:: Will Hoge :: Trilogy :: February 2 ::
:: Sherpa and Yeti's (Breck.) :: February 3 ::
:: Belly Up (Aspen) :: February 5 ::
By Emily H. Lanigan
For those who think that the commerce-over-content side of music is winning the battle in the music business, a new warrior has arrived that is to real music what William Wallace (Braveheart) was to the 13th Century Scots.
Since 1999, troubadour Will Hoge has been roaming the country, bringing back good old fashioned rock and roll. Raised on such heroes as The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Otis Redding and James Brown, Hoge brings to the stage a sonic blitzkrieg reminiscent of his idols. 2006 saw Hoge release his fourth studio album, The Man Who Killed Love, and play hundreds of dates all over the country, including close to a dozen in Colorado.
The last time The Marquee caught up with the Nashville-based rocker, in July of 2006, he claimed to be living the dream. But Hoge didn’t hang his hat on that for long. He’s continued to soldier on, touring at a near-furious pace, and he plans to release both a live album and a studio album in 2007. “The year ended on a high note,” he told The Marquee in a recent interview, in his polite and subtle southern drawl. “It’s the busiest year we’ve had and one of the more creative years we’ve had. But we’ll probably be even busier this year.”
Beneath that optimism however, Hoge is still reeling from the sting felt after the loss of a friend and mentor who shared his vision for music. After an injury sustained at a Rolling Stones concert in October and a subsequent coma, Atlantic Records founder and consummate music lover Ahmet Ertegun died at the age of 83 in December. During his short tenure at Atlantic, Hoge was able to meet Ertegun, a man that he felt was “the only link between greatness and Atlantic Records at this point.”
The loss of Ertegun has once again crushed Hoge’s faith in the music business — a faith that was never too strong to begin with. “(Ertegun) was one of the few people that we met at Atlantic that was somebody that we respected. He seemed to understand what we were tying to do on a whole other level that nobody else at the label seemed to understand,” said Hoge.
But in his warrior-like spirit, Hoge and his band are forging ahead, despite the loss. After a short break at the beginning of January, Hoge and company are back on the warpath. “We’ve had more time off than we’re used to and you kind of loosen up and so we’ve been working on that. And we’ve been trying to challenge ourselves to keep ourselves on our toes,” he said. The band is even working some new cover songs into their show. “Today we worked on ‘Oh La La’ by The Faces and on ‘Simple Man’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Everything went okay. and we’re trying to get them ready for the show,” said Hoge.
Pulling out the big guns, Hoge plans to cover more ground than usual on this tour. “This tour takes us back to the West Coast, which we haven’t played so often. So we’re hoping that people there like us more and more. When we’ve been able to tour out there we’ve loved it and hopefully we’ll get out there more than once this year,” said Hoge.
The upcoming live album, which will be titled Again Somewhere Tomorrow, is set for release on February 20th. “We recorded two nights in Nashville and culled it down to the best songs of the two nights,” said Hoge. “It’s mostly stuff from the first three records and two songs never on record before.”
As for the new studio album, Hoge said that it’s something that has been in the making for some time. “We went into the studio in January of last year and started working on this record. We did that real quick in five or six days and never finished it. Now we’re going back in,” he said.
The album will consist mostly of songs that Hoge fans have yet to hear. “A couple of the songs we’ve been playing live and some we’ve been just trying to work into the set,” Hoge said.
:: Will Hoge ::
:: Trilogy :: February 2 ::
:: Sherpa and Yeti’s (Breck.) :: February 3 ::
:: Belly Up (Aspen) :: February 5 ::
Spectate if you Gravitate:
• The Black Crowes
• Doyle Bramhall II
• Bruce Springsteen
