roots rock twang news

After 10 albums, Will Hoge’s still delivers on heartland promise

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willhoge2015Will Hoge has scuffled on the edges of success for more than 10 years, whether you count his major label signing to Atlantic in 2002 as a starting point, or his mid-1990’s independent release Spoonful.

He is midwestern heartland rock and roll, with a dose of country, some Dylen-seque folk, cracking drums and loud guitars. His Small Town Dreams record, dare I proclaim, is his best record to date. It might be the best album John Mellencamp never made.  It is an album will hit that fans of that Petty/Seger/Springsteen/Mellencamp/rock and roll with a slap on the back and a punch in the gut; a reminder of what they love about rock music.

But he’s got a lot of miles behind him, both literally (as a touring rocker) or metaphorically (he’s been putting out good stuff for years, with little victories and incremental successes).

With his album Small Town Dreams, Hoge recorded his Scarecrow.

Small Town Dreams is Hoge’s first collaboration with producer Marshall Altman.  Hoge self-produced his last three albums, but wanted to get Altman after hearing his work on Eric Paslay’s “Friday Night” and Frankie Ballard’s “Helluva Life”.

He brought in Altman, who Hoge said was already a friend and fan. It works. It is American rock and roll.  He’s crafted and dirtied-up lots of good stuff that sounds heartfelt, from-the-gut, rowdy and beautiful. Real and whiskey-smoked.

I stumbled onto Hoge one night at the Rathskeller almost ten years ago in downtown Indianapolis, on a warm July night.  I enough to show up at the show.   I realized that Hoge had brought ex-Georgia Satellites singer Dan Baird along to play guitar. I saw a gangly dude next to the beer tub, and thought to myself  “What?  Wait. Shit. That’s Dan Baird.”  Turned into one of best small venue shows “I’ve seen.

The single “Middle of America” jumps out as an anthem, the slow burn of “Just Up The Road” is a pounding plea to the promise of escape, and the leadoff track “Growing Up Around Here” strikes a Seger sound in the verse with some big piano chords and a midtempo majestic ride throughout.

For nearly 20 years, Hoge hasn’t disappointed.  His music has grown into full-throated rock and roll.  His music has heart and ache and guitars.  And a few dreams.

 

Remembering Prince on his 59th Birthday

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Today would have been the 59th birthday for Prince.  In the year and a few months that have passed since he died, my realization (which is nearly the same feeling as on the day he died) is this:
He was one of a startlingly select group of musicians who make it all look way easy.

We see it.  We feel it when we see it.  Bruno Mars has it.  Micheal Jackson had it.

Prince was the master.  Remember the legendary Super bowl performance?  Watch the short documentary about that night. Amazing

It’s that thing that seems to flow from a natural spring inside their soul.  Whereas Springsteen is unbelievably great as a live performer, his magic seemingly includes lot of sweat and hard work to get to that place.

The Michael’s, Prince’s and Bruno’s had to work at it too.  Nobody is naive enough to think it’s all about natural ability.  But there is an effortlessness that make  them seem lighter.  Magical.
They make the very difficult look really easy. They make me smile when I watch the old Motown 25 and Michael Jackson introducing the moonwalk. Or when I watch Prince playing that solo with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.

Here’s the piece I wrote the night Prince died.  I think it makes sense to read it again today.
Midwest Kids and Prince
Here’s the thing about Prince: to a Midwestern guy back in the early 1980’s, Prince wasn’t necessarily in the cassette player. To most of us dudes, it took a while. For me, it took my friend Ron Hefner turning me on to the Dirty Mind and Controversy albums, and letting me borrow them back in 1983. I gave them back and went out and bought both.

And I’m not sure why. It certainly wasn’t Bob Seger. It wasn’t John Mellencamp. It wasn’t really quite like anything on the radio. It was adult and juvenile at the same time, with keyboards and groove. Funk. And sex. Lots of sex.

But with the 1999 album, on the title song and especially with “Little Red Corvette”, the Midwest boys started to get it. And maybe it was because the Midwest girls already did. They knew Prince had the goods that made it easy to dance.

Then it was Purple Rain, and the movie. The explosion.
Look up his catalog on Wikipedia. I did. Amazing. Ubiquitous on the radio for ten years. Hit songs – ah, career songs – for other artists: Chaka Khan. The Bangles. Sinead O’Connor. Sheila E. Did you know he played the synthesizer that is so crucial to the sound of Stevie Nicks’ hit “Stand Back?

Tonight, I’ve been listening to 89.3 FM The Current, an NPR station in Minneapolis that has been playing nothing but Prince music since a little after 1:00pm. They’ve done marvelous work.
It’s midnight now. They are playing “Jungle Love” from The Time. It sounds good. Damn good.

The thing is, everything they have played has sounded good. Everything. The drum and keyboard sound that is the Minneapolis Sound – the Prince sound. It reminds of the brilliance of his guitar playing and the twist he made on the mixture of Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton and his own brain.

Maybe it’s the filter of loss that makes the music sound more alive. Maybe it’s because we are now able to somehow hear the soulfulness and heart and guts of Prince’s music more clearly.

What I hear when I listen tonight is intelligence and the groove. Funk and the smarts. Rock and roll and charisma. I’m glad it sounds so good, through the lens of a rewind. Happy to know the music was really that good, and our memories hadn’t tricked us.

I’m elated that we have the music to remind us of his genius. And so very sad that it’s where we are tonight.

My Lou Reed Tribute – Three Chords Were Jazz

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cannes-lions-2013-lou-reed-99Lou Reed has died. Remembered more as an artist influence than hitmaker, Reed was one of those musicians whose brilliance was nuggets amidst noise.

My perspective is from inside Middle America.  Indiana and Michigan, with two years in Illinois thrown in when I was in elementary school.
Heartland. Small towns. Medium towns.
Not many big towns.

It was the guitar rock of Reed that made sense to me. The noise? The avant garde material? Not so much. I leave that part of his legacy to the East Coast historians.

Instead, it’s the “Sweet Jane”, “Rock and Roll”, and “Dirty Blvd” parts of his catalog that I return to tonight. Reed wrote the perfect rock song with “Sweet Jane”. You can hear a “Sweet Jane” riff in dozens of songs.Hear it while driving. Say “Sweet Jane!” to yourself.

I do.

(Beautiful little video of Lou and Elvis Costello talking about the riff and the “Secret chord”.)

Lou Reed 1978

As a radio DJ in the 1980’s in a small town in Michigan, our little radio station rocked at night (at least when I worked) and I remember we had 1976’s Rock and Roll Heart album.  How did that happen?  I remember putting “Senselessly Cruel” on the turntable. Why? Because it was Lou Reed, and I was convinced I wore the crown of cool, smart rock guy who knew how to find a song the Midwest rock and rollers would like.
Was I right? Maybe. We were an AM station, broadcasting to a town of 7.000, and I was way too young to be as good as I thought I was. Couldn’t have been anyone listening, right?

At the time? Subversively brilliant.
lou-reedIndiana is home now. I dragged my Michigan influences with me and am what I am.  Yet Lou Reed is a tiny-but-still-influential part of it.
A product of small towns, I’m Kiss and Wings and John Denver 45’s. BTO, REO and ELO 8-Tracks. And Bob Seger albums. A lot of those.

But Reed was a peek into the “Who knew?” part of NYC backroom of rock and roll and painters and artists debauchery; heroin overdoses and metal machine music. He was the noise and weird and cool. His nuggets of rock music felt different. Smart and strong and vulnerable and not from where I was from.
Still, Lou kept doing just enough straight-with-a-twist rock and roll. Or I found the pieces on my own.

I played the shit out of his 1989 album “New York”. It is one of my favorite albums of that period. Raunchy-but-sweet guitar and words that build into lyrics deep and dark and real; dense yet simple.  Cinematic snapshots of down and dirty, and resiliency too.

Tonight, I go find Lou. Like the old friend you were tight with for a few years and then lost track of. Or at least never talk to. But you think of him. That’s Lou Reed and me. It’s about remembering the sounds that made those of us in the middle of the country like Lou Reed.

It’s a live version of “Sweet Jane” from his Rock n Roll Animal live album; dueling guitars into an anthem.

It’s Reed mixing it up on a killer live version of “Dirty Blvd.” with David Bowie.  Bowie rocks here.  Reed’s really good on this clip, but Bowie steals it.

But what I best remember tonight, for whatever reason, is the band Detroit (featuring Mitch Ryder) and their cover of “Rock and Roll”. It’s a Lou Reed song, turned into an uncharted classic by Mitch and his post -“Detroit Wheels” band.

The song is named the same as a genre he weaved his way through.  Reed played rock and roll  –  his way.  Not our way.  He seemed like he didn’t care what anyone thought. Tough rock and roll guy.
He lived “Walk on the Wild Side”, right?

I reflect on how Lou Reed found a way to connect with those of us here in the Midwest who never partied with Andy Warhol.  We love the sound of those “Sweet Jane” chords, shot full of melancholy and joy, straight into the heartland.
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(Dig the cheese of Music Mike on the intro. and the cool Lou Reed trivia he throws in…)

Petty produces former Byrd Chris Hillman’s new album; set for 9/22/17 release

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Tom Petty is producing an album by former Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother Chris HIllman.  It is set for a September 22 release and is Hillman’s first studio album in more than a decade. Bidin’ My Time is set to be released on Rounder Records.
Early listen?  The teaser sounds like Tom Petty indulged himself in his love of the Byrds.(No surprise, considering the comparisons that were made between early and mid-career Petty and the legendary 60’s group.).  The promo video actually shows Petty band members in the recording studio with Hillman

Guest musicians include former Byrds David Crosby and Roger McGuinn.  Hillman also recruits members of  the Desert Rose Band (Herb Pedersen, John Jorgenson, Jay Dee Maness) to play.  Hillman recorded seven top 10 country hits with the DRB in the late 80’s.
MIDWEST TOUR DATES
10/1 Nashville, TN City Winery
10/4 Newport, KY Southgate House Revival
10/5 Kent, OH Kent Stage
10/6 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music
10/7 Edwardsville, IL The Wildey Theatre
https://youtu.be/XQRN6fKUno4

First Listen: Will Hoge duet with Sheryl Crow – "Little Bit of Rust"

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Will HogeWill Hoge has slogged his way through years of van tours, bar shows and others having more success with his songs than his own band. He’s made some freakin’ great Americana rock and roll albums, including his most recent record Small Town Dreams. His shows are killer; a Telecaster-infused Memphis rock and roll blast.
Through it all, the consistent theme seems to have been that Will Hoge is just one of those guys who is better than people realize, meaning he may be in a van playing the 800-seaters for years.
But he’s smart. And his songwriting reflects it. You like Petty? Dig into Will Hoge. Shouldn’t be that tough.
And his new song, “Little Bit of Rust” from his forthcoming album Anchor brings Nashville neighbor Sheryl Crow into the mix, with a duet that blends the harmonies with a surprisingly biting electric guitar.  It’s a song that pairs his endearing and enduring grit with  a partner who might just raise his profile, even if that’s not his intention.
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Read the Rolling Stone story about the partnership here.

New album coming from Butch Walker. Really.

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ButchWalker-1024x680None of Butch Walker’s seven albums have reached the Top 100 on the US charts. His most recent record, 2015’s Afraid of Ghosts, crawled to 104 with Billboard.
Kinda odd, I think, because they sound authentic and of-the-moment but still seated firmly at the table with their influences.  It’s rock and roll.  But it’s shiny pop too, sometimes winding their way around each other in the same song. Sugary.  Truthy.  Hooky.  Holy. Smart.
His audience is cult-sized. Those who know and like, well, are glad they know and like, because his music kinda digs in and finds way into a listeners gut.  And heart.
Walker, raised in Georgia, has found his success with his producer’s golden-boy touch on records by Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Keith Urban, and worked on the new solo record from Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon.
His go-to sound? Layered vocals that build a wall of cotton candy around a bottle of whiskey. A big-and-loud pop sound. It’s also back to the 80’s.  FM radio.  And AM radio too, full of static and sex.
Not too often that kind of material gets stitched together and heard, like Butch Walker does it, as a big ol’ blanket of 2016 goodness, covering you with a feeling of both nostalgia and like the song may be the newest little treasure that nobody else has found yet.
Walker’s new record, Stay Gold, is due soon. There’s a teaser video out today.   And here’s a couple other of my favorites from him (and his recent work with Fallon) to test drive.