Joe Pug: Messenger (Lightning Rod, 2010)
Joe Pug is a songwriter. A mighty good songwriter. From Chicago, Illinois. With heart & gently phrased thoughtful words. Folk songs, country songs.. Well good songs.. No wait. Not just good songs. Pretty amazing songs. After hearing one of Not So Sure, How Good You Are and Unsophisticated Heart most singer-songwriters would form a phrase in their mind that goes “that’s a song I wish I had written”. Kind of simple and easy to approach, but still very detailed, carefully crafted and delivered with heart. I suppose Joe Pug’s Messenger also contains some songs that are only good and nothing that special. Somehow that bit faster pop-tinged material like the title song or Speak Plainly, Diana doesn’t make a significant impact on me. Thankfully they are in the minority and mostly Joe Pug excels in the art of wrapping moving words inside slow-paced beautiful melodies and sending them straight to the core of your heart. These days I’m so sure. That Joe Pug is a songwriter. A mighty good songwriter.
Listen to Not So Sure:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/03-not-so-sure.mp3]
1 Comment
I just gotta say, Every weighty album needs some songs that have less heartfelt intensity and have some cheek and irreverence.. ‘Speak plainly Diana’, is one of those.. It’s raunchy, self effacing and funny.. and great for turning up and shouting along with while you’re driving.
“Speak plainly Diana. There’s nothing to understand. Yes there’s mysteries in the basement but there’s comic books upstairs; and there’s a wrecking ball in the front yard, but there’s blueprints on the shelf.. Speak plainly to me Diana. We’ll build ourselves a house”.
BRILLIANT !! ….Just sayin’…..