David Hughes
English Rhythm & Views
by Tom Nelligan

English songwriter and acoustic guitarist David Hughes delights in playing the role of a cheerfully cynical iconoclast. He proudly smokes cigarettes, drinks vodka, writes some politically incorrect songs, and generally enjoys being a sardonic voice from the middle-aged middle class, a demographic group that's largely unrepresented among contemporary singer/songwriters. His songs can be smooth and jazzy or clipped and percussive. His subject is often contemporary suburban life viewed with a combination of appreciation and disillusionment. There's occasional anger, lots of subtle humor, and always, a mature journalist's eye for details. "Anything that sort of goes against the grain suits me fine," he dryly explained in a recent phone conversation.

Hughes has toured with Pentangle and Fairport Convention, and some of the best-known names in English folk-rock contribute to his albums, including singer Jacqui McShee, bassists Danny Thompson and Dave Pegg, and drummers Gerry Conway and Dave Mattacks. His music shows a complex, reflective personality that is not always quite as curmudgeonly as he sometimes suggests. "I'm standing at the crossroads of an ordinary life / Not the one I had in mind," he disappointedly notes in a song called "An Ordinary Life." In another track called "Being A Poet," he curtly observes "Being a poet, stupid thing to be / writing pretty things, mostly doing it for free." But he can also write lines like "I gave you roses and you gave me wings / A safer heart closes its mind to those things," from a love song called "It's Hard To Imagine."

Hughes was born in Liverpool in 1950 and grew up in the port town of Maldon on England's southeast coast. One of his earliest influences was the politically outspoken African-American comedian Dick Gregory: "I think I must have been around 10 or 11 when they imported him onto the BBC from the States. He was a very sophisticated man, and I loved that. It was the fact that he had an edge." Music was later in coming. "I was given guitar lessons when I was 13, and it put me off for seven years! I never got on with straight-ahead rock 'n' roll. It wasn't until I heard Bert Jansch and Pentangle that I realized there was something else that might be interesting, and it wasn't until college that the opportunity arose."

During his second year at Loughborough College he met two fellow students who introduced him to fingerpicking guitar styles. "One guy showed me how to play 'Angie.' It was the first thing I learned. Immediately I had the rhythm, and I played 'Angie' for two days solid on a weekend. By Monday morning I had my chops together, and I started playing then."

This is an excerpt. Read the full article in Dirty Linen #87 (Apr/May '00).