Hugh Moffatt

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1948, country-folk songwriter Hugh Moffatt spent his teenage years immersed in classical piano and jazz trumpet. During his English studies at Rice University he discovered blues, picked up guitar, and joined the pop group Rollin' Wood. After a short stay in Austin he headed toward Washington, D.C., in 1973, yet a stop in Nashville proved permanent once he chose to pursue songwriting professionally. Drawing inspiration from Kris Kristofferson, Moffatt gained guidance from Ed Penney, and in 1974 Ronnie Milsap scored a major success with his composition “Just in Case.” Mercury offered him a solo contract in 1977, but two unsuccessful singles led to his release, sending him back to writing for others.

Throughout the 1980s his material appeared on releases by Dolly Parton (“Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle to You)”), Johnny Rodriguez (“How Could I Love Her So Much”), Lacy J. Dalton (“Wild Turkey”), and Alabama (“Words at Twenty Paces”), among additional artists. In 1984 he assembled the band Ratz and issued the five-song EP Puttin’ on the Ratz. Solo studio work followed in 1986; the next year he joined Rounder’s Philo imprint, which issued his debut album Loving You. The record drew favorable notices, as did its 1989 successor Troubadour. Moffatt next collaborated with his sister, country singer Katy Moffatt, on the 1992 album Dance Me Outside. In 1993 he and Memphis composer Michael Ching completed their one-act opera King of the Clouds. The Hugh Moffatt Trio’s The Wognum Sessions appeared on the Dutch label Strictly Country in 1995. Subsequent projects included the 1996 independent release The Life of a Minor Poet on Watermelon and the concert set Live and Alone on Brambus. He and Ching produced a second opera, Out in the Rain, which received its premiere in 1998. After an extended recording hiatus, Moffatt resurfaced with Ghosts of the Music on Brambus in 2003.