Newport Folk Festival 2015: Joe Pug

Joe Pug was the second artist to grace the Newport Folk Festival Harbor Stage at noon on Friday, July 24th. But his set was no typical early-in-the-day performance.

Pug was joined on stage by upright bassist, Matt Schuessler, and Greg Tuohey on electric guitar. Both Tuohey and Schuessler are members of Pug's Hundred Mile Band and play on his latest release, Windfall. The trio appropriately began with "Nation of Heat" and "I Do My Father's Drugs" off of Pug's 2009 debut EP also titled, Nation of Heat. 

And then he brought a third musician to the stage: Rose Guerin of Vandaveer. Guerin is a resident of Martha's Vineyard, which was what inspired Pug to ask her to play with him. It was also her birthday. Tragically, her house burned down a few weeks back. Pug called her to say that obviously she would not have to play at Newport with him if she didn't feel up to it. He r response?  "Joe, looking forward to playing Newport on my birthday is the only thing keeping me going." The first song they performed together was "Burn and Shine" and Guerin stayed on that stage until Pug's final tune. 

Pug's sarcastic sense of humor permeated throughout the set, jokingly referring to Windfall as their "blockbuster new album". "This next song is about as incongruous to a place as you can get," he began. "We tried to play all our upbeat material 'cause it's such a beautiful day. But it turns out 90% of our [stuff] is really dark." The crowd laughed with him as he broke into "The Great Despiser". 

Rose Guerin was not the only guest musician to appear during the performance. MorganEve Swain, one half of Brown Bird, jumped up on fiddle just for "Call It What You Will". In what was arguably the peak point of the set she and Tuohey engaged in a solo battle with Pug egging them on with "it's so nice I gotta hear it twice!" And "you call that a solo battle? Now that's a solo battle!" When they were done Pug turns to the audience and said, "That just made me think of that part in Zoolander when Will Ferrell is like 'They're break dance fighting!' In case you wanted to know what was going through my head..." 

"Speak Plainly, Diana" brought Pug and co. to the home stretch. "We play a lot of festivals, and we usually play around this time which means we're usually playing to a food truck vendor. It really is a testament to the greatness of the Newport Folk Festival that so many of you are out listening to music this early." 

Hopefully he realizes that it's a testament to the greatness of his musicianship as well. 

-Kendall Stewart

In-Studio Performance: Joe Pug

Singer-songwriter Joe Pug dropped by the station on April 30th, ten days after his 31st birthday and just a few weeks after the release of his third album, Windfall. Pug had visited the station previously while promoting 2012's The Great Despiser, a tour that nearly burnt him out on making music altogether. After kicking the session off with "Bright Beginnings", the first track from the new record, he went into detail about how he almost quit music entirely. He had been touring non-stop and by the end of the tour he was "really low on [him]self, low on music" and wanted to take a step  back in order to gain perspective as he "needed to have joy while making music". (Though let's not forget his gorgeous rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Downbound Train" on Dead Man's Town A Tribute To Born In The USA from 2014.)

"If Still It Can't Be Windfall the whole way through.
Found"was the second tune he played, which he wrote on an out-of-tune piano he found on Craig's List. He found a section of the site dedicated to people with pianos they are trying to get rid of--if someone can get it out of their house then it's theirs. The track is particularly powerful and Pug strategically placed it last on the album. "People don't listen to full albums anymore", and he wanted to make sure people listened to

Windfall was recorded at Shangri-La studios, with a simpler approach to songwriting and recording than Pug's previous efforts. He also cites more contemporary influences on this album as well--M. Ward, Josh Ritter and Ryan Adams among others, and finishing out the performance with "Burn And Shine".

Joe Pug will be supporting Brandon Flowers in the UK next month, as well as performing at the Green River Festival on July 12th, and Newport Folk on July 25th (Friday). More information can be found at JoePugMusic.com.

Stuck in Traffic

I think one thing we can all agree on is that being stuck in traffic is one of the biggest wastes of time in history.  I find it frustrating because I inevitably start to think of all the things I could be accomplishing instead of staring at the same car in front of me.  My mind tends to drift and I think of the laundry that needs folding at home, how I’d love to run around in my backyard with my four year old, or even how sitting at my desk and going through some emails would be time better served.  With that being said, I was stuck in traffic last week, and I was actually upset when I meandered my way through road construction.  I was listening to Joe Pug’s new album called “The Great Despiser” and time was running out because I was now actually getting to my destination where the car and radio would be turned off.

If you’re not familiar with Joe, some quick background info:  Joe had an epiphany on the day before his senior year started at the University of North Carolina.  Joe was a playwright student and right before his first cup of coffee in the morning, the thought hit him.  The thought was “I am profoundly unhappy here”.  With that, Joe packed his bags, dropped out of school, moved to Chicago and started to pursue music on a full time basis.  (By the way…how great is THAT?!)

He’s been compared to the Dylan’s and the Springsteen’s of the world because he plays guitar and on occasion drops in some great harmonica.  Comparisons aside I can only stress to you that Joe Pug is the real deal.  He speaks from the heart.  He gets it. 

I will let you decide for yourself.  You’ll be hearing tracks off his new album “The Great Despiser” in the coming weeks, and the full album is out April 24^th.  Maybe when you hear it, you’ll be as captivated as I was and will dread reaching your destination quickly and efficiently.

-        - Jay Moberg