Music: Future soul by Paul Bryant Hudson this Fri., Feb. 16, at 8 PM

Paul Bryant Hudson.

Paul Bryant Hudson plays Best Video Performance Space on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. The show starts at 8 PM and the cover is $5.

Paul Bryant Hudson has been tearing up the stages of Cafe Nine, Pacific Standard Tavern, and other places all over town for a few years now. With a stunning voice and serious keyboard chops, he fronts a seriously tight band with a style of Soul Music that pays homage to the past and feels up to the minute.

Hudson’s affection for mashing up a gumbo of acoustic and electronic sounds is the fruit of “a marriage between the things I have to say and the things I like to listen to.” Among the things he likes to listen to are jazz, hip-hop, Bob Marley and soul balladeers like Donnie Hathaway.

Most of his compositions derive from a “super-specific cultural place. They’re stories of Blackness and struggle but also triumph,” said Hudson.

“That, in theory, is such a raw idea so when I’m composing something, I try and give that story the space and air to be told,” Hudson said, explaining the acoustic elements to his sound. “But as a young person, I feel a strong pull toward electronic music, digital production and hip-hop. Those elements tie it all together—we’re here now, it’s who we are now, it’s who I am now.”

UPCOMING EVENTS (Music events start at 8 PM unless otherwise noted; screenings start at 7 PM unless otherwise noted):

• Wednesday, Feb. 14, 7 PM. SECOND WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC

• Friday, Feb. 16. SINGER-SONGWRITER/FUTURE SOUL: PAUL BRYANT HUDSON

• Saturday, Feb. 17. SINGER-SONGWRITERS: KATH BLOOM, DAN GREENE (of THE MOUNTAIN MOVERS)

• Sunday, Feb. 18, 3 PM. FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION: BRILLIANT DARKNESS

• Wednesday, Feb. 21. JAM BAND: JS3 (THE JOHN SPIGNESI BAND ACOUSTIC)

• Thursday, Feb. 22. GOTH/SHOEGAZE: TELEGRAM SCAM

• Friday, Feb. 23. AVANT-GARDE: LIGHT UPON BLIGHT, AVMUS

• Tuesday, Feb. 27, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS

• Wednesday, Feb. 28. PSYCHEDELIC INDIE: WITCH HAIR

• Thursday, MAR. 1, 8 PM. ABIOSEH JOSEPH COLE: POETRY FOR THE LIVING; DAVID BRENSILVER: MUSIC FOR THE DOOMED

• Friday, Mar. 2. ACOUSTIC ROCK: THE BIRDMEN

• Monday, Mar. 5, 7 PM. LITERARY: A READING FOR AL-MUTANABBI STREET—DAISY C. ABREU & STEPHEN VINCENT KOBASA

• Wednesday, Mar. 7. JAZZ/FUSION/CHAPMAN STICK: TOM GRIESGRABER; BRETT BOTTOMLEY

• Thursday, Mar. 8. SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND: SHAWN TAYLOR, KRISTEN GRAVES

• Friday, Mar. 9. POWER POP: THE GRAND PAR; LAINI

• Thursday, Mar. 15. VIDEO GAME MUSIC: DISCOCACTUS

• Friday, Mar. 16. BLUEGRASS: ZOE & CLOYD (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)

• Sunday, Mar. 18, 6 PM. NIGHT OF IRISH SONGS: CHARLIE KING, ANNIE PATTERSON & PETER BLOOD (TIX: https://www.riseupandsing.org/events/rising-moon-new-haven)

• Friday, Mar. 23. SOLO GUITAR: GLENN ROTH; SOLO DOUBLE BASS: CHARLES BERTHOUD

• Saturday, Mar. 24. INDIE ROCK: THE SAWTELLES; AUDIO JANE

• Friday, Mar. 30. BLUES ROCK: VANGE DURST; JAZZ/FOLK/ROCK: SEMAPHORA

• Thursday, Apr. 5. POWER POP: THE MOLD MONKIES

• Friday, Apr. 13. BLUEGRASS/AMERICANA: RIVER RUN

• Friday, Apr. 20. BLUEGRASS: MATT FLINNER TRIO (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)

• Saturday, May 12. SINGER-SONGWRITER: THE ANNE MARIE MENTA BAND

• Sunday, May 20, 6 PM. INDIE ROCK: FUTURE TEENS, more TBA

• Friday, June 8, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: THE PAGE TURNERS (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)

• Thursday, June 28, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: JACOB JOHNSON (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)

• Friday, Dec. 7, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: HONEY DEWDROPS (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)