For the vast majority of players, you genuinely can’t know how talented they are until you see them perform live. However that’s not the case with Bruce Hughes, who’s been a musical man about town for four decades. Hughes co-founded several Austin groups (including The Resentments – who play 7:30pm each Sunday at Saxon Pub – The Scabs, Ugly Americans, and Poi Dog Pondering), earned the distinction of Austin Music Awards’ “Bass Player of the Year” in both 2008 and 2015, and became the Musical Director for the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. He’s also no stranger to the road life, having toured alongside Bob Schneider, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fastball, Sly Curtis, and Jason Mraz.
So with a rap sheet that impressive, you can imagine how good Hughes’ solo stuff is. It’s been four years since he dropped his fifth solo album Christmas Street, but shook off any assumptions of having gone stale with the genre-spanning full-length Late Night Polaroids. True to its name, Late Night Polaroids is packed with sentimentality and nostalgia, not to mention some straight up sexiness. Case in point, one of Late Night Polaroids‘ most seductive snapshots, “What’s Inside Your Head”!
–Jack Anderson