For eight seasons, Hugh Laurie played the most miserable doctor on television. Off camera, he was quietly building a second career that had nothing to do with acting - and he was good enough at it to beat real blues musicians on their own chart.

A Pianist Since Age Six

Laurie started piano lessons as a child in England, long before House ever existed. He picked up guitar, drums, harmonica and saxophone along the way.

Music wasn't his only serious pursuit before acting. As a teenager he was a competitive rower, good enough to win a British junior title before switching tracks toward performing.

New Orleans Royalty Showed Up

In 2011, at 51, Laurie released his debut album, Let Them Talk. It was a collection of blues and New Orleans standards, produced by Joe Henry with horn arrangements by Allen Toussaint.

He didn't just cover the songs. He got the people who defined the genre to play on them.

Dr. John and Irma Thomas, two of New Orleans music's most respected names, both appeared on the record.

The album came out in the UK on 9 May 2011 and in the US that September, by which point Laurie had turned 52. It hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart and reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200.

In the UK it went to No. 2 overall and sold 192,000 copies, making it the biggest-selling blues album of 2011.

Portrait of New Orleans blues and R&B legend Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) performing live on stage, the musician who played on Hugh Laurie's debut album Let Them Talk — Dr. John, one of the New Orleans legends who joined Laurie's debut album.

The Kind of Player Who Gets a Yes

Laurie's piano playing was never a party trick. He is a genuinely accomplished musician, and it shows whenever he sits down at a keyboard outside a recording studio.

His piano duet with Jools Holland on the BBC gives a sense of exactly the kind of player New Orleans royalty were willing to record with.

He Did It Again

Two years later, Laurie proved Let Them Talk wasn't a novelty. His second album, Didn't It Rain, came out in the UK in May 2013 and the US that August.

Recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles with Joe Henry producing again, it featured blues legend Taj Mahal and singer Gaby Moreno.

It debuted at No. 1 on the same Billboard Top Blues Albums chart, reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, and peaked at No. 3 in the UK.

Two No. 1s, No Acting Involved

Both of Hugh Laurie's blues albums went to No. 1 on Billboard's genre chart. Neither was a vanity project propped up by his TV fame - the musicians who lent their names to the records were the same names blues fans already trusted.

The doctor was never the real story. The piano always was.

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