Laurie sings the blues

Hugh Laurie, who plays the title character on the TV series House, has always had a musical side to him. GQ profiles that side in a feature piece on Laurie, published to coincide roughly with the issuance of Laurie's first album, Let Them Talk. (Interestingly, GQ files the piece under TV rather than Music.)

Laurie knows that the idea of a Brit playing the blues is bound to give people pause, and tries to downplay expectations.

Laurie's rationale is reassuringly matter- of-fact, and is perhaps best explained in a photocopied letter from Laurie that arrived at GQ a few months ago. "I was not born in Alabama in the 1890s," wrote Laurie. "You may as well know this now. I've never eaten grits, cropped a share, or ridden a boxcar. No gypsy woman said anything to my mother when I was born and there's no hellhound on my trail, as far as I can judge. Let this record show I am a white, middle-class Englishman, openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American South... The question of why a soft-handed English schoolboy should be touched by music born of slavery and oppression in another city, on another continent, in another century, is for a thousand others to answer before me: from [Alexis] Korner to Clapton, the Rolling Stones to the Joolsing Hollands. Let's just say it happens."

allmusic.com has a review of the album. I think it's fair to say the review is respectful but guarded.

Myself, I miss Laurie's native accent and his considerable comedic chops. I think I'll watch Black Adder the Third again.

[UPDATE: Link to the GQ article courtesy The Browser.]