Trey Hughes "Poplar Street Demos" (Peapod Recordings 2007)

If you’re ever marooned in the New Hampshire snow, this is what you should be listening to.

This record consists of 16 songs (spread over 55 minutes) written and performed by Trey Hughes and recorded in Andover, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine. The songs consist of voice and acoustic guitar exclusively; the style, which, doesn’t vary much at all throughout, is like an introspective folky take on Lou Reed’s ‘New York Conversation’. Trey’s vocals have a lazy quality not far from those of Steven Malkmus or Julian Casablancas, there’s a hint of that Jay Mascis whineyness in there too. Though characters and places wander in and out of the tales Trey tells, and the guitar picking stays consistently interesting, the songs do blend into an indistinguishable whole. The manner of Trey’s delivery seems to give the impression he’s singing these songs for no one but himself, it alternates between lackadaisical and intense, but is always personal and very understated, but then according to the title, they are demos, though whether they are actually a precursor to ‘full blown’ recordings is left unstated. It’s difficult to pick stand out songs due to the aforementioned blurring nature of the album, but ‘Turn Left And Crumble’ with a lyric that seems to be about chewing over the bones of a relationship is particularly agreeable, it has a touch of Jonathan Richman lingering in the after taste, the closing track ‘Something Walking’ is a delicate instrumental, played in the manner of a less academic not so precise John Fahey. Trey has taken a very nice cover shot of a snowy New Hampshire (presumably) scene too. Overall it’s an enjoyably quirky record that creates a mood of its own, it could be argued that it’s too long, and that it lacks distinguishing features, but oddly those weaknesses could also be seen as part of its charm.

Date review added:  Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Reviewer:  Patrick Wilkins
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Related web link:  Record company site