Arts & Entertainment Huntington Musician To Perform At LI Music And Entertainment Hall Of Fame: ‘Surreal Honor’ Hughes and his band will be singing his original music that touches on various styles: reggae, indie rock, funk, soul and blues.
Emmett Hughes, a singer-songwriter from Huntington, is set to perform at the Long Island Music And Entertainment Hall Of Fame in Stony Brook on April 13. (James Fischetti)
STONY BROOK, NY — Emmett Hughes, a singer-songwriter from Huntington, is set to perform with his band at the Long Island Music And Entertainment Hall Of Fame on April 13. The venue is at 97 Main St., Stony Brook.
The show is scheduled for 3 p.m. The event is free with general admission to the Hall of Fame. To purchase admission in advance, people can click here. Hughes assembled a 15-song setlist of original content, though he said he might have to trim the set list to fit the hour he has to perform. Hughes will perform music from his two albums, “Sixty Trips Around the Sun,” released in 2019, and “The Third Degree,” released this March. Both albums are available on streaming apps, though Hughes is still waiting for his new album to hit Apple Music.
Hughes’s music features a mix of reggae, indie rock, funk, soul and blues. “It’s a little mix of a lot of styles,” Hughes told Patch.
One song is a symphonic piece with strings, classical guitar, oboe and clarinet, he said. Hughes said he is looking forward to playing at the venue for the first time.
“It’s a surreal honor to be able to play there,” he said. “I’m very excited to play there. I went there to see a friend perform there. That’s what got me excited about playing there.” Hughes’s musical inspirations include Bob Marley, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Pat Metheny, Crowded House, Joe Jackson and Frank Zappa. He also enjoys classical music.
Hughes’s songs, he said, are about his relationships. “Either with friends or with my husband, with my daughter,” he said. “Society in general. It’s mostly about personal stuff.” Hughes is a chiropractic physician, gardener, intrepid sailor and sports a blistering tennis serve. While he generally does not write music about his hobbies, he intends to write a song about one time he sailed to Block Island. “We left before dawn,” he said. “By the time we got out East, the sun started to break over the Long Island Sound. It was so beautiful. It was so incredible. We were the only ones out there. No other boats. It was even before the ferry was running in the morning. It was incredible.” Hughes said he and the other singer in the band, Laura Press, have been singing and playing music together since seventh grade — approximately 50 years ago.