A few years back, hands around a cup of coffee, Joe Pug decided to leave his life as a playwright student at The University of North Carolina, to start putting ideas, originally meant for a play he was writing, to song. He moved to Chicago and eventually recorded a pack of songs that became the EP "Nation Of Heat". Joe started offering this CD to his fans for free, mailing it out, complete with a thank you note and postage covered. He still does this on his website. Recognizing that his potential fans might not want to throw down $ for an unknown entity, Joe makes an offering of his music, spreading the word and building his audience by going over to their side of the musician-fan relationship."Messenger", Joe's first full-length CD is due February 16, 2010. Two times through the album now, I am sitting with his clean, unadorned sound and approach, layers of unaffected nuance emerging as light as a feather. Joe Pug has piercing blue eyes, and I'm thinking about this as I write. You know that expression, "You can get lost in his eyes"? Well, what is true about Joe Pug's eyes is true about his music. An open space that draws you in and affects you. Lost and found.
Chicago visual artist Shawn Stucky provides the beautiful album art.
Listen to some tracks from the new CD tonight at 9 PM on mvyradio's Uncharted Waters and on Joe's website.
0 comments:
Post a Comment