Los Angeles, California
blues
Photo: Julian Konrad Photography
Standing 6’5”, and with the frame and commanding bearing of a man who spent a decade serving in the Marine Corps, blues singer Sugaray Rayford is an imposing presence. His voice, too, has been described as “a force of nature.” What comes through in his music, however, is a rich and soulful emotional vitality that has made him a rising star among American blues artists, with recent accolades at the Blues Music Awards that include two-time Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year and 2020 BB King Entertainer of the Year.
Caron “Sugaray” Rayford first developed his musical gifts in the church. His early years in Texas were filled with both love and hardship: his single mother died of cancer when he was 11, but he and his brothers had the stabilizing presence of the beloved grandmother who raised them. He also had his church home at the Bethel Temple Church of God in Christ in Tyler, Texas, a community mainstay founded during Reconstruction. Rayford began singing and playing drums there at age five, eventually leading the choir and the mass choir, and performing at the state and national level. Like many artists raised in the Black church, he says, “My gospel roots are always going to be there, I don’t think of it as gospel, soul, or blues; I just think of it as being real. For me, I don’t put anything out there that I don’t believe in.”
Rayford moved from Texas to California during his service as a Marine. After retiring from the Corps, he was working as a bouncer when music beckoned once again; Sugaray’s expressive vocals often got him invited onstage by the house band at the blues club across the street. With the steadfast encouragement of his wife Pam, he restarted a music career in 2000. For most of that decade he fronted Aunt Kizzy’z Boyz, a beloved San Diego band that gained fame with a second-place finish at the 2006 International Blues Challenge. After moving to Los Angeles in 2008, he hosted the famous Monday night “pro jam” at Cozy’s, a gig that connected him with world-class musicians from diverse styles and backgrounds, who both broadened his musical vision and reinforced his profound commitment to the blues.
Over the past decade Sugaray Rayford’s solo career has racked up critical acclaim, building to the aforementioned Blues Music Award nods from the Blues Foundation, and a Grammy nomination and Muddy Award for his latest album, 2019’s Somebody Save Me. But it’s his stage show and his deep commitment to the soul of the blues that keep him connected to audiences. Sugaray fronts a six-piece band that includes a horn section; he put the line-up together because he “wanted to bring back that gospel, soulful sound that you can’t get without horns … a tapestry that’s really thick and really soothing.” But he also knows that sometimes a voice is all that’s needed: when he sings his nearly a cappella version of Son House’s signature “Death Letter Blues,” a favorite song he dedicates to his grandmother, he connects listeners to the profound emotional power that defines the blues.