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So we started our last run in Raleigh, NC. We like it there. The Pour House was fun. Plus our bonus for playing there is that our friend Michael Casey comes and does magic for us after the show. He’s mind numbingly good and it seems we’ve always got someone new in tow(this time it was Yogi) to watch get blown away. Check him out if he comes near your town. He’ll be in Nashville in September and we can’t wait.

Next up was Wilmington. Of all the shows we did that week, this was definitely one of them. Then Charleston. Oh Charleston. It is always such a pleasure. Friday night was great. Crappy weather blew in just a bit before the show and that didn’t help but it still turned out good. Saturday was about as good a time as I’ve ever had playing music. Man it was a sweat fest too. My apologies to anyone who’s clothes I may have ruined while taking a photo after the show. Pretty sure my jeans and shirt are still wet. We really wanted the two nights to be different and felt we did a good job. Only 4 songs got repeated between the 2 nights and one of those was because of a broken string and thus a fairly stinky version of ‘even if it breaks your heart’ on night one. We had an engagement at gig 1 and then a big anniversary at gig 2. It’s nice that we get to be a part of these little moments with ya’ll. Thanks.

I’m always surprised that over the years this band has seemed to lead to waaaay more marriages than divorces. Huh? Whodda thunk it. Anyhow now we are back home getting stuff finalized for the new ep. We finished shooting the video for ‘Favorite Waste Of Time’ and it turned out great. I’m excited to get it done so yall can see it. There will be more announcements about all that as we get closer to the single release. There’s also news brewing about our final headlining run of the year in October. Those details coming very soon.
Hell I guess that’s it for now. Off to write some new songs and see if any of these homeopathic ‘go into labor’ tricks work. Yall be good.

ps….for the Fox news portion of the fan base ‘homeopathic’ has nothing to do with gay folks delivering my baby.
Ok. Talk to yall soon.

So we are in the Chattanooga for a show tonight. We were back home for a couple days so we towed my brother along too. In case anyone here gives us any trouble. Had a nice little run last week. Started in Asheville. I have really come to love the Grey Eagle. Great room. Good people. I wish we did better there but the crowds grow a little each time. Wilmington was good too. Plus you can do laundry at the club. Or is it that you do a show at Laundromat? Hell I guess we are creeping into chicken/egg territory there. Then there’s Charleston. Aw girl, you know Iove you. Windjammer as always was so much. Staff, crowd all of it was a pleasure. Those were the first nights where we were really able to start seeing a reaction to the new songs. At least since folks have been able to live with the album a bit. It was very cool to see. Thanks to everyone who came to the shows and made it possible. We have had a lot of you guys ask how you can help us with this new album. First let us say thank you for wanting to be involved. It truly is yall that make any of this possible. We don’t really have an official ’street team’ because that generally leads to just ghost calling radio stations and posting messages on other artists sites. We here at Will Hoge Inc kinda get grossed out by that. So all we ask is that you just sincerely spread the word. If there’s a radio station you like and listen to by God call em. Take them an album. Blog about the record. Twitter about it. Buy your friends tickets and bring them to the show. Just spread the word. Send them to iTunes so they can get ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ as the free download this week. Hell the point is just enjoy and share the music. There’s a great fan site at heartbreakavenue.com with tons of live stuff for you to hear and a way to talk about shows and set lists and such. Follow us on Twitter or facebook and we try and keep you posted on the general goings on around here. As always keep spreading the music and we thank you for allowing us to do what we do. Now I gotta go soundcheck

So we left home for three days. We even bought a new trailer for our little jaunt down to Texas. Well somewhere along the way that turned into a trip through Colorado, two trips to Vegas, a stop in LA, another dash through Colorado, a drive across country to Jersey, a stop in Louisville and two trips to NYC. Ends up being 5 damned busy weeks. Please don’t think we’re complaining. But it’s been quite nice being in our own beds for a couple of days. The taping of the CBS morning show was really fun. I was afraid when I saw call times of 4:45 am that things may be a little iffy but it turned out cool. Everyone there was very accommodating and easy to work with. We thank yall for the hospitality. With all the aforementioned running around it’s gonna feel real good to get back to doing some right and proper rock and roll shows this week. Asheville to start then Wilmington and two nights in Charleston. Hope we will see some of yall there.
Ps…….rumor has it there could be a special surprise for the weekend! I’m excited

Pretty sure that means ‘hello’ in French. Thanks Mrs. Welborn! Trying to gear up for the big trip overseas. I’ll be giving you more details about that soon.

Wrapped up a fun week last week with our pals Leslie on the road. They really are a good band. I’m certainly pulling for them as they prepare to head into the studio to record their first full length album. That’s a fun time in one’s career. It makes me seem so old but I think, “…it seems like only yesterday me and Dan and Tres and Kirk were heading to Memphis to do ‘Carousel’….” And yes, it has been uphill in the snow both ways ever since you ungrateful little whipper snappers. So send some good vibes their way and make sure you pick up the album when it’s done. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of them on the road soon.

Got to visit a really great radio station in Wilmington, the Penguin. It’s a cool thing that seems to really be helping out shows in that city. Got to spend Saturday night, Passover, at the Jewish Mother. Which with the exception of my own Jewish mother, is a damn fine place to be. Cool venue. Hoping we’ll make it back to Virginia Beach sooner than later. Saw the ocean. Always nice. Offended a ‘fan’ who yelled, “..play some old stuff..” with the comeback, “..buy some new stuff!” Not sure if that helped album sales or not? Note: especially don’t yell ‘play some old stuff’ as we finish the last chord from ‘old stuff’ from the first album. Helpful hint.
Off to continue working on songs. Lots of new stuff coming together. I’m pretty damned excited about it. We may even start trying to play a few things live as I piece them together a little further. Stay tuned wont’ you?
See y’all soon.

Sitting here just of I95 at South of the Border. If you’ve never been here, REGRET IT!! You should DEFINITELY come here. That’s all I’ll say. If you’re passing by this way….SSTTOOOOOOOOPPPP!! It’s awesome. Plus, Jefferson got stuck on the ferris wheel when it broke down. Just him all by his lonesome at the very top while the dude running it was scrambling on his cellphone to figure out how to get him down. Good news, he’s ok and we’ll be able to be in Annapolis tomorrow night.
Wilmington the other night was wonderful! So great having the support of WUIN down that way. I truly think that with their support and y’alls we can turn that into a great place for us very quickly. Can’t wait to get back there in the fall.
Last night in Myrtle Beach was great too. House of Blues is always kick ass so that goes without saying. We had a new background singer join us last night. Ms. Cristina Bello from Nashville. She was referred to us late on Wednesday night(as we were leaving at 5am Thursday). We tried to get her to just come and jump on the bus. Now mind you we’ve never seen her, she’s not seen/met us. We just call at 11pm and go, “Hi, my name is Will Hoge, you wanna go on the road and sing until July 4th?” Now there was a little more to it than that, but not much. She couldn’t join up with us until last night, but she did great. Poor gal’s flight got screwed up, then they lost her luggage, etc. But she made it through. Here’s hoping she’ll do well over the next little bit and then maybe we can keep her around for a while.
Back to the show last night, it was awesome. We were definitely the band that didn’t fit in last night. 3 really cool bands on the show with us, Big City Rock, Rock Kills Kid, and the headliner was Morningwood. Dean summed it up best when he said, “…they all sound like they’re influenced by the 80’s. A decade we don’t think even existed….” Ha ha. Funny. But it worked fine. They were all great guys and girls. Really good at what they do. Our friend Chad is tour managing Big City Rock so it was great to see him. Plus they’re all here spending the day with us at South of the Border. Hit if off real well with the fellas from Rock Kills Kid too. Super nice guys. Very good band. They’re playing on Letterman Monday night so make sure to check them out.
Post show we snuck into the Alligator Farm behind the club. Looking back, this was a bad bad bad bad idea. Luckily everyone still has all their limbs. Moral of the story….one alligator….cool, kinda scary. 300 alligators all coming to join him….VERY VERY SCARY. We gave them some chicken and salmon and apples, oranges, etc. Happy gators today!
We then had a run in with some jack ass police officer at the all night pancake house. He didn’t like our little sing-a-long at the table. Made an ass of himself(which all his other NICE officer friends were embarrassed by) which only furthered our jackass-o-rama. We left without incident but timed a phone call back there perfecty when they were all at the register. I asked to speak to ‘Office Tackleberry.’ The lady on the phone says, ‘Officer Tackleberry??’ right as all the guys are at the counter. I hear the other officers DIE laughing! Ol’ Tack picks up the phone madder than a wet hen!! We then ‘chatted’ for a bit. Lovely lovely conversation! It was great. So hopefully he’ll be catching shit for a LOOOOOOOONG time over that one. “Hey Steve, you remember when them hippies made you mad then called you Tackleberry?” Here’s hoping he’ll never live that one down!
Alright, there’s a band outside this back lounge window with a couple hundred bucks worth of firecrackers that need shooting……….
I gotta go.

Waiting around to play tonight in Wilmington. Beautiful city. Great interview/performance on WUIN here today. Thanks to Jeff and everyone there for the support. I hope this will start to be a city we can get back to more often. I did buy my favorite ‘tele here years ago, so I already love the place.

Good show last night in Raleigh. Best time we’ve had there. Great to play at the Pour House. Nice people, cool ass room. Got to see Adam’s dad and brother for a bit. Family is good to have around. Thanks for coming.

So the LIMITED(this is the key word here)edition LIVE IN CHARLESTON album is done and being manufactured to have at the 3 shows in Charleston. There will be 500 hand numbered copies. They will be available those nights only and when they’re gone they’re gone! Track listing is as follows:

Better Off Now
Love From A Scar
Sweet Magdeline
Woman Be Strong
Pocket Full Of Change
Wait ‘Til Your Daddy Gets Home
The Man Who Killed Love
Hearts Are Gonna Roll
Southern Belle
She Don’t Care

It’s a fun sounding night. I hope y’all will get a chance to hear it.

Ok. Gotta go get ready for the show. We’ll talk soon.