Doug Hream Blunt

Doug Hream Blunt is an American musician and songwriter about whom little is known. His lone album, Gentle Persuasion, was self-recorded and released somewhere between 1998 and 2000 -- he isn't certain of the date -- and commanded ridiculously high sums from record collectors in the ensuing decades. His lo-fi yet smooth, hypnotic, laid-back funk sound is widely compared to music by Ariel Pink and Dâm-Funk. Blunt was born in Arkansas but moved to San Francisco at the age of seven and lived all over California before returning to the Bay area. An avid record collector, he cites of Jimi Hendrix and the Whispers as primary influences. He didn't take up the guitar until he was 35, studying formally with music teacher Victor Flaviani (who didn't know how to play the instrument himself). The teacher was also an amateur recording engineer and producer who owned his own small studio. When Blunt considered himself proficient enough, he wrote some songs and told Flaviani he wanted to make a record. The seven-track Gentle Persuasion was cut in less than a week at Flaviani's studio. He was backed by a group of local musicians, including the teacher (vibes), Flaviani's wife (bass), and sister (backing vocals). After the record was finished, Blunt pressed it and inexplicably sat on it for five years. When he decided to release it, he distributed himself through local record shops and eventually through the Los Angeles-based OT Records, where it was issued on CD for a short time. While working at a local hospital, Blunt performed on a cable access show called CITYVISIONS with a group of local players and the clips made it to YouTube -- as did the title track from Gentle Persuasion. Blunt later had a stroke but fully recovered. Afterward, he issued the EP Big Top, and began learning congas and trumpet. In 2015, Luaka Bop released the first international compilation of his work, My Name Is Doug Hream Blunt. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi