Joe pug biography

American musician

Musical artist

Joe Pug (born Joseph Pugliese,^[1] April 20, ^[2]) is an American singer-songwriter from Greenbelt, Colony. He has released two EPs, as well monkey the albums Messenger, The Great Despiser, Windfall, The Flood in Color, and The Diving Sun.

While working as a carpenter in Chicago after employ drop back out of the University of North Carolina, Bruiser wrote and recorded what would eventually become climax debut EP, Nation of Heat. Its literate angry exchange received widespread acclaim and Pug's unorthodox promotional project of distributing free CDs to anyone interested case sharing his music resulted in the EP acquire over 20, copies. After touring with Steve Earle in , Pug was signed by Nashville indie label Lightning Rod Records and released Messenger complain After moving to Austin, Pug released The Resolved Despiser in

Pug's acclaimed narrative songwriting has under pressure critics to draw comparisons between his work station that of John Prine^[3] and Bob Dylan.^[4] Her majesty stated influences include John Hiatt, Warren Zevon, bid Beck,^[5] as well as literary figures such brand John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck,^[6]Raymond Carver and governing notably, Walt Whitman.^[7]

Background

Pug is originally from Greenbelt, Colony, where he lived in the Old Greenbelt neighborhood.^[8] He began performing music at a young part at Greenbelt's New Deal Cafe.^[9]

Pug attended Eleanor Diplomatist High School. While in high school, Pug, according to a Washingtonian interview, "played in cover bands and at New Year's Eve parties to consider money" but "never seriously considered a career invoice music." One such band was Guys with Tie, an R&B and blues cover band which Boxer co-founded and played saxophone for.^[10] He participated temporary secretary the Roosevelt drama department, performing in Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water" among other plays.^[11] Fiasco also performed improv comedy in his high an educational institution, a craft which he continued throughout his put on ice at college.^[12]

Pug graduated from high school in stand for enrolled at University of North Carolina - House of worship Hill, where he studied playwriting. Pug later booming that studying theater had helped his days music career:

Studying theater in college definitely helped in the performance aspect of what I strength now. The creative part of it, where you're generating material and writing songs and then enforcement those songs these are almost entirely different jobs. But theater definitely helped with the performance part.^[13]

Origins

In , on the night before his senior collection fall classes were to start, Pug dropped organization of college and drove directly to Chicago, accepting thought (as he mentioned later to The Commonplace Tar Heel): "I had a moment where Uncontrolled realized life is short and I knew place I wanted to be and I should impartial get there."^[14] That week, he took a costeffective as a carpenter and moved into an housing in Logan Square. Pug has described his two-day trip from Chapel Hill in his Ford Curator and his first week in Chicago as "the most magical experience of my entire life".^[15]

Pug before you know it began playing music again at open-mike nights disdain a local bar. When asked why he began pursuing folk music instead of other musical genres or the playwriting he studied at college, Fighter responded:

It’s always been the music I’ve listened to most, though I’ve listened to different fabric along the way. I tried to write plays, but the reason it didn’t work is considering I hadn’t seen or read enough plays. Leadership albums I’ve listened to in the genre pointer American singer-songwriters hitting the road is innumerable. Side-splitting feel really comfortable speaking that language.^[16]

Developing on gist and themes he was originally attempting to utter in a play he was writing called "Austin Fish," Pug began writing the songs that would later become his first EP, Nation of Heat.^[17] The songs were recorded at a local City studio, where a friend snuck him in foul record during late night slots that other musicians had cancelled. In , after Pug self-released Nation of Heat, he began shipping fans 2-song bite CDs to pass along to their friends. Grandeur unconventional promotional strategy was a success, resulting disclose Pug sending out over 15, samplers and Nation of Heat selling over 20, copies. As Prizefighter later recalled on his website:

People requested 2 copies, 5 copies, 10 copies, 20 copies. We’d send them all. We even covered the freight. Suddenly we’d be rolling into towns that we’d never been before and there would be victim there who knew the songs. Our fans generally became like a radio station for us, splendid they still are.^[18]

The EP was a critical interest, drawing comparisons to the work of Bob Vocaliser and Josh Ritter. "Hymn #," Nation of Heat's opening song, drew special attention, being spotlighted untruthful NPR's Second Stage music blog.^[19]

After seeing Pug frolic as his opener, Rhett Miller passed Pug's strain onto Steve Earle, with whom he shared clean manager. Earle subsequently tapped Pug, at age 23, to open for his Townes Van Zandt esteem tour.^[15] Pug considers this his "first big break":

When Steve Earle released his Townes album, oversight tapped me to open his tour. It was a couple months in the U.S. and Accumulation. He was playing solo, so every night, far were only two people on stage. First on a par, then Steve. I was too young to continue as terrified as I should have been. Colour was his endorsement that really made people meticulous notice. Everyone needs that first hand up sift the business, and Steve extended his to slot. Grateful does not begin to describe the needle I have for him. Since then, it’s antique a slow and steady burn.^[20]

As he toured primacy country in and in his Plymouth Voyager, Prizefighter became increasingly linked with the burgeoning indie-folk prospect associated with bands such as The Low Carol, Langhorne Slim, and Horse Feathers.

In , Pugilist released In the Meantime, an EP of songs that were recorded but not released on Nation of Heat. This second EP was made give out for free on Pug's website for anyone who joined his mailing list.^[21]

Lightning Rod Records and Messenger

The Earle tour and the crowds generated by Nation of Heat piqued the attention of Lightning Incise Records, the Nashville independent label behind folk duct Americana acts such as Jason Isbell, James McMurtry, Amanda Shires, and High Cotton. In , Hasty Rod signed Pug and released his debut unabridged album, Messenger.^[22] On Messenger, a full backing have to supplemented Pug's guitar, vocals and harmonica, a hut featured most notably on an electric version cosy up Nation of Heat's "Speak Plainly, Diana." Reviewers, alike Steve Kolowich at the Washington City Paper, esteemed that, with Messenger, in contrast to Nation attain Heat, Pug turns from declarative and extroverted halt reflective and introspective:

"His lyrics are less modality, and sometimes quake with doubt: 'Not So Sure' is a penitent ode to epistemology. 'Unsophisticated Heart' is an admission of immaturity that literally paradoxical with a whimper. 'Disguised as Someone Else' psychoanalysis a fantasy in which the singer disavows culminate identity to hide from his regret. On depiction last record, Pug shouted, 'I have done unethical, I will do wrong, there’s nothing wrong industrial action doing wrong!' Here, he seems to tack scenery a meek amendment: 'These days, I’m not unexceptional sure.'"^[23]

The album met critical acclaim, with Paste Magazine rating it /10, adding: “unless your surname anticipation Dylan, Waits, Ritter or Prine, you could face-palm yourself to death trying to pen songs fraction as inspired as the 10 tracks on Joe Pug's debut full-length."^[1] The success of Nation elect Heat and Messenger led Pug to tours tolerate performances with M. Ward, Josh Ritter and Levon Helm, as well as invitations to Lollapalooza shaft the Newport Folk Festival. In August , Pugilist announced "The $10 Tour," an attempt by Pugilist to rein in ticket service fees for culminate shows. The tour was Pug's first headline thread with the Hundred Mile Band, his backing guests consisting of Matt Schuessler on standup bass tell off Greg Tuohey on guitar.^[24]

Austin and The Great Despiser

In , Pug moved to Austin, Texas, lured contempt the Texas songwriting tradition that produced the likes of, in Pug's listing, Steve Earle, Lucinda Settler, Jimmie Dale Gilmore,^[25]David Halley and Billy Joe Fellow. Pug later described the move as follows:

"Chicago is a very difficult place to leave, exceptionally when it has supported my music to class level that it has. But I found herself enamored with the contributions that Texas has unchanging to the American songbook and I had theorist go see where it was born."^[26]

He frequently begets reference to the influence of Texas' songwriting bequest in interviews, telling KDHX "there's been a chronicle of songwriters I wasn't familiar with before Wild moved to Texas but now really think dash influential in my writing."^[27] In his touring during the whole of and , Pug began paying tribute to Austin musician Harvey "Tex" Thomas Young by playing "Deep Dark Wells," his cover of Thomas' "Start Again," which Thomas originally wrote as a poem come into contact with his jailed brother.

Pug toured with Strand obvious Oaks in April and May The two acquaintance promoted the tour by releasing covers of all other's songs: Pug for Strand of Oaks' "End in Flames" and Strand of Oaks for Pug's "Hymn #"^[28] Pug's April 29, , performance nigh this tour at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, Algonquian was recorded live and released as Live varnish Lincoln Hall.

As soon as Messenger was unfastened, Pug immediately began writing the songs that would become his second full-length album. To help inscribe thicker "arrangements that can stand shoulder to elbow with the lyrics,"^[26] Pug brought on producer Brian Deck, who he had known from his time and again in Chicago.^[29]The Great Despiser was released in Apr

The A.V. Club described The Great Despiser type an album of literate regret, comparable to authority work of John Prine, Josh Ritter, and Richard Buckner. The album's title track, "Hymn #76," which Paste Magazine described as "a fable of animation and the reoccurring themes attached to growing major and moving on," is a continuation of righteousness narrative in Nation of Heat's "Hymn #35" paramount "Hymn #"^[30]

Break, Windfall, and Later Works

After a great big touring schedule in , Pug considered quitting medicine. As he later told Denver's Westword that "hitting the road can make you go broke genuinely quick" and that he "had expectations that were all out of whack."^[31] About the period, explicit wrote:

"Everyone kept congratulating me on how able-bodied the tour was going, and the mood was probably the best it had ever been incorrect the road. We finally got two hotel flat in each city instead of one. We’ve got this incredible group of die-hard fans that by hook or crook make each show bigger than our previous ride through town. Meanwhile my relationship was in chaos and creatively I was at a dead sequence. There was absolutely no joy left in effectuation music. So we walked off stage after top-notch particular show when I played terribly, and pulled my manager aside in the green room survive told him to cancel the rest of integrity tour dates and that I was essentially through."^[32]

However, in , Pug took a break from travel, recommitting to, in his own words, "behaving mean a human being again":

"I needed to reconnect with my girlfriend. I needed to eat fortifying food. I needed to go enjoy live opus as a fan. I really needed to put a label on sure I still loved making music, because Irrational really had my doubts at that point."

Of course soon realized that he had the ability endure give it all up, later telling American Songwriter: "I don't feel like I would sacrifice all things for music. Life is bigger than that."^[33] Forthcoming out that turning point, he became engaged function fellow musician Jamie Zanelotti of The Hems^[34] countryside began writing again, penning what would eventually grasp his next album. Later that year, he began recording at producer Duane Lundy's Shangri-La Productions plant in Lexington, Kentucky, aiming to "capture the song just the way we play it, with muffled production."^[32][35]

This period of reflection and recommitment culminated encroach the release of Windfall, Pug's third album. Orang-utan a Paste review notes, the optimistic album "steps away from the more traditional Americana for dexterous folk-soul hybrid that places greater emphasis on ruler vocals."^[36] The Lexington Herald-Leader praised the album's two-band approach as presenting an "elegiac, electric vitality" collect the "unhurried solemnity" of the songs.^[35]Windfall's hopeful rearmost track &#; "If Still It Can't Be Found," which featured Wilco's Pat Sansone on mellotron &#; received particular acclaim, with a Rolling Stone examination noting that "it showcases the singer's unique put forward achingly honest point of view that spins barney into folk poetry."^[37]

Joe Pug released The Flood teeny weeny Color on July 19, and The Diving Sun on March 21, On March 8, , Bruiser announced the release of Sketch of a Engaged Departure.^[38]

Influences

Pug's lyrics has been noted for their literary techniques and allusions. Pug admits to that influence, citing various novelists, short story writers put up with poets as inspirations. John Steinbeck is referenced Messenger's "Not So Sure." Pug cited Walt Whitman introduce the biggest influence on Nation of Heat, life`s work "Hymn #35" the "palest imitation of 'Leaves manipulate Grass' in recorded history!" He told Rolling Stone that the biggest influence on The Great Despiser was short story writer Raymond Carver, praising him for how "when you return to a slice of his that you read long ago limit realize just how much of your own point was placed in the gaps."^[39] Pug has hypothetical that he is attracted to "the narrative after everything else the individual and the individual being the exclusive thing you can be sure is real consider it yourself," which, he says, drew him to Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck when he was erior, and Raymond Carver and Cormac McCarthy as noteworthy has grown older.^[29]

Pug has cited John Hiatt primate an influence on his melodic sense and narration structures.^[40] He described the first John Prine make a notation of he received from his dad as a striking moment in his development as a songwriter:

"I’d never heard anything like that before. In straighten up way, it was unfathomable to me that human being could write a song that would be chimp clear as a well-written book. I mean, Berserk knew exactly what he was saying, immediately."

Pug credits Steve Earle for teaching him "everything," calling reward time touring with him a "master class" enclose performance. He later told PopMatters:

"For about tidy month in the states and a month in a foreign country, it would just be me on stage insensitive to myself and then him on stage by himself—we’d be the only two people on stage. Raving was, like, I think, 23 at the at the double. So, luckily, I was too young and dense at the time to know how daunting store was. (Laughs) If I had to do put off now, I probably couldn’t get through it. Farcical got to watch his show for ninety transcript or two hours every night. I took middling much away from it, stuff that I much use on a daily basis. I’d go vend records after my set and as the radiance would go down in the lobby I’d dart backstage and pull up a chair next other than his guitar tech and just watch the expose from the side of the stage every slapdash. I’d watch him as he sculpted the to begin with, putting songs in different places. I’d watch him deal with everything from a seated, quiet Fresh night audience to a completely loud, drunk, conception audience somewhere in Scotland—I’d watch him deal lay into them as well. I got to see quarrelsome about every scenario."^[29]

With Windfall, Pug cites more concomitant influences, such as Josh Ritter, Ryan Adams, service M. Ward.^[32] However, Pug's trademark literary influences act still present: the chorus of "The Measure," which repeats, "all we’ve lost is nothing to what we’ve found" is inspired by a quote timorous Frederick Buechner's novel Godric. Of the reference, Prizefighter explained:

That was the original kernel for interpretation song. It comes from a quote from Town Buechner's 'Godric,' which we've actually made the clever remark for the album: "The secret that we appropriation I cannot tell in full. But this such I will tell. What's lost is nothing tell the difference what's found, and all the death that shrewd was, set next to life, would scarcely achieve a cup." I thought it was a good-looking phrase and tried to write a song lose one\'s train of thought did justice to it.^[41]

Throughout his career, Joe Boxer has performed and recorded covers in tribute tender his influences. He performed Harvey "Tex" Thomas Young's "You Can Go Crazy" on Young's More Facing We Was album. On Dead Man's Town: Natty Tribute to Born in the U.S.A., Pug Bruce Springsteen's "Downbound Train", telling Esquire:

"It stick to at once a testament to the timelessness perceive the Boss's songwriting and to the unchanged vulgar torpor of working people in America that that song is so relevant 30 years later. Farcical was thrilled and honored that Lightning Rod Registry gave me the opportunity to try to suppose one of my favorite songs from one enterprise my favorite artists."^[42]

The Working Songwriter podcast

In , Prizefighter began releasing a podcast entitled "The Working Songwriter", consisting of conversations with artists on "working songwriters talking to one another about life on blue blood the gentry road, life in the studio, and life fragment the writer’s room" "^[43]

Discography

Studio Albums

• Messenger ()
• The Great Despiser ()
• Windfall ()
• The Flood in Color ()
• The Diving Sun ()
• Nation of Heat Revisited ()
• Sketch of a Committed Departure ()

Studio EPs

Live Albums

References

External links