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07/05/05 I got a call a few weeks ago from my friend Bobby Braddock, he asked if I would like to sing on a Blake Shelton song. I was floored. I know its just me and a mob of 16 or so other people singing a chorus as the "bar crowd" but its still going to go on a Blake Shelton CD. And to top it off, John Anderson AND the MAN George Jones are also on the song. I don't think its possible that this song won't get released as a single off of the next CD, so, like it or not CJ Hughes is going to be on country radio. It's not much, but I'll take what I can get. The recording session was really cool. Bobby gathered friends and family into the studio at Sony/ Tree down on music row last Friday right after quitting time. As the crowd trickled in Bobby got the idea to have someone go on a beer run, Hell yeah! So then he sits us all down and plays us this song that he and Blake wrote, with a friend of Bobby's as well. It's called "The last country song." So he puts us all in the studio, gives us all head phones and cheat sheets and he just starts running the song. He started off in the room singing with us, then decided he would be of more help from the control room. After about five takes he realized something was missing. So beer bottles and coffee mugs were brought in for us to clink like we were really in a bar. It was a hoot. I had had a few and accidentally broke my Sony/ Tree coffee mug while clinking it against my empty beer bottle, I kept the cup as a souvenir. Maybe I will get Blake to sign it if I run into him again. Anyway recording only lasted about 45 minutes. Before and after was great though, I got to hear some "interesting" music row stories from several veteran songwriters and music row insiders. I felt a little out of place as everyone else seemed to know everyone but me, but they were all very friendly and Bobby made sure to introduce me to everyone. And the best part was that when he introduced me he would say: "This is CJ Hughes, he's a great singer and songwriter." Nothing like accolades from your hero. So a week or so later I got a call from Bobby. He called from the studio to tell me that he hadn't picked up a pitch CD I had dropped off for him at Sony yet but that he would, and would be sure to give it a listen. I have been pitching him material for Blake's new CD. Then he says, "I've got someone here that wants to talk to you." So he hands the phone off and its Blake Shelton. Bobby had told Blake that I had been sending out emails telling everyone I knew to request "Goodbye Time" at their local radio stations. Blake just wanted to thank me for helping get the word out, which I thought was awesome. We talked for five minutes or so, he is a real nice guy. I wish him the best with "Goodbye Time" and the new CD. While we are on it visit www.GoodbyeTime.com a little page I put up to get the word out. It has a link to Radio and Records list of radio stations that have a website. From there you can find your local radio stations phone number and/ or email and call and request the song. Last I checked it was #10 on Billboard and #11 on Radio & Records. On another Bobby and Blake related note, I sent Bobby a link to a song off of my website called "I'll never do that." I wrote it last year with Thom Shepherd and his publishing company picked it up and made a demo out of it. Anyway Bobby gave it a listen and decided it might be good for Blake, so he is sending it to him this week so Blake can here it. Guess we will see what happens. We are finally finished with the tracking for the new CD. All that is left is the final mixing, mastering and duplication. The title has been changed to "I'm Your Hick." I am working on a plan to release "That Damn Skippy" to the major country morning radio shows, we will see if anything comes of that. I will probably have a CD release party once I get the copies of the CD in hand. Would be cool to pull most of the band together that played on the CD and fill up a bar with some friends and play for the night. More soon, I Country. CJ |
05/18/05 You read right, as of Saturday, May 6th at around 10pm I became engaged. Her name is Michelle Lameda and she is from central Tennessee. And we met, of all places, in a honky tonk down on Lower Broadway in Nashville. We met last August and have been inseparable since, which should help explain the erratic entries to my journal in the last 8 months or so. We are planning a June 2006 wedding. Other News: Honestly this pales in comparison to getting engaged but it is worth noting. I pushed back the release date on my debut indie CD so that we could go in and record a few more songs to add to it. Looks like there will be 12 songs once we are done. It's a mixture of older and new songs and is coming together very nicely. FYI here are the tracks that will be on the CD: That Damn Skippy Famous To Me The Crooked Rows Song God Must Like Country Boys I'll Never Do That Arkansas Dirt Henry Wilson's Daughter (formally henry winston's daughter) I'm Your Hick Honky Tonk Bathroom Wall Its The Truth I Don't Drink On Sunday 12 Fluid Ounces (At A Time) Hopefully we will wrap up recording this month, finish mixing by the middle of next month and then get it sent off for reproduction by the end of next month. So HOPEFULLY by June, it will be available for sale on this site. I'm planning on getting it on several other sites as well, we will see how that goes. And with any luck I will be able to get it in a few record shops around Nashville. If you know of a record shop in your area that might carry the CD let me know. More Soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
04/08/05 How in the hell did two months slip by without me putting an entry in my journal? I have no idea where the time goes anymore. I do know that January 2005 was the busiest month my logo/ web design business has had since I started it. And that carried over well into February because it was a busy month as well. I spent two weeks with a bad cold, kept me down for a while. At any rate here I am. It’s the first week of April. So I added a few new things to the site. CJ's Hot Country Hits being one of them. Its basically just me spouting off about songs that I've heard recently on the radio that I really like. I did a blurb on Bobby Pinson and the website for Swallow in the Hollow quoted it, as Bobby was scheduled to play there. I thought that was pretty cool. Swallow in the Hollow is well known for be a songwriter haven, several of my friends have played there including Wayland Patton. We are finished with the vocals on those final four songs I've been working on for the CD. The final 4 full music ones anyway. I am going to go back in and do a few more acoustic songs, just me and a guitar and maybe a dobro and mandolin. Some laid back tunes like that should round out the CD nicely. Something else they may be of interest to my site visitors. I'm coming up in the top five in google when you put in "country songwriter." Not too shabby for a guy with no cuts. I could chalk it up to my website design skills but truthfully It just kind of happened on its own. I have been getting requests to use my songs on other people's CDs recently, although none have come to fruition as of yet. Maybe they will though, it would be cool to have a few independent cuts this year. You never know when some record label is going to pick up an independent CD that you got a cut on. You could go from selling 1000 to 100,000 really quick. Look at the folks that had cuts on Blaine Larson's independent album that got picked up by a major label here in town. You just never know. More Soon, I Country CJ BACK TO TOP |
01/30/05 Unfortunately its rare for me to hear a new song on the radio that gets me excited about county music again. A lot of it sounds very similar to me. Fortunately however once in a while music row gets it right and puts out a single like "Don't ask me how I know" by new artist Bobby Pinson. I met Bobby a year or so ago at a showcase for Mosaic Publishing's writers at Douglas Corner. My friend Thom Shepherd writes for Mosaic so I was there to support him. Standing at the bar waiting on my Corona before the show a guy walked up to me and said, "Hey man is that Wrangler jacket vintage?" And I said, "Yep, its what they call a barn jacket, it was my dad's when he was young." And he said "That's cool as hell." That's a great way to meet someone in my book. Truthfully I had never heard of Bobby Pinson before that night, I was however blown away by his music, sound and stage presence after seeing him perform. Its inspiring for me to see people that don't fit the cookie cutter radio mold making it. I wish him the best and hope his song does well. If you haven't heard "Don’t ask me how I know" call your favorite radio station and request the new Bobby Pinson single, if they don't have it ask them to get it and play it, probably the best song I've heard on the radio in four or five months. We are getting closer every week on finishing up my little CD. We are working hard on the final four or five tunes. Next week we have a banjo player coming in who also plays dobro. After that all that's left is a little mandolin and harmonica, then I have to re-cut the vocals. Then its up to Dani to polish it all up. It's taking longer than I wanted it to, doesn't it always, but I'm not going to rush it. We are getting some really good stuff and I can't wait for everyone to hear the final product. Be sure and sign up for the email list, I will send everyone an email when the CD is ready to purchase on the site. Buddy and I are still doing the every other Saturday gig at Drink inside Loews Vanderbilt hotel, we were off yesterday so we are on for this coming Saturday from 8-12. Hope to see some friends there. More soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
12/02/05 Man its been a long time since I wrote here. Unbelievably my logo/ graphics design business did not slow down in December as it has done the previous few years. Which is a good thing, I wasn’t looking forward to not making much around Christmas. I did manage to get a small amount of work done on the CD project I am working on. My friend MikeyMike came in and laid down some bass on about 4 tracks. In early January I will be bringing in a guitar and steel player, and then a utility man (harmonica, percussion, etc..) to finish it all off. Besides some background vocals it will be done at that point. A good friend with some music row pull offered to pitch me as a writer to one of the major publishers in town. He likes my material and his name behind my stuff can’t hurt. He said it could lead to a single song deal or two, or maybe even a full writing deal if they thought I was ready and liked my material. That’s another reason I am trying to get the songs I am working on in the studio wrapped up, so I can get him a really good polished package to give to them. I’ve been here almost three years, Its time I had some well polished material to show for it. I haven’t had a chance to put my voice on the tracks for "I’ll Never Do That." A song Thom Shepherd and I wrote that was picked up by his publishing company, Mosaic Music, a few months ago. The demo is great though, I think I am going to add the song to the CD I am working on. "Arkansas Dirt" which Thom and I also wrote and had picked up by Mosaic is a shoe-in for the CD. Dani Amendola, my producer out at Big World Studios, used a snippet of "God Must Like Country Boys" for a national advertisement for www.collegemusicradio.com The add is playing before movies at Regal Theatres right now. So if you are going to the movies go early and listen for it, I haven't heard it yet, Dani says its really quick but that you do know its there. Buddy Owens and I picked up a regular gig for 2005 after doing a trial run last month. Its at a bar called Drink inside the Loews Vanderbilt hotel on West End Avenue here in Nashville. We will be playing two Saturday nights a month starting January the 8th. We play from 8-12pm. Its an acoustic set and we do mostly originals with some of our favorite cover songs. We will also be bringing in special guest writers as well, friends of ours and hit song writers that we know and write with, should be a good time. I got an email from my friend Bobby Braddock recently. He became a grandfather on December the 11th with the birth of his daughter Lauren's son, Braddock. They are going to call him Dock. Congratulations to Bobby, Lauren and her husband Jim, and welcome to this big, blue ball little Dock. More songs coming soon to the site, and a CD by no later than March of '05 with any luck! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. The best of luck to you and yours for the new year. More soon, I Country, CJ. BACK TO TOP |
10/25/04 I've had a busy couple of weeks as far as music is concerned. Last Sunday I had my first ever photo shoot. I bartered a website for a shoot from an awesome photographer www.dougmcdonaldphoto.com Check out the site, there are even a couple of pics of me in the music section. I will be using the pictures to update my website, a CD and for posters, etc... Check back soon for an updated site with my new photos, thanks Doug! Be sure and check out his website if you are looking for a photographer, or if you just want to view a large portfolio of awesome photography. I got a call from my friend and co-writer Thom Shepherd a week or two ago. He played a song that he and I wrote called "I'll Never Do That" for his publisher and they have decided to demo it. That happens this Wednesday, I will get to go into the studio and provide my input on the recording, instruments, etc... The last they picked up of Thom's and mine was "Arkansas Dirt" its on the music page. Basically they will record it, add it to their catalog and then try and get it recorded by a major artist. UPDATE: The demo is complete, I will have a version of it online in the next few days. 11/03/04 I guess the manager at Legend's Corner on Lower Broadway thought I did well on Sunday nights in October, because he asked me back for November. Drop by and check us out if you get a chance, 10PM-2AM every Sunday in November. Legend's is right across from the GAC on Broadway. The manager also called me last Thursday night and asked me to fill in for my good friend Buddy Owens who was headed out of town. I got to do my first Friday night on the strip and we had a blast. Best sound I've had at any show I've done, the players were really in to it, they were having fun. We made good money and I sold some CDs. The CDs are just a 6 song preview of the CD I am now working on, it has some finished songs and some acoustic on it. People down there want to take a piece of Broadway home with them, and they really dig it if someone they like has a CD for sale. Looks like Buddy and I will be doing a Saturday night acoustic gig at Lowe's Vanderbilt Hotel. They have a bar there called Drink, its a hotspot for music industry professionals and tourists alike. They usually do piano bar/ jazz type music but have decided to switch to acoustic country for a while. We will see how that goes, it sounds like a lot of fun. Buddy and I plan on bringing in friends of ours to keep things fresh. Our first show is tentatively scheduled for the 20th of November. I will send out an email reminder on this to everyone that is on the email list. I've got some other big things coming up as well, a few good friends with heavy ties to the music business that believe in me are trying to help me along, we will see what happens. I'm excited again about music, after being here a while its easy to get complacent, it feels good to be recording, writing and meeting with influential people on Music Row. Who knows what could happen? More soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
10/04/04 I got to see one of my favorite vocalists on Friday, Marty Raybon. Marty was the lead singer of Shenandoah during there 12 year run on country music radio. They had dozens of hits. Marty's gone back to his roots and now tours with a bluegrass band. They do a lot of bluegrass standards, some he has written and some gospel. The best part though is that he's taken the Shenandoah classics and reworked them with the bluegrass band, and it works. Church on Cumberland Road sounds awesome with a Bluegrass breakdown right in the middle of it. Also got the see Juice Newton. She's always been one of my mom's favorites, I couldn't believe how fantastic her voice was. She has incredible range. She is very funny and entertaining on stage and her band rocks. If you haven't ever heard her do "Angel of the Morning" live, you have really never heard it. The first of my five Legend's corner gigs in October went extremely well. We had a decent by quiet crowd who tipped well and requested a lot of songs. I only train wrecked one song all night, and that was because my bass player, bless him, told me the wrong key on "Take This Job And Shove It." We started in F, it was way to high but I tried to sing it anyway, then I got off key and he started singing it in my ear in F and that really threw me off so I just waived my hands in the air and yelled "train wreck" and the band stopped and we found the correct key and started over. My friend Buddy was in the audience, he actually laughed until he cried when I did this he thought it was so funny. I've realized that people will put up with you screwing up if you take it in stride and are able to laugh at yourself. We really had a good time and I think the people in the audience did as well. I'm headed in to the studio tomorrow night to put down the scratch vocals and acoustic guitar on the new material I am working on, allergies have thrown us off by a week or two but hopefully everything is back on track. More soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
07/15/04 So I did my first band gig down on Lower Broadway on the 6th, the rain poured. The guitar player got caught behind a wreck from the rain, the drummer and I had a mis-communication on when we were playing and was an hour late, it was dead until 8:30. And I had an awesome time. I got a warning call from my friend Buddy that Vern Gosdin might be coming out to the show. He's doing some touring soon and wanted to look for some pickers. Good thing he didn't show up before 8:00, we started to get a crowd just as he got there. Vern is probably my biggest vocal influence, him and Jones. I've met him before but he had never heard me sing so I was nervous. Then he sent Buddy down to tell me he wanted to hear me play one of his songs. Probably so he could see if the band members knew his stuff, but still, It was Vern friggin' Gosdin asking me to sing one of his songs. We did "Set 'em Up Joe." Had a fun night and the waitresses said I did really well. We only messed up two songs. Two out of forty on my first time out isn't that bad I don't think. Next Legend's gig is on the 20th at 10:15pm till 2:15am, come on out and honky tonk with us if you can. In other news, my good friend Buddy Owens recently scored his first cut. His song "Blinded By the Bud Lite" appears on Billy Yates' new CD "Anywhere But Nashville." Check out www.BillyYates.com to buy the album then stop by www.BuddyLeeOwens.com to congratulate Buddy. Be sure to sign up for his email list. More Soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
08/14/04 My second show at Legend's on Broadway didn't go so well. The guitar player failed to show, and the drummer took breaks at his leisure. None of this would have been so bad except for the fact that the manager of Legend's was present at the time. I talked to him tonight about the show, it looks like I might get another chance. Monday and Tuesday I got to attend the taping for Rhonda Vincent's new DVD in St. Louis Missouri, due out next year. My friend Natalie knows Rhonda and got us seats on the front row, dead center. I was sitting next to Rhonda's sister, who was giving Rhonda cues for the songs. It was great, Rhonda has an awesome band and two nights went by very quickly. While we were in St. Louis we took the tourist ride on the Arch, I was unprepared for the cramped quarters of the Arch shuttle, but we made out ok and I got some great photos of St. Louis from 680 feet. Oh, got to meet Rhonda, see the pic on the Pics page, she’s a hoot. I pitched some up tempo songs to Buddy Jewell's management company, we will see if anything comes of it. I heard from someone on Broadway tonight that they had heard my name thrown around with the phrase "kick ass country singer" that always makes you feel good. Its not often that the players in this town stop to say anything positive about the singers they are backing, so that was a big deal. My friends Matt, Lair and Mikey Mike put on a great show at Murphey's Loft in Nashville, Mikey got me up to sing a few which was awesome. I miss playing with those guys and seeing the group. Mikey called me "One of the best country music singers in town." He's a little biased because we have been friends for a while, but I appreciated the compliment just the same. Life is good, work is well. Sometimes life floats along very easily, I love those times. More soon. I Country, CJ BACK TO TOP |
09/24/04 Nothing like good news to cancel out bad news. The bad news: Yesterday I dropped five bills on my car for new struts, etc... The good news: I picked up five shows at Legend's Corner in October. I'm there every Sunday in October from 10PM until 2am. Should be a good time, I can't wait for Haloween! I've been busy in the studio over the past few weeks. We put down drum tracks to five of my songs and will be working on the guitar, vocals and bass this coming week. I will be using these songs to pitch (See the lingo page) as well as for an independant album I am hoping to get out in late '04 early '05. We will see how it goes. Got a call from Alaska today to do a demo, and am working on a couple for a songwriter that found me online last month. Nothing much else to report on, hoping to get some new guitar vocals on the site soon, I've got about 40 or so now so I would like to get at least 10-15 up to get feedback on from visitors to the site, friends, family, etc... Thanks to everyone that visits the site! More soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
10/01/05 I spent two years working on the CD, it won't be coming out. I've lost the desire to put it out there, the desire to perform to promote it and the desire to beat on doors to get someone on music row to listen to it. I've had friends that have listened and believed all along but unfourtunatly its not gotten me any closer to having a song of mine on the radio from when I first got here. I'm going to go ahead and have the CD mastered since I bartered a website for that. Then I'm going to be giving away copies to friends and family. I will also make all of the new songs available for download off of the site. My attitude may change but currently I don't have any more energy to put into the music business. I've finished about 5 whole songs this entire year. I've given it four good years and besides making some great friends, have gotten little in return. The good news is is that my business is growing by leaps and bounds. What started off as something just to get me through until I got that "monster hit" has now become a full fledged business. It's grown by at least 10% every year for the past three and is on track to do so again this year. The other good news is that I have a great future to look forward to, I'm getting married next June and we are already looking at houses and talking babies. Songwriting will have to become for me what it was before I moved here, a hobby. More Soon, I Country. CJ BACK TO TOP |
05/22/2007 I officially retired from singing/songwriting and chasing the old neon rainbow a few years back when I started making good money with my business. These days I have a house, and a beautiful wife, a yard, cars, a dog, etc... personally I like spending my time with them instead of waiting to go on stage at 2 am in a smoky bar room full of folks intent on ignoring me while getting drunk. That being said I was very flattered today when my brother Robert informed me that I was being touted on the website for KSSN 96 FM, Arkansas' most popular country format radio station. I grew up listening to KSSN and their anchor DJ Bob Robbins. So here's what went down. My brother drives a truck for Pepsi and listens to the radio while on his route. While listening to KSSN he heard that they were looking for Arkansas singers to promote through their website, www.KSSN.com, so he decided to send them a link to my website, this was a few weeks back. Then today as he got into his truck and turned on the radio he heard one of the DJs on KSSN talking about me, how good my music was, and that people should check me out on the website. He then emailed and told me about, I was pretty blown away to say the least. They've added me to their HOME GROWN page along with 4 of my songs and a link to this website. I just want to give a big thanks to my brother Rob, KSSN and anyone that found their way to my site by way of everything that went down today. Please have a look around, I journaled my experiences over about three years in Nashville as I chased my dream, there's some good stuff in there if you like honky tonks, songwriters, singers, and country music in general. Also check out the music page. I've just uploaded 11 tracks from a CD that I was working on before I changed gears and decided to really push my business instead of music. Thanks again, have fun digging around on the website! I Country, CJ |