Everything changes. Nothing changes. As an itinerant songwriter settled into Chicago in 2007, Joe Pug recorded Nation of Heat in the space of others’ canceled sessions, carrying only a guitar, a harmonica, and his voice. It was necessarily a sparse […]
As Joe Pug’s new record, The Flood in Color, opens, the listener is quickly reminded of the minimalist beauty that has painted the singer-songwriter’s career for more than a decade. As he repeats the heartbreaking truth, “No drink is strong enough,” near […]
In the heat of summer, in this furnace of unrest, we’re all in need of solace. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, music is refuge. Here are the fifteen songs I’ve had on heavy rotation this season. Most are new releases from this […]
Why cover songs? Earlier this year, Bob Dylan said, in his now famous MusiCares speech, “Big Bill Broonzy had a song called ‘Key to the Highway’… I sang that a lot. If you sing that a lot, you just might write […]
I’ve got a few tracks in my collection from a variety of VA sampler albums; don’t know an awful lot about Joe Pug so I’ve come to this album with a completely fresh and open mind. The opening song, “Bright […]
Having a core group of musicians to see every time they’re in town is not unlike the way parents talk about their kids. It is exciting to see musicians grow, evolve, and develop into the potential you knew was there […]
