Dudley Taft Album Release

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Dudley Taft

Photograph by Vic Wright

Beneath those heavy, grungy guitar riffs, Dudley Taft’s new album, Screaming in the Wind, carries a lot of history. The blues guitarist and songwriter of the famed Taft family bloodline—son of Dudley Taft Sr. and great-great-great nephew of President William Howard Taft—recorded a portion of the album from his new Indian Hill home, previously occupied by rock legend Peter Frampton.

Taft purchased the home from Frampton last August after repeated requests from family members to leave North Carolina and move back. Still, he’s never been one to play up his own namesake for the benefit of his musical career, whether in town or during his days with the Seattle band Sweet Water in the early ’90s. “People have asked me if I’m related and I’m like, Yeah. But really, who gives a shit?” he says. “The president was my great-great-great uncle or something. Big deal. And I’m a lot skinnier than he is, so I don’t know how much shared genetics we have.”

FYI: Taft’s album release party is June 14 at Stanley’s Pub.

Originally published in the June 2014 Issue

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