Well here’s the news: Hugh Coltman is alive and well and recording in France. I thought he had disappeared into the ether, so when I saw his solo album, Stories From The Safe House, whilst strolling around a huge record store in Paris, it was a very welcome surprise.
I am not sure where he has been these last few years, but he has clearly been working on some impressive music. Holed up in his safe house somewhere in France he has produced twelve acoustic based tracks that form this highly satisfying album.
Further exploration of his Myspace page confirms that Hugh did, in fact, disappear. Having toured for five hectic years and releasing three albums with The Hoax, both the band and its award winning singer, Hugh, simply vanished.
So where did he go? His site doesn’t actually reveal too many secrets. It says that maybe it was a “pre mid life crisis, or the love of a socially inept woman or that maybe he had just lost his front door keys”. Whatever he has been doing has inspired some wonderfully gentle acoustic tracks, with lyrics resonating reflection and observation, and crammed full of life experience.
From the opening track, “Sixteen”, a song soaked in the additional atmosphere of ukulele, strings, and some very wise words, you know you are in for a special ride. “Voices” softly enters your psyche and refuses to move back out. Within these first two tracks he has set an atmosphere that is both melancholic and oddly optimistic.
“On My Hands” has Hugh on characteristically effortless vocal form. It was this voice that helped propel The Hoax onward and upwards at their peak, a time that saw them opening for the likes of Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Walter Trout, among others. It is full of insecurities and regret, and lines so full of imagery they actual haunt you. “I’m afraid of the things my hands have done”, confesses Hugh amid a Parisian café atmosphere.
“Could You Be Trusted” lifts the spirits with a song that paints an instantly visual scene. This is surely the sign of excellent song writing, coming at you like a brief encounter with totally believable people brought to life within a well-crafted verse or two. Hugh’s blues and soulful vocal pedigree, earned with The Hoax, takes hold as the track progresses.
Article comments