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Greetings fine folks. So today we begin our drive across half the country to start the east coast leg of the ‘When I Get My Wings’ tour. About 9 hours from now we will all be wishing we actually HAD wings and could go ahead and be there. Philly also begins our 12 shows in 12 days yee-haw-good-times-drive-sing section of the tour. Hope you’ll join us.

This past week may go down as one of the best touring weeks we’ve ever had. We started in Indianapolis on a Tuesday night and it was GREAT!  Radio Radio was packed and those folks were ready to go right from the start. Really pleasant surprise that early in the week. Then we hit Madison WI at the Majestic which is a room that we all really love playing. The weather was cold and crappy but the folks inside made it really cozy for us. Afterwards we drove to Yogi’s folks house outside of Chicago. It worked out great being at his folks, playing a gig in his hometown for his birthday. Ma and Pa Ollendorff rolled out the red carpet for us. Thor and trailer even fit in the driveway.  The staff at the Double Door were and always are so accomodating. We had a birthday pizza party for Yogi with a bunch of his family.  Plus Siggi’s family came and brought homemade meatballs AND my brother and his band were with us so it really was a big family affair. Really good day. Fortunately the night was every bit as good. The crowd in Chicago was just electric!  Y’all sang along to EVERY song. LOUD!!  It was just an incredibly fun show.  Then we loaded up and headed to St Louis. We had trailer trouble on the way and were going to have to dump our gear and then go run around and find tools and supplies to fix it. But thanks to what I’d like to think is the good rock n roll karma we’ve built up, lo and behold, the venue had all the tools and parts we needed for me to fix the trailer there!!  Haha. Who knew that Off Broadway in St Louis is a killer rock venue AND a mini Home Depot. So that definitely set the evening off in a good direction. There’s always a bit of concern on the road following a show like the one in Chicago. You sometimes feel the ‘let down’ a bit after nights like that. Well, St Louis was anything but a let down. It was the best show we’ve had there. Another crowd full of folks singing along and rocking to every song. We also learned that St Louis doesn’t love Chicago. Good to know. And it seems we may be creating a little National League Rock n Roll Rivalry to see which of those two cities may win the trophy for best Will Hoge Mid West Rock Town. It’s nice to say that this one could be close!  Damn. At least for me and the guys it’s a win-win.

We then spent our day off in St Louis. We drove a bit out of town to Troy MO to visit our pals at the Ink Spot. Which is a killer little tattoo shop. They shut the joint down for us, fired up the grills and made a massive spread for us. My brothers band all came too. We had a great day. Told lots of stories. Had a bunch of laughs. Had 3 folks loose their tattoo virginity. One of them to Raphael(the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle). Haha. Also spent $100 on ‘the dead snake challenge’. Which I’m excited to see when that gets reported on year end taxes. Here’s our tattoos from the day. You pick which ones go with which band member:

Did the rarely seen Sunday night rock n roll show in Kansas City. Never headlined in Kansas City so we didn’t know what to expect. We showed up to Knuckleheads and I’m pretty sure Patrick Swayze used to be a bouncer there. It was straight out of the movie Road House. Wasn’t sure about it. It turned out being really cool. All the folks there were super nice and easy to work with. They took super fine care of us. Had a nice crowd show up and had a bunch of fun playing. Hope we can make it back there soon.

It was alot of fun having my brother open these few shows. Thanks to him and his band for doing it. Thanks to y’all for coming out early and supporting him. If you missed it he will be opening our hometown show in Nashville on Saturday Nov 26th at 3rd and Lindsley. Cmon down.

Lots of cool things brewing behind the scenes. We can’t tell you more about those yet, but we will do it in another update soon. I hope we will see alot of y’all on the east coast later in the week. Spread the word and come see us. Thanks as always for the love and support. See y’all soon.

So we are gonna cram the last couple weeks together here. Hope y’all can stick with me through it all.
We started a couple weeks back by driving to the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis. It’s our second dead head trip to Minnesota in just a few months. Yeah, party. This was a total pleasure though. We played 2 days in a row and both rocked. Lots of new faces and everyone was super receptive. The food was hands down the finest fair fare we’ve ever had. Wall eye on a stick? Or spaghetti and meatballs on a stick for Siggi. Really fantastic. Met alot of folks who had seen us at the Moondance Jam and came back for a longer show. That was nice. I also need to thank the fellas at KFAN. It’s a sports talk network but they’ve been incredibly supportive of my music for years. Had a bunch of their listeners stop and say they’d heard us on that show and came to check it out. Very cool. The second show there was this kid down front with a toy trumpet. I gave him a harmonica and he blew that instead. We thought it’d be hilarious then to get him onstage to play the solo on ‘better off now’. So we brought him and his old man onstage and let him give it a try. Young Eli froze a bit but hell at least he tried. So if years from now he becomes a banker or a computer programmer and has zero desire for music, you’re welcome mom and dad. I’ll send you my address and you can cut me a check. If on the other hand he’s now gotten the bug and wants to spend the rest of his life travelling g around playing music, well, I’m really sorry.
Then we hauled ass home so I could be here for my youngest son George’s first birthday. A grand time was had. He was covered in cake and played like a madman in the backyard. Plus we had chic fil a nuggets on a Sunday. A win-win I know.
Then we packed up and headed for South Carolina. We did the Tin Roof in Columbia on Thursday. I’ll say again that it is nice to finally have a place to play there. Crowd was even better than the last time. Next two days were at the Windjammer in Charleston. It’s always a pleasure playing there. Friday night was a good show. Fun playing some of the new songs and getting folks prepped for the new album. Saturdays show was even better but was a tough one for me. My best friend’s father passed away and the services were Saturday. It was terribly difficult to not be there for him and his family. Bob Johnson was a great man. When I was in high school and wanted to learn guitar he dug one up in their basement and sold me some old Kingston guitar for $25. I played the crap out of it. It’s still in my closet now. He had this old gray Lincoln with and 8 track player and he’d let Llama and I take it out now and then. The only 8 track they had was Chuck Berry’s Greatest Hits. Not bad I know. Must have listened to it a thousand times. Mr. Johnson was a hard working former Marine. He coached soccer and led boy scouts. I did NONE of those things. I grew my hair out. Wore funny clothes. Hated authority. Questioned damn near everything. I was his son’s ‘weird’ friend. He probably shouldn’t have liked me but he always did. Over the years he and Mama Llama would still come to my shows in Louisville or Indianapolis or they’d make the trip back to Nashville for our hometown shows. Never asked for a free ticket. I think once they asked for a place to sit in a standing venue. That was it. They were just there and always supportive. I was really conflicted about not being there for the services. But during the encore when we launched hard and loud and fast into Johnny B Goode dedicated to Mr Johnson in front of a packed house I’d like to think he smiled. Hell he may have even tapped his feet a bit. You are missed sir. Thanks for all the years of love and support.

I’ve gotten more than my $25 worth from that guitar.

Love
Will

Sorry but I was having computer issues last night. Our day of overdubs yesterday turned into tracking two songs instead. First one called ‘(You Gave Me) Nothing To Lose’ turned out being really good. We messed with the tempo forever and finally got it to feel good. Hard to get the balance of laid back and rushed at the same time but we did it. It was just Siggi, Blade, Devin and I. I think we’re going to put a keyboard solo on it today or tomorrow. The next song called ‘The Wreckage’ turned out really pretty. We tracked it with just me on acoustic and Siggi playing drums. Blade came back late last night and put bass on it. It’s definitely one of my favorite songs I’ve ever sung. A bit of piano and guitar and it should be done.so I think that’s it for songs NOW we really start overdubs and scoping stuff out. I’ll check back in with you later. Oh yeah and by the way…Go Celtics!

Spent a lovely night at an exclusive Madison resort called the Baymont Inn and Suites. Quite lovely thanks. Went last night to see Jason Isbell and Justin Townes Earle. The show was great. Isbell’s band keeps getting tighter and tighter. Blade and Siggi had never seen Justin play and were really impressed. Blade made the comment that, “between the shows with Katie Herzig and seeing him(JTE) play it feels good to be from Nashville.” Agreed my friend. Off to a radio interview in a bit, then the show, then the 10 hour drive home to make my brothers wedding. Wish us luck

Greetings to you all. Hope this finds you well. Let’s start with some things musical. I went to see my brother play on Sunday night. I had a really good time he sang great and his band really played well. Monday night I made it out to Grimey’s for an instore for the new Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit album. It was great seeing them. The new songs sounded killer. The band all seemed to really be playing together well. That is a soulful bunch of players there and I’m really proud of them. The new album is out today. Go and buy it. I can’t wait to see them fully electrified next time through town. In the funny as hell misinformation part of this post I recently had to explain to a couple folks that I was NOT on a segway when I had my accident. This slayed me. The mental picture of that, me like a mall cop getting run over by a van…..just too much. So let’s clear that up, NO SEGWAY! Haha. These new tour dates should be posted by the end of this week I think. I know it starts April 14th in Chicago and will end the 2nd of May in Maryland. There’s a Charlotte and a Louisville in there, plus a St. Louis and a few others. I think it ends up being 9 dates. Siggi and Blade and I will start preparations for those sometime next week. Do wish us luck. Blade and I spoke with Thor earlier on Sunday and he expressed how excited he was about returning to see y’all as well. He sends his love. Wow that’s like 3 things before any medical posts! Looking better huh? What we’re hoping was my final surgery was about 4 weeks ago. The graft seems fine, plus another steel plate in my leg. I’ll go back March 2nd to see if it’s all healing inside like they want it to. So hopefully now it’s just 4-5 more months of learning to walk right and continued strengthening to get this whole thing back on track. Again we all thank you for the support and we’ll hope to see some of y’all in April.

So Siggi and I got out of town on Saturday night. I don’t recall a recording session that has ever allowed me a day off. We head back early in the morning to fire back up again. We started on Monday of last week and have had a great and productive time thus far. I’m so proud of how Blade, Siggi and I have worked so far. Plus Ken and Charlie have been amazing. Ken and Charlie and I have made two records previously, but never like this. We’ve always had to be steal or borrow any available moment to record. Now being able to stay set up in the studio and try lots of different things, it’s been so inspirational. We’ve had some folks stop by to play with us. Michael Webb came by and played keys on one song. Dan Baird came in for one, plus helped us out with some gear(he’ll be back playing more later in the coming weeks) Our friend Teddy Morgan, who we met in Atlantic City came by and helped with two songs on guitar. Then we had the always inspirational Pat Buchanon on guitar for three songs. Proving to us yet again there is a difference between good, really good, really really good and great! We’ve gotten 5 songs done so far. ‘Hard To Love’, ‘My Winter Coat’, ‘Goodnight/Goodbye’, ‘8th Street Scandal’ and ‘Too Late, Too Soon’. We’ll go into more details later about specific songs, performances, impressions, etc. Just wanted to check in and let y’all know how it was going. I’ll leave by saying we’re REAL damned excited about what’s going on thus far. Hell I’m excited about getting back to work this week. Ok, back to writing/watching the Olympics.
Y’all be well.

Hope all is well with you guys. We’re here in Raleigh awaiting departure to the downtown live area. Had a fun night off last night. My brother and his bandmate Steve met us here and we all hung last night. I don’t get to see Josh that much with our schedules being what they are so this was fun. We just found some local joint and had drinks and played golden tee/silver strike bowling. Ended up back at the hotel watching Siggi drink himself into damn near another state of being. We’ll try and post the video of us dumping chinese food into his mouth from 6′ above him. Followed by coke and ‘jack dobos’ as his drunk as couldn’t form the word ‘daniels’. Pretty good jackass moment of all of us rolling down a hill into a tree as I recall too. Ah, maturity.

Anyhow, our Brooklyn show the other night was just great. Place was packed. The club folks were cool. Had some really wonderful crowd/band moments that really made us all kind of get chills. Thanks to y’all for that. Another highlight of the evening was Beth our merch seller. The reason that was a highlight? She’s one of the big whigs at our label. THAT is why I love Ryko. Other label vp’s sneak in before the show and then leave during it. Or they wanna drag you away afterwards to schmooze. These folks, like us, realize that YOU guys are the reason any of this is possible and they want us talking with you guys. Getting you music. Quite refreshing. Thanks for that.

Vienna, Virginia was more of the same. Jammin Java was supposed to be some coffeehouse, but it was WAY more rock and roll club. Crowd was great. The band was really on. We are way way into this three piece thing now. Its enabling us to do far more than we thought we could and far more than we’ve ever been able to before. For the encore we brought some gear into the crowd and tried this total acoustic thing. It turned out killer. Could’ve easily gone the other way. We appreciate the help on ‘Washed By The Water.’ We will certainly be back there again.

So Monday leads us back into the studio. We’re working at this great studio called Sound Emporium. It’s a killer old room from the late 60’s. Lots of wood. Lots of space. It’s gonna be great. Here’s a list of the songs we’ve done demos of thus far:
Too Late, Too Soon
My Winter Coat
She Comes ‘Round
Southern Belle
Keep On
Findin Out What Love Means
Just Like Me(Without You)
Goodnight/Goodbye
Hard To Love
8th Street Scandal
So titles will change, there will be some other songs but we’re all thrilled with the start that we’re off too. We’ll be checking in often from the studio so do check back. Please continue sending those good vibrations our way.
See y’all soon.

So I think I’m finally back to my old insomniac schedule back in the good ol’ US and A. I can’t begin to tell you how good a glass of sweet tea tasted that first day back. A little glass of heaven. So the whole European tour turned out much better than any of us could’ve anticipated. Had a hard time falling in love with Spain at first. The train ride up and the whole way trying to find my hotel really made me feel like every sumbitch in that country was an asshole. They made me so mad I ate McDonalds just to show them what an asshole American I can be. Thankfully however from the moment I met our promoter and he walked me to the club I fell right on in love with the place. Great shows. Madrid was the best ‘rock crowd’ of the tour. Special thanks to Jonny Kaplan and the Lazy Stars for letting me be a part of the show that night. And even better letting me feel like a part of the band. Twas greatly appreciated. Then Barcelona was just a blast too. Beautiful city, great food, great people. Damn it now I’m ready to go back already. Ended at the Borderline in London. The biggest crowd of the whole run. So gracious and receptive. I can’t say enough good things. I guess I’ll just say how fired up I am about getting to go back and do it all over again in October. We’re putting the first dates together now and we’ll certainly keep you posted as more information comes through. Special thanks to my dear friend and agent Mr. Jordan Burger without whom none of this would’ve been possible. Booking an entire European tour from your desk in NYC, A+ young man. THAT is why you’re my guy! I planned on posting all of the photos from the trip, but all I took was pictures of my hotel rooms. Funny thought at the time, but a real waste of space I realize now. So I’ll spare y’all that one.

For those of you that have not traveled to Europe, here’s a few things to keep in mind:

they like mayonnaise a whole lot. mayonnaise is nasty.
they think men(regardless of physique)in Speedos is ok. it isn’t.
they don’t care for air conditioning. I’m still sweating.
they are under the impression that grown men roller blading is ok. nope.

I think those are the only negatives from 4 whole weeks. So yeah, international relations are quite good.
ps…..Australia in our future……..

Sorry for the cancellation of the Philly show. I was really excited about it, but we’ve got this TV taping very early Thursday, plus the interview portion is being taped tomorrow. So there was no way of making it work. Fear not, we’ll be back in Philly as soon as we can.

So back on the home front I’m quite excited about getting back and playing with Adam and Siggi. I’ve been lonely for their sweet grooves for far too long! haha. Sweet grooves. Plus I’m equally as excited to welcome my ol’ pal Dan Baird back into the fold in the lead guitar spot. Dan was my very first guitar player. Played on ‘Carousel’ and did my first couple years of touring. He’s always been one of my favorite musicians. We got together and worked a little today and be damned it’s gonna be a good time. So in case you were sitting going, “…oh my, what are they gonna do?” Well, take off your skirt, put on your goddam rock and roll pants and come to the damn show and see for yourself. We’re gonna rock fool. Now, ya’ll get some sleep.
Man, that kind of felt like Mr. T.

Beautiful drive up the coast and into Long Beach today. Yes, we found an In and Out Burger post show last night, so that’s one ‘jones’ down. Killer place at the Vault 350. What a nice damn room. Unfortunately the Isbell’s had to pull off the show tonight because of the wretched funk we’ve all been passing around. Hoping they’ll be better and ready to rock the LA tomorrow night. Hell we’re even gonna learn a couple of their tunes to put in the set tonight in their absence. Siggi and I bought new suits next door. 3 suits, 3 shirts, 3 ties, 3 belts, 3 pairs of socks, $300! I got two suits, he got one. We traded in the belts and socks for more ties/hankies. Pretty rockin. Now we gotta find someone to tailor the pants. Really who wears a 30-46?? The shows have all been great. For more info on those check out the blog at harp magazine. Alright, catering is up so I’m going to eat. We’ll see y’all soon.

Hoping for good things in Winchester, VA tonight. Good people here and we’ve always had a good time when we play here. God knows tonight we NEED it!

This has been the worst week of touring ever for my band. Not just this group of guys, but EVER. In the history of Will Hoge Touring Inc. Thanks to everyone for being a part of this momentous occassion.

I thought it couldn’t get worse than Bloomington, but then Urbana proved us wrong. We made the best of it by taking everyone’s name down on a sheet of paper(including band and crew) that was interested in participating. Put them all in a paper bag and picked them out and then you got to pick any song you wanted to hear. My name even got picked first, damn the luck. Anyhow, 40+ songs and a gallon of Jack Daniels later we had somehow made it through. Set included such never heard numbers as, “Be The One” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” “Hey Mr. President(complete with all the lyrics this time)” plus lots of other shit we didn’t know. All in all it was pretty damned fun. But don’t worry, we won’t be back for a long long while!!

Cleveland last night was fun sans the fact that we were playing at 7pm. The doors opened at……..you guessed it 7pm. So we roared through 40 minutes of rock and then did even more liver paralyzing alcoholic stunts! Hooray for us.
I do want to say a sincere thank you to Adam1, Adam2, Jefferson and Siggi for sticking by me Plus Erica and Sean too. This would’ve been a real easy time to ‘phone it in’ and say fuck it all week. But we’re trying to be the best band in the land and we’ve got to do that every single night no matter what. They’ve helped me do it and make me want to be better every night. Thanks my brothers!
Maybe next week will be better. Wait, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont………..well, maybe not.
Cross your fingers.