Will Hoge ft. Seth Walker Friday, April 10th All Ages | 8pm $20
Advanced $25 Day of Show MY AMERICAN DREAM … “Will Hoge didn’t
really need to release a new album in 2018. His most recent, Anchors,
came out last August, reaching No. 6 on Billboard Heatseekers and the
Top 20 on the Indie chart. He’d toured the United States and Europe,
and could’ve settled in from there. But there was something he
couldn’t stop thinking about: his children. Border police. Political
corruption. Anti-intellectualism. Poverty. Gun control. A broken
education system. Indifference to others’ suffering. Each of these
things weighed on Hoge, and he confronts them all head-on in My
American Dream, which will come with a copy of the U.S. Constitution
printed with the lyrics in both the LP and CD (out October 5th on
Edlo/Thirty Tigers). “Those things kept me up at night — and this
record was less expensive than therapy,” he says, laughing.
“Silence couldn’t be a part of my deal anymore.” and Hoge dealt
with his fears the only way he knows how, by making music. The result
is the fiercest, angriest, and most heartfelt collection of songs
he’s released. Eight songs of rabble-rousing political commentary
that turns a critical eye on the crisis of conscience and culture
threatening to tear apart his country, the album is Hoge’s
impassioned portrait of what he holds dear — and what we all might
risk losing. “My kids and their future, that’s the biggest thing
for me. My boys are 11 and 7, they’re happy and healthy kids, and I
feel lucky for that every day,” says Hoge, who’s wife is a teacher
at the same school that their sons attend in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Every morning at 7 o’clock, everything I care about in the world
goes to one building. It takes one knucklehead with a gun going into
that one building to ruin all that for me.” The first song that Hoge
completed was inspired directly by the specter of school shootings and
the inept response of politicians: “Thoughts & Prayers” (released
as a single and named as one of the Top 25 Songs of 2017 by Rolling
Stone Country) is an acoustic ballad in which he asks, “Why don’t
you do your job up there? Keep your thoughts and prayers.” “Sadly,
it seems that “thoughts and prayers” is America’s new slogan”
says RS. It’s a raw, fiery song with just Hoge and his guitar,
belting out his frustrations in the recording booth. Production wise,
It’s a stark contrast to the straight, no-holds-barred rock and roll
of the rest of the album, though the inextinguishable spirit remains
the same throughout and the urgency of the music comes through in
every note. Hoge drives home the sentiment on the searing album opener
“Gilded Walls”. “ Well another group of kids in high school dead
But you’re still at your golf course teeing off at nine People
marching in the streets trying to find a little peace You sit around
spouting more bullsh*t online ” Listen to the thumping beat of
“Nikki’s a Republican Now” or the crunchy solidarity of
“Stupid Kids” and it’s clear Hoge feels the release of cranking
the amps up to 11. Hoge credits the big rock sound on My American
Dream, to the red hot playing of his touring band and the intense
angst caused by what’s happening in our country. With Will in the
producers chair, he along with Thom Donavan (lead guitar), Chris
Griffiths (bass) and Allen Jones (drums) hunkered down in Studio B at
Nashville’s historic Sound Emporium and knocked out the entire album
in just 3 days. He then enlisted long time trusted collaborator and
Grammy Award winning engineer, Ray Kennedy, to handle the final mixes.
Hoge has never been afraid to wade into political territory, like with
2004’s The America EP (“Bible Vs. Gun,” “Hey Mr. President
(Anyone But You)”) or 2012’s Modern American Protest Music
(“Ballad of Trayvon Martin,” “Jesus Came to Tennessee”) and
the point of this new material is to continue to push Hoge — and his
listeners — even further outside of the comfort zone. That meant
coming to terms with parts of his own past that he wasn’t proud of.
When speaking about the song “Still a Southern Man”, Hoge notes
“I grew up in a town where the high school mascot, the Franklin
Rebels, had a rebel flag. I was the guy that brought the rebel flag to
football games. I thought it was awesome because it was our school,”
he remembers. “I was a dumb, small-town, sheltered kid. It never
entered my mind that this was racist because I wasn’t racist, so how
could this be wrong? I never considered the dark history, It was just
a mascot to me, I realized later It was a long, awful nightmare to
many others.” More often than not, though, Hoge puts himself in
someone else’s shoes, be it the homeless heartland worker who
watched his job prospects head overseas on “My American Dream” or
the Mexican immigrant crossing the border to provide for his family on
“Illegal Line.” At their core, both songs are about empathy. “At
the end of the day, that’s really what folks are after, is just to
be treated with some respect. Paired back to back, “My American
Dream” and “Illegal Line” form the emotional core of the album,
with the latter song taking on all the more significance in light of
the heartbreaking separation of families so tragically revealed in the
24-hour news cycle. He’s grateful for the commercial success and
Grammy nominations that songs such as “Even if It Breaks Your
Heart” “Middle of America” and “Strong” have received, but
even more important than the commercial success is the freedom to
stand up for his convictions and put them into his music when the time
calls for it. ”If I’m going to alienate folks then I guess it’s
doing its job. If they aren’t willing to be challenged, if they
don’t like the songs, then don’t buy the record. It’s that
simple.” What’s more, Hoge isn’t the type to talk the talk
without walking the walk. He’s an avid activist, lending his time
and resources to raise awareness and money for Believe in Service (a
Nashville based PAC who supports candidates in 8 key Senate races) and
is a member of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Music Council, a part of
the Creative Council, founded and chaired by Julianne Moore. His
social media pages are a microcosm of sorts for the wider
conversations taking place in the world today, as he challenges his
fans to not shy away from the important questions that need to be
asked. With My American Dream, Hoge hopes that others will follow his
lead, see the world through someone else’s eyes, and maybe — just
maybe — begin to fix the mess we’re living in. “Are You Open?”
Seth Walker sings on his transfixing new album of the same title. More
than just a question, it’s a challenge, an invitation, a dare. “To
me, being open means being vulnerable and exposed,” explains Walker,
“but that’s where the little nuggets of creative gold come from. I
never planned an overall concept for this record, but each of these
songs seemed to spin out from asking myself that one simple
question.” Produced by The Wood Brothers' Jano Rix, ‘Are You
Open’ marks Seth Walker's tenth studio recording, and the music is
undoubtedly his most inventive, exploring new sounds and textures as
he examines what it means to truly be open, both as an artist and more
broadly as a human in today's increasingly more complicated world. The
songwriting here is bold and infectious, featuring melodies and
rhythms drawn from Walker’s time spent in Havana and filtered
through his split-screen life in New Orleans and Nashville. The result
is a melting pot of sounds and perspectives, a soulful brew of roots
music from the Americas and beyond. Songs frequently build off of a
single chord, shifting in color and tone as they ebb and flow and
stack layer upon layer over hypnotic bass lines and percussion
grooves. The record features Walker’s guitar playing more heavily
than ever before, and the new approach suits him well, showcasing a
melodic prowess to match his prodigious lyrical gifts. ‘Are You
Open?’ follows 2016’s critically acclaimed ‘Gotta Get Back,’ a
stunning collection that found Walker excavating the roots of his love
affair with music by reuniting the family that first sparked his fire
as a child. That album traced its origins back to Walker’s native
North Carolina, where he grew up on a multi-family commune and studied
classical violin and cello before ultimately discovering his passion
for soul, jazz, blues, and folk. He’d go on to deftly mix all those
genres and more in his work as a solo artist, organically building up
a celebrated two-decade career that’s earned him praise everywhere
from The Washington Post to NPR , who hailed his "hard-driving" songs
and "sweet tenor," in addition to landing him dates with The
Mavericks, The Wood Brothers, Raul Malo, Paul Thorn and Ruthie Foster,
among others. What People Are Saying… “…an accomplished
guitarist and an even better singer, distilling the soul of Ray
Charles, the Southern boy roots charm of Delbert McClinton, and an
uptown blues turn of phrase (à la Percy Mayfield) into his own
distinct voice.” – The Vinyl District "Walker's brilliantly
nuanced vocals are as natural, clear, sharp, and as effortlessly
elegant as his guitar playing..." - All Music "It’s a welcome thing
that Seth Walker’s chosen to pitch his tent in Americana...Walker
has a way with smooth and swinging phrasing and makes classically
accessible up-front pleas." - Nashville Scene “If you subscribe to
the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker –with his blend
of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country—just might be
your poster boy.” - Country Standard Time “…pure talent, a
masterful blues guitarist, a singer with some swing in his voice and a
writer whose [songs] sound less composed than unleashed.” - Austin
American Statesman
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11/04/2020 Last update