People sit up and notice when they hear something from the heart.
"The engine seized, the dashboard lights, they glow like Christmas trees at night. Took all I have to hold back the tears, ‘cause I don’t want to break down here.” With original lyrics like this from the song "Breakdown" combined with her powerful, soulful voice, Shelly Hughes offers mature tones and a colorful sanctuary within her debut album. Her songs can be enjoyed from fans of acoustic artists ranging from John Mayer, Howie Day, and Norah Jones, to the power pop hooks of Kelly Clarkson and Fall Out Boy.
A true renaissance woman, Shelly has been a teacher, a waitress, an advanced open water diver, a radio show host, a student, a professional photographer, a columnist, a retail manager, a jagermeister girl, a paralegal, an entrepreneur, a bartender, and a lawyer, all the while remaining a musician still in her 20’s. Her life experiences serve to color her views and expressions in a truly unique character, much like herself.
"When you're young, you can take a certain amount of comfort knowing that most of your life isn’t mapped out for you yet. The possibilities are endless. But as you get older, the roads tend to narrow, and you realize you have more to loose by straying off the path laid out for you. And there’s no worse prison than being stuck on the wrong road because other choices are no longer available. I didn’t want that to be the hallmark of my life.”
Not surprisingly, the centralized theme in her music revolves around the lonely path one walks through life, the need to escape, and the connections to be made along the journey. “It’s mostly the thoughts in your head that you generally don’t share with people, but that everyone feels at one time or another.”
Shelly’s voice is a mood ring of emotion that carries weight, soul and experience. Her intelligent lyrics are at the forefront of her abilities. Her style is brave but it's her vulnerability that gives her music meaning. She’s writing music catchy enough to roll your windows down and sing along to, yet intelligent enough to make you lock yourself in your room, break out the liner notes and discover what’s really being said. This, along with her soulful and mature guitar chops, is what makes her stand out from the pack.
Shelly surfaced on the Long Island music scene at age 19 fresh out of graduating from the Berklee College of Music. “I spend a lot of time in working bands, playing covers and weddings. As a guitar player, it helped me get a lot out of my system. That time of my life made me a stronger player and overall a greater musician and performer.” Shelly even gigged heavily with a blues trio. “I suffered from the same disease every other blues rock guitarist suffered from. We all wanted to be Stevie Ray Vaughan. I paid my dues shedding in my room to ‘Texas Flood’ when I was a kid. The skills I learned let me settle up with my needs as a musician, but eventually I realized that I had to find my own voice.” As a product of the first “emotionally aware” generation, Shelly turned her attention to stirring a dynamic range of tones and emotions through well-crafted, short musical stories.
Although Shelly has been playing the guitar since age 4, she discovered her singing voice later in life. “I always thought I would find the perfect Daltrey to my Townshend, but by age 25, I realized I had to work on a backup plan”. After trial by fire in the world of live performance, she quickly broke out on her own as a solo singer/songwriter.
Working as a solo acoustic artist, Shelly developed a unique and percussive approach to performing that allowed her to build a huge sound around her intimate lyrics. Now gigging with a band, Shelly built her following on Long Island and New York City, performing at renowned venues such as Joe's Pub, Roseland Ballroom, The Cutting Room, and The Living Room. As an artist who has built her following the old-fashioned way, by constant gigging and contagious word-of-mouth – fan by fan, week by week, month by month, her band has a steady growing fanbase. “It’s my hope that people will connect my music to their lives, and let me be a part of them, and I will do the same for them.”
