Will Hoge may be the hardest-working musician you’ve never heard of. A Nashville guitarist who traded his teaching dreams for songwriting, Hoge tried his hand in minor bands before getting noticed as a solo artist at the turn of the century. Despite not having his own hit song (and, oddly, watching as another band earned a #1 spot covering one of his tunes), Hoge has toured steadily for more than a decade, including regular stops in St. Louis. Hoge performs Friday, Aug. 10, as part of the Open Highway Music Festival at Off Broadway. More!
Singer-songwriter Will Hoge makes his fourth visit to Mountain Stage, recorded live in Charleston, W.V. With his mix of heartland rock, soul and country, Hoge’s powerful voice, songwriting chops and relentless touring schedule have earned him tremendous respect among his peers. His song “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” has become a mainstream radio hit for the Eli Young Band, while his new album Seven has secured Hoge several appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, where he was first introduced by his hero Vince Gill.
Hoge is backed by his own band for a set that includes the emotional ballad “When I Get My Wings,” which was not heard during the radio broadcast. A lifelong Nashville native, Hoge told host Larry Groce that one advantage to living in the town is that when his children tell their teachers that their dad is a musician, they don’t freak out, “because there’s 10 other ones in the class.” more
I guess first and foremost I need to let everyone know that the show for 10/21 at the Tin Roof in Nashville has been cancelled. This is a real disappointment for me and the guys as well as the folks at Tin Roof. Lines got crossed with a set we are performing for the Americana Music Conference this Thursday. I’ll spare you the intricacies of it all and just say that I’m very sorry. This was to be our big hometown CD release show and now it can’t happen. Thanks to Jason and everyone at the Tin Roof for the support and understanding. We will make it up somewhere down the road.
On another note the vinyl mixes have been fixed and we should have details about when we can get those pressed and shipped out to y’all. Thanks for your patience. It will certainly be worth the extra time for your sonic listening pleasure.
Ended the second week of the When I Get My Wings Tour and things are going well. We are just getting our ‘sea legs’ with alot of the new stuff and it’s settling in nice. Had some cool opening acts as of late. Really enjoyed Aunt Martha. They were first of 3 in Charlotte and an incredibly pleasant surprise. The Locksley fellas are cool and they join back up with us later next week. James Dunn and his crew were good on Raleigh. Then we had Jaren and the Long Road To Love/Joe Firstman/cordovas/holy roller/wiffle ball junkies or whatever they’re going by in Milwaukee. Haha. They were lots of fun. Known those fellas for years and it was good to see them. Also caught up with Johnny from Jump Little Children who is playing bass with them. JLC were one of the very first bands to take me and my crew on tour years ago and I always loved them. I have nothing but great memories of those days. He of course ended up naked onstage during ‘too old to die young’. As I said that night I’m completely uncomfortable with how completely comfortable I am with seeing Johnny nekkid. Not a badge I’m proud to wear, but, it’s true. Milwaukee show for me was a standout. I always love playing there.
Our pal Zach Myers showed up that night and somehow after the show(due to a hatred of air travel if you must know) he ended up on Thor riding with us for 3 days so we could bring him to Nashville to DRIVE home to Memphis. Love it. He guitar teched his ass off for us too. I dare say at this point there’s no other band in rock that has a multiple-platinum selling guitar tech other than Will Hoge. Except maybe that Will HoPe guy that folks were expecting to see in Iowa City. Yeah. Awesome! In reality though the joint the Mill in Iowa City was a damn BLAST! Definitely a place I’d like to see us getting back to and building something.
Get a few things together this week to get ready for the AMA/Mercy Lounge show Thursday. Then the all night drive to play Tampa Friday. Hope we will see y’all soon. As always please spread the word. Thanks for all the support. Come see some rock and roll.
For more than a decade, Will Hoge has stood as one of Nashville’s most reliable rock ‘n’ rollers. Yet, as a native, he couldn’t escape the country music influence — not that he wanted to.
“I think that artists can really live in Nashville and flourish in Nashville. And everybody supports each other,” says Hoge, who just released his seventh album, appropriately titled Number Seven. “There’s that sense of community, that sense of still being somewhat a small town. People try to take care of one another. It’s one of the things I hope we never lose.”
Getting a turn on the Grand Ole Opry stage, playing with Vince Gill on your new album, having your new music video enter rotation on CMT — they’d be sweet feats for any musician, but they’re even sweeter for Nashville independent rock/soul vet Will Hoge, who got to this point in his career on his own terms.
“I feel like Nashville has opened its arms even more to me,” he says. “And I certainly hope that I’ve opened my arms even more to it.”
It’s appropriate that all this good fortune comes Hoge’s way as he’s just released his seventh album, Seven — his second since a serious motor scooter accident in 2008 took him off the stage for nearly a year. Since then, Hoge has adopted a slightly slower pace from his days of playing up to 250 shows in a year, and recording in a rush. The time at home with his wife and kids has paid off in more ways than one.
Will Hoge has been added the Grand Ole Opry this week! Join Will at the Grand Ole Opry on September 17th for his sophmore performance on the Grand Ole Opry Stage. Mark your calendars and join us at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN! You can order your tickets online at opry.com or call 1-800-SEE-OPRY. Plus, as a special fan, you can take advantage of a $3 off discount! Just mention code WEBFAN when ordering your tickets.
Will Hoge is known for heavy touring and being on the road almost every week. This last weekend however he returned home for one of the first set of shows he will do in Nashville this fall. Will performed on the Courthouse lawn in downtown Nashville along with the Nashville Symphony to kick off the “Live on the Green” series for the fall. Presented by Radio Lighting 100, Will performed an hour long set with songs from his upcoming album as well as cuts from his past. Nashville and Will’s fans on the net will get a chance to see Will perform at the end of the month on the hit radio and podcast Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Cafe. Tickets are available here and you can listen live on Lightning 100 or http://lightning100.com/. You may also watch a live stream of it at http://www.livestream.com/musiccityroots or on www.WillHoge.com.
We are going to kick off the ‘Favorite Waste Of Time’ Tour Saturday night in Nashville. Angie Aparo will play first. Then my brother Josh and his band will play. It’s going to be a special night as me and the guys will be joined by Randy Leago and his horn players, Ms. April Rucker and Lo Carter on background vocals. My friend and original keyboard player John W. Lancaster on keys. Plus, and he’s always my favorite ‘plus’, Dan Baird on guitar for a few songs. This means we will be covering alot of ground and we are all really excited.
Also wanted to let you know there are two ways to be a part of this great evening. Obviously first and foremost we’d suggest coming down and being part of the live experience. If for some reason you’re a germophobe, want to listen in your underpants or maybe you just live far away, you can catch the whole show on Ustream…..they will begin broadcasting our performance at 9 pm CST.
Back home for the week and that feels nice. We are playing a show here in Nashville on Friday night. 9 pm at the Mercy Lounge. It’s a killer lineup and will be our last hometown show for the year. Hope some of yall can make it. The Americana Music Awards are this week which is the reason for the show. So there’s a ridiculous amount of great shows in town this week. Should be fun.
Good shows on the road last week. Had a great time in Chattanooga. My brother was there and sat in with us on a song. That’s always fun. Then he and his crew got drunk and had to walk to the hotel in flip flops while carrying golf clubs. Haha. Get em Hootie! Another standout being the Square Room in Knoxville. Definitely my favorite new venue. Production was great. Killer vibe in the room. Think we finally found the right place to play there. Wanted to recap a few conversations from the weekend:
Scene: outside the Square Room
Homeless man with dog playing guitar for tips.
College kid: ‘duuuude what kind of dog is that?’
Homeless man: stops song and says,’dog.’
Funny to me. Confusing to college kid.
After Knoxville we drove to Athens through Pigeon Forge. About 3 am we see a car across the median stopped in the road. In front are two women trying to lift the front end of the car. We decide to turn around and make sure they were ok. As we approach we ask what’s wrong and they tell us they have ‘run over a barbell.’. Whaaaaaat? We figure they don’t know what they’re talking about. Surely something has just fallen out underneath the car and started dragging. They shut it down and I crawl underneath and lo and behold it is in fact a barbell. Siggi grabs the jack and lifts it enough for me to drag it out. It’s 89 lbs!!!! Holy shit! We couldn’t get over it. So for future reference beware of those wild dumbbells whilst crossing the smokies. Alright I’m off to eat ice cream, drink NyQuil and watch a movie.
So I think we’re officially done tracking songs. Though I know if something new comes out that could still change. Now we’re deep in the land of the overdub. We had Mike Webb in this morning for piano and organ on ‘Hard To Love’. He also played a tack-piano solo, which was conveniently constructed by dumping pencils on the piano strings(helpful hint for all y’all studio hipsters out there), on ‘I’m Ready To Go.’ Then he nailed this classical piano idea I had for ‘You Gave Me Nothing.’ Definitely started to feel those songs sounding complete-er. Haha. Jim Lauderdale made it back in for background vocals on ‘I’m Ready To Go’ and helped take that to a cool place. Then Devin got this dreamy sounding steel part and a killer guitar solo for ‘The Wreckage’. I’m just thrilled with how that one turned out. I forgot that Mike also added organ on ‘Where Do We Go From Down.’ Nice work on that too. Couple other folks coming in tomorrow and then we just keep burning it up until we ship the damn thing off. Starting to finalize things for our Nashville shows in June too. I hope lots off y’all will have a chance to come out. As always, time to reset before digging in tomorrow. Until then…….adios.
ps: Devin’s ‘dreamy’ steel part was dreamy in the ‘you’re having a dream’ sense. Not like the ‘Zac Efron is dreamy’ sense just for clarification.
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