Amy Hughes

How can something so big come out of someone so small?
26 and standing at only five feet tall, Amy Hughes has been asked that question about her voice repeatedly- ever since she was a young girl.
Traveling alongside her dad, she made her way to the corner seat of the bars to sip her Shirley Temple and watch him sing his songs on stage. Even at the young age of six, music made something light up inside of her. Even though she was tremendously shy and refused to accompany her father on stage most of the time, she had a desire inside of her to be brave enough to sing on stage, just like him.
Country music rooted itself deep within her at an early age, starting with the honky tonk sounds coming from her dad's guitar, as well as the countless albums he would play for her of such musicians as Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Waylon Jennings. It was kind of like a seed waiting to grow.
As she laughed, goofed off, and sometimes studied her way through high school, she began to rebel against her dad's honky tonk traditions and sank her teeth into an eclectic mix of music. Aerosmith blasted through the speakers in her powder blue '68 VW Bug, as well as the Beatles, Creedence, and yes, Jewel. There were crazier times, when Pantera was the first tape she'd pop in, or even Metallica or Bon Jovi. But eventually the seed that had planted itself not too long ago took root and her guitar no longer hammered out Enter Sandman, but instead began to strum along to the rhythm of her own music. And guess what influence bled out through the strings? That's right, good old country music.
At the end of her teenage years and into college, she heard herself singing with a twang that Patsy Cline had taught her so many years before, but also writing songs that somehow sounded like a blend between the country her dad had her listening to as well as the folk/rock that she so rebelliously had run off with.
Pretty soon, she labelled herself a Texas Country artist, refusing to sound too fabricated, and embracing her need to sound like no one but herself.
She began obsessing over Texas artists such as Eli Young Band, Wade Bowen, Pat Green, and the Randy Rogers Band. She realized soon that this music, the music she craved so much that she could listen to the same song, set on repeat on her cd player, played over and over and over- this music was what she loved. And though classic country, hard rock, and coffee shop folk would always influence her writing, Amy decided that she'd put together a band that would stand up next to her idols, one that would someday be associated with the powerhouse men of Texas music. This wasn't her daddy's country music anymore.
Casting aside her shyness, and accepting the battle with nerves before every single show, she formed her band, the Dirty Seven, and doing so opened up waves of options that she never came close to accomplishing with just herself and her mahagony Martin. With the band by her side, she could finally tap into that big Janis Joplin style voice that her fans craved to hear.
"They make my music sound so much fuller, and they help me get that rocky edge to my country that I want to have," Amy says about her boys, as she calls them. And with them, the show exudes the fun that she and her boys are so clearly having up there.
So as she finds herself inside those bars and honky tonks just like she had done with her dad years before, she belts it out and sings it sweet, filling the place with a style of music that Texas Music lovers just can't seem to get enough of. And what's the first thing those people always ask?
Yep, you guessed it.