Join the Hunnypot Crew and Hot Tub Johnnie for our New Year's Eve celebration at the Mint.
SUGARAY RAYFORD Performing Live! 2020 Grammy nominee + 2019 Blues Foundation Award-Winner for Best Soul Blues Male Artist. New album ‘Somebody Save Me’ out now!
Texas born Caron “Sugaray” Rayford began his musical career at the age of 7 singing & playing drums in church. His gospel influence can be heard and felt in his music today. Rayford’s phrasing is intimate and conversational and the soulful gravel in his voice hints at his firsthand experience with hardship during his childhood marked by poverty and loss. He remembers a sad game he played with his brothers, a competition that determined who was skinniest by counting the number of belt holes left unused on his belt. His mother struggled to raise three boys alone while battling cancer. When she died, it was a kind of a relief. “She suffered and we suffered,” Rayford said. “Then, we moved in with my grandmother and our lives were a lot better. We ate every day and we were in church every day, which I loved. I grew up in gospel and soul.”
When Sugaray belts out a song, you not only hear it, you feel it. The excitement in the room is palpable when he takes the stage. His dynamic voice is as large as the man himself. With his old school vocal style, Echoes of Muddy Waters, Otis Redding and Teddy Pendergrass can be heard. At 6’5” he is a big man, but he moves with grace and energy and his dance steps will remind you of the Legendary James Brown.
