SUGARAY RAYFORD wins ‘Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year’

Forty Below Records is proud to announce that Sugaray Rayford is the winner of a Blues Music Award in the Soul Blues Male Artist Category. The announcement took place on Thursday, May 9th at the 40th Annual Blues Music Awards in Memphis. The Blues Music Awards bring together Blues performers, industry representatives, and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. The BMA's are generally recognized as the highest honor given to blues musicians and are awarded by vote of Blues Foundation members.

Rayford is currently in the midst of an international tour to promote his new album Somebody Save Me on Forty Below Records . Somebody Save Me is an ambitious record that slides gracefully between the new blues of Gary Clarke Jr. and Fantastic Negrito, and the vintage Daptone vibe of the late Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, bringing a fresh take to classic sounds. The new album currently sits at #1 on the Living Blues Charts, NACC and Roots Music Report while also receiving significant airplay in other radio formats such as AAA, College and Americana, making it truly an album with crossover potential.

Lauded by the press, Popmatters calls Rayford,“A true badass... marrying the funky soulfulness of classic R&B records while acknowledging contemporary sensibilities." Living Blues weighsin: “Sugaray Rayford is a soul singer who brilliantly weaves blues, jazz and gospel inflections into his soaring songs.” Soul & Jazz & Funk puts it best, "Think back to, say, the Golden days of Chess and people like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters; then factor in the sound of classic soul men like Solomon Burke and add a sprinkle of the big voiced icons like Teddy P and you're getting near to the sound of Sugaray Rayford. Float that over an authentic soul backing in the manner of Daptone and Stax and you're getting near to the sound of 'Somebody Save Me'.

With his 7-piece crack band and personal charm, Rayford’s live shows are quickly becoming renowned for their high-energy and celebratory nature, with Rayford whipping the crowds into a frenzy, like a Gospel Preacher, in the studio and in person, Sugaray Rayford is developing a reputation as a force to be reckoned with and an artist to watch in the coming years.