Mahindra Blues: Sugaray Rayford on his journey with the gospel blues

You can get a slice of the versatility that San Diego’s singer-songwriter Sugaray Rayford brings to the electric blues scene, by browsing through his live gigs and music videos. Let’s study two. At the 2017 Ottawa Bluesfest Bluesville Stage, Rayford was ‘in the mood’. Sporting his signature look – waistcoat, jangling metal bling, and cowboy hat, his pre-gig talk reeked with Casanova swag. ‘I’m a big man, I got big hands, I need something to hold on to baby... 36, 24, 44...’, began Rayford and suddenly hollered his first number, “Let me tell you about my baby! my baby! my baby! my baby!” accompanied by rigorous shimmy. But in the live-gig for his song Death Letter Blues at 2016 Megève Blues Festival, Rayford, covered in beads of perspiration, which had dampened his tee, and also his mood, had given the melancholic nature of the piece. “…it is about my grandmother. And I don’t do this song very much because it is very emotional for me… I hope you enjoy it and I’ll try to get through it.” Thumping his foot for the whole song, with occasional chest thumping, he sang in pain, “Lord I didn’t know how much I loved her until it was too late that I let her down…”

The Texas-raised bluesman was born in poverty – what ‘black music’ is rooted in – as Caron Nimoy Rayford. “Caron is hard for some to say, so everyone called me Ray, and the sugar part just stuck on. Someone said maybe I am as sweet as sugar,” he clarifies about his moniker over email. Rayford joined his church choir at seven, and learnt everything about singing from his mother – “a phenomenal singer”, who died from colon cancer when he was 11. Rayford continued to grow in gospel music, as a vocalist and drummer and even conducted a choir of 350 members at 16! “We just rehearsed, learned the songs and the members learned to follow my signals.” 

Then he left it all to become a Marine Corps for 10 years. In a June 1, 2018 interview to Blast Blues magazine, he explains, “It was a way of getting out of the church, the country, the ghetto and just having a new start...”

But you cannot take the blues out of the bluesman and Rayford went to California, and started belting  contemporary music with the Urban Gypsys band, before joining Aunt Kizzy’s Boyz as lead vocalist. With the band, he cut two albums [Trunk Full of Blues (2004) and It’s Tight Like That (2007)] that saw them win awards, a blues competition and even a record distribution deal. After a solo album, Blind Alley (2010), he joined The Mannish Boys in 2011, which along with hosting for the LA Blues Jam at Cozy’s, he claims, are moments “I am thankful for. I met all kinds of industry people and fans who have helped me to continue my career in a wonderful way,” says Rayford, who gets nominated in two or more categories of the Blues Music Awards, almost every year. His new CD, Somebody Save Me will be released March 1 on 40 Below Records. “I am always planning for my next project.” 

But some things unplanned turn into pleasant surprises, like when Italian ‘soul ambassador’ and producer, Luca Sapio contacted Rayford to collaborate. The two recorded the 2017 album, The World That We Live In, at Sapio’s studio at Rome in three days flat, which encompass hit numbers, Home Again, Take Me Back, and Troubles. “Luca just understands soul music. We were on the same page from day,” he remarks about this serendipitous deal. 

Rayford now occasionally sings gospel, “which I couldn’t do for many years when my big momma was alive it was difficult for me to do so because the church feels you are either in or out. Meaning all gospel or all devil’s music, but not singing both.”

Apart from a humble childhood, he credits his wife for keeping him grounded. “I rely on her for everything, I would be lost without her, I mean actually lost. She keeps me straight on who, where, when and how for my career. Personally, she’s my soul mate.”

Does he get the nerves before a gig? “Every time, but it vanishes once I hit the stage.” And what would he do if the blues had not worked out for him? “[Become] a farmer.” Just like his Afro-American ancestors who created the blues in the first place, and this would’ve kept him stuck in the same circle of blues. Like the veteran Buddy Guy croons, “You damn right, I’ve got the blues. From my head down to my shoes.”