Album Notes

"Jessie Hughes has one of those down-low bad-girl voices. You know the kind-languid as honey, but razor sharp. A deep, dark croon that can go from a whisper to a howl...
The Seventy-One Demos (is) a five-song EP that augments the angsty, distortion-soaked sucker-punch of her live set with a full band...The EP is an intensely personal debut-a ragged notebook's worth of sneakily accessible twentysomething introspection."
-J. Bowers, Baltimore Ciy Paper


Jessie Hughes ventured into the Baltimore music scene in the Fall of 2003 with only an electric guitar and her voice. Despite being without a website or a demo for over a year, she managed to play extensively in her hometown and tour the East Coast. Often sharing bills with heavy rock and punk bands, 22 year-old Hughes holds her own as a solo artist delivering live shows that have earned her the respect of her peers and a quickly growing fan base.
After attracting the attention of producer Eric Penna from the Boston-based indie label Lifted and Gifted Records, Hughes recorded a full-band EP, featuring Penna and drummer Will Pratt, both of the experimental rock/punk band Ketman, as her rhythm section. The EP, entitled "the seventy-one demos" (Lifted and Gifted), captures the punch of Hughes' vocals, effectively weaving them through the framework of gritty guitars and bold, dynamic bass and drums. Now, with the release of "the seventy-one demos", Hughes is busy dividing her time between her two homebases of Baltimore and Chicago and hitting the road with tours in the US and Canada.