Dudley Taft

Dudley S. Taft (born July 4, 1966, Washington, D.C.) is an American musician. Taft is a blues/rock musician who fronts the Dudley Taft Band and was a songwriting member of Seattle band Sweet Water and member and chief songwriter of Seattle, Washington-based rock band Second Coming. He is the great-great-grandnephew of United States President William Howard Taft. Career Sweet Water Sweet Water, founded in 1990, released its first Record Sweet Water in 1993. The album was produced by Don Gilmore and mixed by Tim Palmer. The band toured behind the album opening up for Winger, Candlebox and Alice in Chains. The accompanying music video for the Head Down single was played on MTV’s 120 Minutes and was added to regular rotation on M2. The band’s music has been used on television in episodes of MTV’s “Daria”, “Amongst Friends” and “Road Rules”, among others. A second record was recorded in 1995, produced and mixed by Dave Jerden. Taft left the band during the 1995 sessions. Sweet Water was dropped later that year by record label East West/Elektra. Second Coming In 1995 Taft joined Travis Bracht, Johnny Bacolas and James Bergstrom to form Second Coming. Starting out as a cover band called “FTA”, they wrote songs throughout 1996 and played them live at their gigs. By 1997, they started playing the Seattle area under the name Second Coming. Later that year, the band signed a six record deal with Gary Gersch, then the president of Capitol Records. Their self-titled release resulted in two Rock Radio hits that both went to #16 and #11 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts in 1997 and 1998. In 1998 and 1999 the band toured with VAST, Fuel, Candlebox and Monster Magnet.