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Download the Paul Dougherty cd Grace Under Water 320 KB Quality, 126 MB,
for free here.

Buy the CD here:

Check out more music from:

Paul Dougherty - In My Living Room

Chilhowie

The Uninsurables

Tommy Dougherty

Check out TommyDougherty.com for great funk, blues and soul music including the classic Touch My Soul album!

Discography on www.TommyDougherty.com

• Touch My Soul - 1975 Emerald Gem and Decca Records
• Tommy Dougherty - 1977 Guinness Records
• Still Got Wings - 2001 LatorGator Records
• Piano Vox Sessions - 1983

Thomas Dougherty played soul music in Houston during the 1960s before moving to Nashville, Tennessee where he sang and recorded in the clubs and studios around Music City, USA. Tommy Dougherty sang numerous commercials and sound-alikes, but his soulful and funky recordings of his own music stand out the most.

At the age of 31, Tommy Dougherty was playing in Nashville at the Backstage Club on Lower Broad with Clarence Perry and the Mercy Blues, at that time the only rock n' roll bar in country town. Playing packed houses of around 500 people a night 5 nights a week for a couple of years during the roaring early 70s - what would shortly afterwards become the inspiration for the song Waydown Club, he worked on his craft and started getting attention from the music industry side.

After turning down various offers and doing some writing for the House of Cash (Johnny's place), he signed an artist contract at Audio Media Studios and Odyssey Productions because he could record the music he played - blues and soul.

Now for those of you who haven't heard of Audio Media, those who were never involved in the Nashville music business or never lived in Nashville, there's something of a story there. Audio Media was a new studio in 1974 on Music Row, a partnership consisting of Jack Jackson, Pat Patrick, Paul Whitehead and Lou Lofredo. The studio band consisted of Eddie Bayers on drums, Dennis Burnside on piano, Jack Jackson on bass and Paul Wurley on guitar. You may not know any of these names if you haven't been involved in the Nashville recording scene, but for multitudes of artists that have gone through the doors of Nashville, these musicians and makers have provided the backing sound for many of the records recorded in Nashville, led record companies as top executives and so forth.

In 1975-76, Tommy Dougherty and this cast of musicians, along with The Cherry Sisters on background vocals and a great horn section, including Don Sheffeld on trumpet, recorded the classic funky gospel blues album Touch My Soul which was released on Emerald Gem and Decca Records. Tommy wrote most of these songs and sang a few classics such as Amazing Grace. Gospel may not be most people's interest, but if you want that James Brown out of your seat conversion music, this is it. Think of that scene with JB in the Blues Brothers.

But the highlight of those years consist of a pair of funk songs, Waydown Club and Higher Power, both in the vein of Sly Stone and Billy Preston. But the true gem of these recordings is the elegant song Sail Away. This song belongs in the pantheon of classics, in my humble opinion.

In 1977, Guinness Records, a subsidiary of Prelude Records in NYC, released the album Tommy Dougherty, which is a collection of mostly hard driving soul and funk songs that include the ones mentioned.

Please feel free to listen and download the songs. For a more detailed Discography and additional music to download from Tommy Dougherty, including Touch My Soul and Tommy Dougherty in their entirety, go to the site www.TommyDougherty.com

• Paul Dougherty Music © 2009
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