazz/r&b/world music producer Kip Hanrahan. Kip handed me a word sheet to use while I sang, a poem by satirist and social critic Ishmael Reed called "Beware: Don't Listen To This Song". 

Here is the lineup for the album: Personnel: Olu Dara (vocals, harmonica, trumpet); David Murray, Eddie Harris (vocals, tenor saxophone); Don Pullen (vocals, organ); Fernando Saunders (vocals, electric bass); Grayson Hugh, Diahnne Abbott, Clare Bathe, Ishmael Reed, Robert Jason, Bobby Womack (vocals); Johnny Watkins, Elysee Pyronneau, Leo Nocentelli (electric guitar); Lenny Pickett (tenor saxophone); Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone); Allen Toussaint (piano); Steve Swallow (electric bass); Ignacio Berroa, Robby Ameen (drums); Frisner Augustin, Milton Cardona (congas).

Recorded and mixed during September, October 1987 and January through March 1988 at Skyline Studios, Sorcerer Sound and Sound Ideas, New York, NY, Amigo Studios, Los Angeles, CA and Different Fur Studios, San Francisco, CA. 

Beware  Don't Listen To This Song (Guest Vocalist Grayson Hugh)

I recorded my song "I Had To Get Away" in 1984. Two years later I did, in fact, get away, when I moved from my hometown of Hartford, Connecticut to New York and got signed to RCA Records. This band was great. We'd rehearse all day, perfecting songs for concerts and the occasional tv show, then walk down to the pizza place for toasted grinders. We even made a video for this song, the footage of which is hiding somewhere in the archival files of somebody's basement or attic. Some day I'll track it down. But I can tell you this: it was JUST LIKE THE BEATLES! I later released this song on a digital album, along with 12 others I had written in the early 80's, calling it "Days Of Dreaming"

The lineup on this recording is: me on lead & harmony vocals, piano, Hammond B3 organ, Tom Majesky on guitar, E-Bow & harmony vocals, David Stoltz on bass, Rob Gottfried on drums.

 I HAD TO GET AWAY
words & music by Grayson Hugh


I used to live 
down by the water's edge
come around Saturday night
we're all tryin' to get close to the edge
think you can go back
but you just get back to where you started from
become a part of me

I used to see her 
down by the college store
she was takin' care of the books
I knew she knew I wanted more
there was more than the heat of July in the air
had to get out of there

Oh, I wasn't runnin' away from you
it wasn't you
the light through the hole was shinin' through
well you know I had to get away
I had to get away, I had to get away
away away away away away away

The world wouldn't wait, babe
every day a dream now
every day a dream, fade away
oh no, you know I just couldn't feel it
your eyes would always say:
I know you feel it, baby

Oh, I wasn't runnin' away from you
it wasn't you
the light through the hole was shinin' through
well you know now I had to get away
I had to get away, I had to get away
I had to leave
I just couldn't take no more
my foolin' around, you foolin' around
everybody, the whole damn town

                        
© 1983, 2009 by Grayson Hugh/Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

I Had To Get Away

Here is "I'll Remember You", a Bob Dylan song that director Jon Avnet asked me to record for the ending of his 1991 film "Fried Green Tomatoes". I arranged this song in a style that hearkened back to my teenage days as the pianist in a little black gospel church in Hartford, Connecticut. I used Eric Clapton's touring band for this song, which we recorded in Los Angeles. The lineup was me on lead vocals and Hammond B3 organ, Paul Pesco on guitar, Greg Phillinganes on piano. Greg Sutton on bass and Steve Ferrone on drums. The choir vocals were done by Fonzi Thornton, Tawatha Agee, Robin Clark with Alex Brown doing the solo.  I also included this song on my 1992 MCA album "Road To Freedom".

I'll Remember You

Before I began recording my "Road To Freedom" album (which was released on MCA in 1992) I lived for the Summer of 1990 in the strange land of the Hollywood hills, in a little tucked-away corner of Burbank, about a half mile from the Hollywood sign. I resided at the Oakwood Toluca Hills, a kind of holding pen for actors and musicians that were in town doing a movie or making a record. We'd walk around that strange apartment complex like furtive ghosts, running into each other at the  little grocery store or down at the gate where we'd wait for our allowances to be delivered by car, and then we'd slink away again back to our separate hermetic bungalows .  
I'd write my songs and go for all-day hikes up in the hills on those trails that stretched from the Hollywood sign all the way over to Griffith Observatory. I liked staying in nature as much as possible out there, which wasn't an easy thing, since people and places out there are pretty much connected only by hundreds of miles of sidewalks and roads, with lots of artificially healthy grass and trees in the front lawns everywhere.
One of the songs I wrote, started during a walk at the Lake Hollywood Reservoir, was "Same, Same, Same". It's about how my girlfriend's bad behavior was never gonna change, haha.
It ended up being one of the "B" sides to "Road To Freedom", which is why you never heard it! 
We recorded it at The Power Station in New York, with the late Bernard Edwards producing. The lineup was:
Me - lead & harmony vocals, piano, clavinet, electric piano
Jeff Golub - guitar
Larry Aberman - drums
Bernard Edwards - bass
Sammy Figueroa - percussion
Lenny Pickett & friends - horns
Robin Clark, Tawatha Agee, Fonzi Thronton - harmony vocals

SAME, SAME, SAME
words & music by Grayson Hugh

So long now, I'm leavin'
ain't no use sayin' I knew you would
we ain't goin' nowhere
but around the neighborhood
I could not see clearly
starin' at the sun
and you told me so sincerely
that a change was gonna come
but you're just the same, same, same
same one
you're just the same, same, same
same one

You said I ask too many questions
I didn't trust you like I really should
and when I caught you shirtless in the yard with Harry
you said you were gettin' sweaty choppin' wood
I could not see clearly
and we were havin' fun
I don't wanna repeat it
comin' home to no one
you're just the same, same, same
same one
you're just the same, same, same
same one

I keep on thinkin' that I'm in love
but my heart keeps tellin' me to run, run, run

In the mornin' I'm outta here for good
last I heard, she was headed for Hollywood
I'm gonna leave a letter and thank her for the lesson
I'm a wiser man and in the opposite direction

I could not see clearly
starin' at the sun
and you told me so sincerely
that a change was gonna come
ah, but you're just the same, same, same
same one
you're still just the same, same, same
same one
ah, you ain’t never gonna change at all
you're just the same, same, same
same one
hah, still doin' it to me, baby
you're just the same, you're just the same
same one
and don't you try to fool me, baby
same one, same one..
I don't wanna be another jealous guy
you make me mad, you make me cry
I don't even need to ask you why
I don't wanna be another jealous guy

 © 1992 by Grayson Hugh/Swamp Yankee Music

Same, Same, Same,

Same, Same, Same

Buy Single

In 1990, RCA asked me and my producers to do a hip hop/rap version of "Talk It Over". Seems there was a demand for this in nightclubs and the "urban" audience (aka people who like funky music). 
So we did. Michael Baker scratched his head and conceptualised, Axel Kroell sampled, scratched and programmed away, and I recorded some new vocal parts. Michael and Axel enlisted the contribution of a young female rapper from Texas. Unfortunately no one can remember her name. I wasn't in the studio when she recorded her part. Axel told me that she "did not look at all like a rapper, and when she opened her mouth to sing, our jaws dropped". 
A fan in England recently sent me this track, recorded from his vinyl copy, hence the authentic-sounding pops and scratches. No other "cleaner" copies exist, as far as I know. Unless, of course, the mystery female rapper from Texas still has one.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I submit, for your amusement, the "Girlfriend Beats Back" Mix of my hit "Talk It Over". 
Dancing and gangsta gestures encouraged.

Lyrics:

This better be good
This better be good

Baby, oh sweet baby
I didn’t mean a word that I said
well now you know that I love you
can’t we talk it over in bed?

Hold up, spare me the small talk
you outta here sucker
take a long walk
forgive and forget nah, that ain’t gonna work
keep your hands to yourself
this ain’t your skirt, jerk
slicky tricky time
hard to get a grip 
you’re grabbin’, tabbin’ & stabbin’
not even bein’ picky
sayin’ I was the only 
and we will endure
Mmm hmmm, sure

Washed up, Romeo
played out, time to retire
make like the wind
yo, Juliet’s tired
plaguin’ & sayin’
oh my time isn’t spare
but there’s a smile on my face, baby
you didn’t put there
swear there’s no need for us
to further digress
stop jackin’ your jaw, player
give it a rest
talk to me in bed, man?
your head’s in the ozone
your shit is dead
you’re sleepin’ alone

Talk, talk, talk it over
I know you can do it baby
oh ho
talk, talk, talk it over
come a little closer
ooh babe, babe, babe
babe, baby





Talk It Over(Girlfriend Beats Back Mix)

"Long & Lonely Night" talks about a love that's missing something. From singer/songwriter Grayson Hugh's 2010 acclaimed release An American Record".

The early morning light
comes creeping 'cross the room to your hair
out on the sea
the sun is coming up without a care
It's gonna be another perfect blue
up and down the pure and perfect sand
nothing much to say or do
everything that we want at our command

And it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
yes it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night

Watchin' you baby
I'm wonderin' what we're doin' here like this
I've been thinkin' so hard about it
there's something missing when we kiss
your eyes are still the deepest blue
but the spark is so far away
I don't know just what to do
but I wish this feeling would go away

And it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
yes it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night

Well there used to be a time
I'd call you up excited on the phone
sneak out together
and wait until the dawn to go home
lately baby I'm feelin' lost
and you tell me you don't understand
somewhere baby that point was crossed
now I wanna find my own way home again

And it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
without your love
yes it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
without you love, baby
and it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
can't do it, baby
yes it's gonna be a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
oh yeah
long and lonely night, baby
I keep thinkin' about you
don't want to live without you
such a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night
hey baby
such a long, long
such a long, long and lonely night

words & music by Grayson Hugh
© 2010 by Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

Long & Lonely Night

Here is the original demo of a song by Grayson Hugh called "Save Your Love For Me", written and recorded in 1987.

Grayson sang all the vocals and played all the instruments. It features the famous "plucked organ" sound that he created with his Korg Poly 61 synthesizer. He would use this sound prominently on his 1989 mega-hit "Talk It Over", as well as on other songs from his RCA debut album "Blind To Reason". You can hear it on "Bring It All Back" and "Romantic Heart".

LYRICS:

Tell no one I’m coming home
don’t meet me at the station
meet me on the hill alone
when the dawn is breaking

Leave a letter on your bed
for those you leave behind
perhaps they’ll never understand
perhaps they will in time

And if we wait another day
it’s bound to be too late
that little town will drag you down
and close and lock the gate
save your love for me
save your love for me

I’ve wandered on the streets and seen
the red-eyed tired men
and women dreaming in distress
with hearts that cannot mend

And city hall looks like a tomb
an ancient monument
where ghost of indians walk the gloom
they’ve come to get the rent

The city lights keep me awake
and it’s too hot to rain
I’m leaving now to come get you
on the midnight Southern train
save your love for me
save your love for me

Baby I’ll be there
before the wind has changed to cold
before the blue hills turn gold
and the stars of summer fall down
oh now fall down

The city lights keep me awake
and it’s too hot to rain
I’m leaving now to come get you
save your love for me
save your love for me
save your love for me
save your love for me

© 1987 by Grayson Hugh Music/ASCAP
© 2022 by River Soul Music/ASCAP

Save Your Love For Me (the original demo)

In the Fall of 1990, I moved back to the east coast, after living for the Summer in Los Angeles, near the Hollywood sign, working on some finishing touches of songs and pre-production for my album that would be called "Road To Freedom". One day I got a call from my management telling me that director Ridley Scott wanted to use two of my songs for his upcoming film called "Thelma and Louise". 

After reading the script and having a long phone conversation with the author Callie Khouri, I said I'd be happy to give two songs for the film "I Can't untie You From Me" and "Don't Look Back". It just so happened that the lyrics I had written for "Don't Look Back" perfectly fit both the Thelma and Louise characters. I had written this song, imagining a young woman finally leaving home, leaving all the crazy drama of her life behind, breaking out on her own.

I was glad Ridley Scott liked this song and featured it in the scene where Thelma and Louise pull into a roadside diner and make a call on the pay phone. As Thelma talks to her husband Darryl and then Louise and the FBI man (Harvey Keitel)talk, "Don't Look Back" plays in the background.

My other song "I Can't untie You From Me" is on the soundtrack, but alot of people remind how much they liked this one too.

Here are the lyrics:

DON'T LOOK BACK
••• words & music by Grayson Hugh •••
(additional music by Holly Knight)


See that girl go walking off to the horizon line
she's goin' to a new life - goin' in her own good time
she ain't takin' no airplane - don't want to get there too fast
it's not too late, she can still take it back
maybe it all will pass
and she's been down that road before
and she can't go back there no more
Don't look back - keep right on that track
don't look back - keep that sunshine on your back
don't stop to shed a tear - don’t be sorry or sad
that's alright, baby - don't look back

She made it down to the station as the whistle started to blow
up drives Johnny in his pickup truck - grabs her and says "Don't go,
Tell me that you don't love me - look me straight in the eyes"
she says "If you don't tell me no stories, I won't tell you no lies -
cause we been down that road before
and we can't go back there no more"
Don't look back - keep right on that track, baby
don't look back - keep that sunshine on your back
don't stop to shed a tear - it ain’t as bad as that
that's alright, baby - don't look back

If somebody, anybody, tries to make you change your mind 
take your comfort from your courage - leave 'em all behind

It's a year gone and a lifetime since she left that old town
every now and then her name comes up as old friends sit around
way off in the distance - a restless owl she cries
and there's a young girl who's leavin' home
she's lookin' for a brand new life
Don't look back - keep right on that track
don't look back - keep that sunshine on your back
don't stop to shed a tear - don’t be soor or sad
that's alright, baby - don't look back
don't look back - keep right on that track
don't look back - keep that sunshine on your back
don't stop to shed a tear - it ain’t as bad as that
that's alright, baby - don't look back
keep right on it - keep right on it

                                 
© 1992 by Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

Don't Look Back

CITY DAWN
words & music by Grayson Hugh 

Under the bridge in the city dawn
I don't even need my Spring jacket on
smell the gasoline in the breeze
there's a mist still sleeping down by the river trees

Couldn't go on the way we were
things couldn't have gotten much crazier
that life wasn't what we deserve
'cause the air by the sea is too real 
for our eyes to be unsure

Standing out on the hot highway
I'm waiting for a ride to go my way
thinking of you in those country hills
where the April nights still give you chills

Like tumbleweed the cars roll by
driving past me to the edge of the sky
in the grass by the road some flowers sigh
all the miles of this road they are nothing
when I think of you and I

In the new city dawn
Summer days coming on
daylight fog in the air like a tear
sidewalk yards, pigeon feet
Spanish sound in the heat
life begins with each new day
now it's here


Fast
we drove along the backroads
by the yards so green
the sunlight in the lateness of the afternoon
was hanging in the trees
the beauty of the Summer was inside us
and our breath was in the breeze

Glad
we were to jump off Friday
and to see the sea
as we sipped our beer and talked and laughed
the moments in us turned to haze
as we watched each other
all our thrills and wishes grew within our gaze
both of us were happy
just to know this happiness would last two days


You and only you 
could move me and amaze me like you do
I've been a fool for you
oh now baby I wanted to

That part of us is through
oh baby let's begin again anew
I can't stay away from you
oh now baby you know it's true

Let's go find some time
you'll have yours and I'll mine
we'll walk up to the thin tree line
where the sun makes the little rocks shine

                             
                              It's where your eyes have been
                                           that thrills me so
                            and the way the wind is in them
                                        and what they know
                                my eyes fly forever with them
                                                   to my soul


Under the bridge in the city dawn
I don't even need my Spring jacket on
smell the gasoline in the breeze
there's a mist still sleeping down by the river trees

Couldn't go on the way we were
things couldn't have gotten much crazier
that life wasn't what we deserve
'cause the air by the sea is too real 
for our eyes to be unsure

In the new city dawn
Summer days coming on
daylight fog in the air like a tear
sidewalk yards, pigeon feet
Spanish sound in the heat
life begins with each new day
now it's here

©  1980, 2009 by Grayson Hugh/Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

(From the album "Grayson Hugh", orginally released in 1980 on Nineteen Records, re-released in 2009 in digital format on Swamp Yankee Records)

City Dawn

"Give Me One Good Reason" is from Grayson's comeback album AN AMERICAN RECORD (Swamp Yankee Records 2010). Originally written as a solo song, Grayson demo'd it with his friend singer Polly Messer in 1990. Seventeen years late, Polly, now engaged to and co-producing AN AMERICAN RECORD with Grayson, brought out the cassette tape of the demo'd song as a duet. And here it is: a soulful duet about never giving up on your dreams. And true love is something to be protected and treasured. This song is available individually or with the entire album AN AMERICAN RECORD on graysonhugh.net, iTunes, Amazon and Nimbit Music and most other online stores.

Give Me One Good Reason

≈ All instruments played and vocals sung by Grayson Hugh. ≈ 
Instruments: Bass Harmonica, Congas, African Bell, LinnDrum, Korg Poly 61 Synthesizer.
≈ Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Ron Scalise at The Nineteen Recording Studio, South Glastonbury, CT on March 8, 1984. ≈ 
 * * *  DUNGAREE VISION  * * * 
words & music by Grayson Hugh


I got the dungaree vision 
it makes an incision in my heart
my blood's so elated, your shapes slightly faded
it's blue jean art
you can wash it, you can wear it
you can walk it, you can tear it
bend in it & crease it
my soul will release it
my eyes on a mission
I got the dungaree vision, dungaree vision
I said well, dungaree vision, listen

On the street, the territory 
filin' by in all their glory
denim, denim, sweet venom
blue ones, white ones, loose ones, tight ones
legs that speak and shoes that squeak 
and knees that creak, gonna take a peek
my eyes capture every style
I think I'll stay here for a while

Universal motion of the walk-them-legs
pants, dance, glance, enhance
chubby ones be stuffin' in
skinny folks be droppin' in
you can even wear them when you swim
summer or winter
threads still gonna splinter
hey, that's right

Fadin' as the full moon wanes
time & clothes upon our veins
climb into a day & you climb with ease  
(won't you climb within?)
what's your size and what's your name?
the zodiac is just a game  
(only just a game)
the moon's got the ocean by the mane
hey baby, fill em' up again!

She went by on a harley
say, I almost got a charley horse
turned my neck 'round like a goose
my mind was tight, my bones were loose
got to give me anesthesia, calm me down 
before I squeeze ya tightly
oh mightily

I got the dungaree vision
it makes an incision in my heart
my blood's so elated, your shapes slightly faded
it's blue jean art
you can wash it, you can wear it
you can walk it, you can tear it
bend in it & crease it
my soul will release it
my eyes on a mission
I got the dungaree vision, dungaree vision
I said well, dungaree vision
that's what I got, got it alot

Dungaree vision, yeah, yeah, yeah 
dungaree vision, baby, hah!
dungaree, yeah, yeah, yeah 
a dungaree vision, yeah, what I got
a dungaree vision, yeah, what I got
we-le-le, le-le-le, le-le-le baby  (say it)
le-le-le, le-le-le, le-le-le baby

                                                   
        ~ 1984/2023 by River Soul Music/ASCAP ~

Dungaree Vision

I wrote "Don't Be Shy" when I was living out on the eastern end of Long Island in East Hampton, New York. In that windmill town, with it's old farms, lighthouses and scrub pine forests, it gets pretty deserted in the wintertime. In between tours, I had free time during which I would write songs. It was just me and my cat, my piano, Hammond B3 organ, synthesizers and recording equipment. Isolation and some inspiring nature can be a great allies in creativity.

DON’T BE SHY
words & music by Grayson Hugh

The truth will be revealed
sure as the rising sun
I know you’ll drop your veil, baby
and we’re gonna have some fun
don’t sacrifice me, baby
not before our time has begun

Don’t be shy to me 
don’t be shy to me
don’t you lie to me
don’t be shy

Oh, I’ll whittle away your shyness, baby
til the secret is revealed
I know the past can blind us, baby
and I know your heart is sealed
I’ll take all the time that’s needed
cause there’s so much love we can feel

Don’t be shy to me 
don’t be shy to me
don’t you lie to me
don’t be shy

They say that patience is a virtue
and ignorance is bliss
baby, I will never ever hurt you
all we really need is just one kiss

Sanctify me, baby
here’s the facts as they apply to us
oh just look me in the eye and tell me
is this attraction a maybe or a must?

Don’t be shy to me 
don’t be shy to me
don’t you lie to me
don’t be shy
baby, I will never ever hurt you
all we really need is just one kiss

Don’t be shy to me 
don’t be shy to me
don’t you lie to me
don’t be shy

© 1990/2020 by River Soul Music/ASCAP

Off The Road

Don't Be Shy

"I Can't Untie You From Me" (written and performed by Grayson Hugh) was chosen by director Ridley Scott to be featured in the film "Thelma and Louise". The song was also released on Grayson's 1992 MCA record "Road To Freedom", called one of 92's top ten albums by Billboard Magazine. This song is available individually or with the entire album ROAD TO FREEDOM (as both digital and CD) on graysonhugh.net, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and most other online stores.

I Can't Untie You From Me

Here is the original solo demo of "Give Me One Good Reason", with Grayson Hugh singing and playing all the tracks, recorded in 1990. Recorded and mixed in 1990 by Mac Quayle at Simple Simon Studios, NYC. Re-mastered in 2009 by Mark Cochi.
LYRICS:
 GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON
 words & music by Grayson Hugh


Lately I've been goin' to bed hungry
and wakin' up hungry too
I think I know the reason
I can't get enough of you
Well I know 
I know we've got our problems
but that ain't
ain't no cause to stop

Give me one good reason
to give it up
we can't stop believing
in what we've got
it ain't just a little
it's alot
yes it is now
hold on, pick it up baby now
don't let it drop

I don't think that we should worry
or argue anymore
we're quite a ways from perfect
but not so far from sure
we're gonna drive
we're gonna drive ourselves crazy
just thinking
thinking what it's not

Give me one good reason
to give it up
we can't stop believing
in what we've got
it ain't just a little
it's alot
yes it is now
hold on, pick it up baby now
don't let it drop

Oh come on with me one more time
goin' round, around, around, around, around

And on this road we've chosen
there's many a twist and turn
and many sights of beauty
and so many things
so many things to learn
we've come so far already
and we still ain't
still ain't reached the top

Give me one good reason
to give it up
we can't stop believing
in what we've got
it ain't just a little
it's alot
don't let it drop baby
pick it up, hold on baby now
don’t let it drop
give me one good reason
don’t let it drop, drop
drop hey yeah baby
don’t pick it up now
don’t pick it up now
don’t, don’t, got to do it

we can’t stop believing what we got


© 1990, 2010 by Swamp Yankee Music/ASCAP

Give Me One Good Reason (Solo Version)

GIve Me One Good Reason (Solo Version)

Give Me One Good Reason (solo version)

LOOKING FOR THE SUN
words & music by Grayson Hugh

They say that life begins
when you’re not looking
I’ve been looking too
when the water’s clear and still
and your head starts spinning
you don’t know what to do

When you took that turn
back down the road
was it the one?
Is it just fate, is it too late
to change a life
you’ve begun?

And it seems
seems so far to run
and you keep
keep on looking for the sun

There’s no use wondering 
how you got here
there’s no scientist or sage
who can read your life
just like it was a book
can’t see the final page

You’re sick of seeing
the same scenery
sick of everyone
there was a time
when you were so carefree
now it ain’t fun

And it seems
seems so far to run
and you keep
keep on looking for the sun

Looking for direction
looking for somewhere to go
in the mirror your reflection
it just doesn’t seem to know 

Get in your car
drive back to your hometown
and you don’t know why
your family’s fast asleep
so you get a room
hear the trucks go by

You’re wondering what
you’re doing here
at half past one
you’re on a journey
and you’re wondering when
it will be done

And it seems
seems so far to run
and you keep
keep on looking for the sun
yes it seems
seems so far to run
and you keep
keep on looking for the sun
looking for the sun
keep on looking for it
looking for the
looking for the sun

© 2021 by River Soul Music/ASCAP

Looking For The Sun

Buy on graysonhugh.net

“Grayson Hugh is an American original, a singer-songwriter of soulful rhythm and rough-sweet blues.  He is the uncompromising truth in a fake-it-till-you-make-it world.” - Leonard Pitts Jr., Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, Miami Herald, January 9, 2019
"Grayson Hugh has been there and is back again. His story - our story - has to be heard" - Robert Doerschuk, CMAWorld.com, May 10, 2010.
"Hugh's piano playing is a veritable cyclone of soul, drawing its energy from such diverse regions as the swampland funk of Professor Longhair, the testifying soul of Ray Charles, with rhythms of African drumming and American bluegrass thrown in the mix." - Alt. Country, August, 2010 (Belgium)

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