We love it when we can provide our audiences with a fun time and great music. That’s why we have some of the best and most creative musicians around to play the music you know or maybe forgotten, but definitely love.
Hugh Too brings a wealth of musicianship and experience to each and every show. This fun bunch enjoys making audiences dance and sing while offering up a variety of songs that will keep you interested the whole night through. Members of the band play multiple instruments and sing, which helps them to cover a wide range of artists, such as Cream, The Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison and has a way of making classics sound fresh!
Paul Tyler – Vocals
Paul grew up in Hertfordshire within 25 miles north of London and went to school at the University of Manchester in England. He began singing in his school choir and three decades later is still singing with Hugh Too. As a singer his early influences were The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Elton John. Genesis and Yes came along soon after. Now he is as happy listening to Adele and Maroon 5 as the classic rock he performs.
Hugh Parsons – Guitar, Vocals
Hugh was born and grew up in Wales but spent his formative musical years in London during the mid to late 70’s punk era and hence was heavily influenced by bands such as The Clash, Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks, followed by post punk bands such as Joy Division, The Cure and early U2. Having spent most of the past 25 years living in the USA, his influences have mellowed to include acts such as REM and Tom Petty. His musical highlight so far was playing at a packed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 2004 in the final of a battle of the bands competition. Hugh plays a Les Paul, Telecaster and Rickenbacker 330 guitars through a Vox AC30.
Mats Lederhausen – Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Mats was born in Stockholm and started playing guitar at an early age. Later was invited to join a band playing bass. During most of his youth he was attracted to mainly symphonic rock and grew up on the likes of Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Brand X, The Police (and later Sting), Pink Floyd, etc. Mats moved with his family to Chicago in 1999 and lives and works downtown and when he doesn’t play music he works on trying to make capitalism more human as well as enjoys spending time with his wife Jessica and their four grown children.
Bob Barnett – Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
Bob’s musical career began over 40 years ago in a band with his two brothers playing weddings and bars, and he has played in bands continuously ever since. During this time, he has played in rock, country rock, bluegrass and jazz bands and also a big band. His influences include Elton John, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. In Hugh Too he plays Roland 700NX and Nord Stage 2 keyboards and a Martin acoustic guitar.
Steve Caudill – Drums, Percussion, Guitar and Vocals
Steve hails from nowhere. As a navy brat he moved every two years and kept up the nomad life until his wife Jennifer settled him in Chicago. He’s lived in 13 states, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Germany. He started playing piano in the 1960’s, moved to trombone and other brass instruments, guitar, bass and finally settled on drums which he’s been playing since the late 1970’s. He’s played live in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America and is looking for gigs in Africa and Antartica to round things out. (Know any good bars in Antartica?) His musical claim to fame is winning the 1988 European show band competition with the instrumental group Replay. Steve’s early influences are 1970’s progressive rock Yes, Kansas, Rush, Boston, Styx, but he likes pretty much anything with a good beat.