Sugaray Rayford is a man with a message and a larger-than-life personality and voice to deliver it. His new release, Human Decency, is a reminder that our similarities are stronger than our differences, and that in the end, there is no black or white or left or right; there are only hearts and minds.
Caron “Sugaray” Rayford grew up in Texas, in a childhood marked by poverty and loss. He played a sad game with his brother, a competition to see who was the skinniest by counting the number of buttonholes left unused. His mother struggled to raise three boys alone while battling cancer. When she died, it was a kind of relief. “She suffered and we suffered,” he 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 on gospel and soul.”
He began his musical career at 7, singing and playing drums in church, and the gospel influence can still be heard and felt in his music. He moved to California and sang lead vocals with an R&B/funk band called the Urban Gypsies. After dabbling in the blues, Rayford realized that that was where his heart and soul belonged. He left the Urban Gypsies and became the lead singer for Aunt Kizzy’s Boyz, another blues band. They released their first CD, Trunk Full of Bluez, and did more than 200 gigs a year as the band’s popularity grew. They represented San Diego in Memphis in 2006 at the International Blues Challenge and won second place. They started playing higher profile gigs and in 2007, released their second CD, It’s Tight Like That. In 2008, they won the LAMN Jam Grand Slam Artist of the Year award, beating out hundreds of competitors. RBC Records offered them a distribution deal on the spot.
Rayford moved to Los Angeles and was asked to host a blues jam at Cozy’s in Sherman Oaks. He met and worked with musicians who helped him explore and expand his musical vision. In 2011, he became one of the lead vocalists for the Mannish Boys and sang lead vocals on nine songs on the CD, Double Dynamite, which won “Best Traditional Blues Album” in 2013 at the Blues Music Awards. He won a Grammy nomination in 2020 for Somebody Save Me.
As a solo artist, Rayford has been nominated for numerous awards, including the “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” award and Traditional Blues Male Artist at the 36 th Blues Music Awards. His 2017 album, The World That We Live in, was nominated for four Blues Music awards, including “Soul Blues Album,” and “Soul Blues Male Artist,” “Instrumentalist-Vocals,” and “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award.” At the 41 st Blues Music Awards in 2020, he again won the “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award,” as well as “Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year.”
Rayford has appeared on the stage in the play, Ain’t Nuthin’ But the Blues, at the Portland Center Stage, joining members of the New York Broadway cast. He also starred with Felicia Fields and Chic Streetman in Low Down Dirty Blues in Cincinnati and Milwaukee.
Of his latest release, Human Decency, and its leadoff single, “Run for Cover,” Q Magazine
wrote, “The bluesy soul of Rayford comes on full steam with this powerhouse single.” “We’re calling people on their bullshit, but we are having fun with them,” Rayford said. “That’s my way. I’m gonna tell it to you straight, but with love in my heart. I always bring some Suga with the salt!”
At his core, Sugaray Rayford is a galvanizing uniter. His live shows are a party. There may be conversations and self-reflection, but in the end, people leave feeling a sense of joy and togetherness.
Come to the party. You’ll get a cup of “Suga.”
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