Joe Pug has a new album out – it’s not a remix, it’s not a remaster it’s an all new recording even if the title does seem a little familiar: ‘Nation Of Heat | Revisited.’ In fact it’s a re-imaging of his debut EP – well, even that’s not quite right. It’s more an old imaging as Joe Pug explains “It’s how I would’ve wanted the record to sound in the first place if I’d had the money and the ability to do it this way.”
When Joe Pug snuck into a Chicago studio in 2007 to record his debut EP, he had more misgivings than songs. “My most vivid recollections from those sessions,” he says with fifteen years’ hindsight, “involve sitting in the studio between takes and thinking to myself, I have no idea what I’m doing. I can barely play guitar. I can barely play harmonica. I can barely sing on key. I can barely keep time. But there was still something about these songs—something extra about these songs.”
‘Nation Of Heat’ remains Joe Pugs’ most popular release, with over 20 million streams on Spotify. For the reworked revisiting Joe Pug had contributions from Courtney Hartman, Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Derry DeBorja (Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit), and Brandon Flowers (the Killers), among others. It’s something that Pug is proud of, as he comments “What this project showed me is that there are a lot of different forms of wealth in this world and there’s a very important kind of wealth that I didn’t even know I had. I have this community that is committed to the same artistic values that I’m committed to.”
