Joe Pug has been in heavy rotation for me lately. I can’t seem to get enough of his music. His lyrics are sharp as a razor and his voice delivers them with courage and emotion. Case in point:
I’ve come to know the wish list of my father
I’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished
I’ve come to wish aloud among the overdressed crowd
I’ve come to witness now the sinking of the ship
I imagine that people felt the same way when they first discovered Bob Dylan’s music. I know that is a huge comparison to make but if anybody is worthy of it Joe Pug is. What makes Joe Pug even more impressive is that he’s only 26 years old. He offers his EP In the Meantime as a free download:
Here’s a short bio from Joe’s website:
For the moment, Joe Pug has it figured out, career if not life: Just write the songs that have to be written, play them for anybody who will listen, tour as if you had no home. Oh, and give your music away. Which isn’t to say he won’t be selling his debut full-length offering, Messenger ( Released 2/16/2010 on Lightning Rod). But free is how he came to make it, more or less.
It worked like this, for Joe Pug anyhow: The day before his senior year as a playwright student at the University of North Carolina, he sat down for a cup of coffee and had the clearest thought of his life: I am profoundly unhappy here. Then came the second clearest.
Pug packed up his belongings and pointed his car towards Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day, the 23 year-old Pug spent nights playing the guitar he hadn’t picked up since his teenage years. Using ideas originally slated for a play he was writing called “Austin Fish,” Pug began creating the sublime lyrical arrangements that would become the Nation of Heat EP.
Go see him play at the Cactus Cafe on November 6th.
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yo, good article and i couldn’t agree more. an outstanding talent. one thing tho, he’s 26. art
Art, thanks for the correction!