More People Should Really Know About: Joe Pug

As usual I found Joe Pug through reviewing one of his albums. In this case “The Flood In Color” back in 2019. After digging a bit deeper I learned about his path into music through the “Nation of Heat” EP which sold over 20,000 copies largely by getting free sampler CDs into the hands of fans, his podcast ‘The Working Songwriter’ and a series of eleven releases of fifteen years.

But what makes him worthy of your attention? All these things, but above all the journey that his music has taken from the primitiveness of that first EP, up to the full band reimagining “Nation of Heat Revisited” in 2022. ‘Call It What You Will’ is the central song on both outings, despite different track orders. It evolves from a lo-fi acoustic tune to a full-on country ballad complete with weeping pedal steel. Some artists find their flow early on and don’t deviate too far from the initial pattern, while Pug has gently evolved as his writing and performing have matured.

Paste Magazine said: “Unless your surname is Dylan, Waits, Ritter or Prine, you could face-palm yourself to death trying to pen songs half as inspired.” Having cited literary influences like Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck, he told Rolling Stone that the biggest influence on his 2012 album “The Great Despiser’”was Raymond Carver, praising him for how “when you return to a piece of his that you read long ago and realise just how much of your own detail was placed in the gaps.” He told another interviewer that he was attracted to “the narrative of the individual and the individual being the only thing you can be sure is real in yourself,” which, he says, drew him to Whitman and Steinbeck when he was younger, and Carver and Cormac McCarthy as he has grown older. Given those influences an intriguing “what if” pops up. What would a Joe Pug/Willy Vlautin co-write sound like?

His musical growth reflects his writing. Calling touring with Steve Earle a “masterclass,” crediting Earle with teaching him everything. “I took so much away from it, stuff that I still use on a daily basis.”

That thoughtfulness about music became ‘The Working Songwriter’ podcast in 2016. Consisting of conversations with artists on “working songwriters talking to one another about life on the road, life in the studio, and life in the writer’s room.” With 100 episodes freely available, and many more on subscription it is a fascinating glimpse into the process and practice of creating music. Recent episodes have included Cody Dickenson, Steve Cropper, and Lawrence Gowan of the band Styx. If you want to sample the series try the episodes with John Oates and Robyn Hitchcock.

Where to start with his music? Where I did with “The Flood In Color” is not a bad idea, but his latest, “Sketch of a Promised Departure” is another high point, with his introspective, organic songwriting having taken another step forward. To those in the know Joe Pug is someone who can always be relied on to provide music which will always offer something new with each listen. If you haven’t caught on yet, then his consistent 8 out of 10 for album reviews at AUK should suggest that sampling his music will be a quick way to finding your new favourite artist.