http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drn400/n476/n47689sksoc.jpg

2010 Messenger   CD  Lightning Rod LRR20962

[img]http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SonAfterDark/tracklistlatest.p

ng[/img]

  1  Messenger Pug 4:23 
  2  How Good You Are Pug 4:19 
  3  Not So Sure Pug 4:35 
  4  The Sharpest Crown Pug 3:56 
  5  The Door Was Always Open Pug 2:49 
  6  The First Time I Saw You Pug 3:34 
  7  Unsophisticated Heart Pug 3:06 
  8  Disguised as Someone Else Pug 3:34 
  9  Bury Me Far (From My Uniform) Pug 4:07 
  10  Speak Plainly, Diana Pug 3:17 

Though he's an up-and-coming artist on the singer/songwriter scene, Joe Pug 

sounds like an old soul on his debut album, Messenger. It may have 

something to do with the fact that he's working an old-school sound. At a 

point in time when most acoustic guitar-strumming troubadours are tricking 

up their tunes with neo-psychedelic swirls, electronic frippery, or some other 

such device, Pug plays it straight-ahead, with a delivery that brings to mind 

John Prine, and lyrics full of poetic but never overripe imagery. If Messenger 

had arrived sometime in the ‘70s, Pug would likely have been one of the many 

songsmiths of that era (Loudon Wainwright III, Steve Forbert, et al) labeled 

as a "New Dylan." Many of the tracks here feature nothing but Pug 

accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, but the songs themselves are weighty 

enough that there's never a feeling of empty space. For that matter, even when 

Pug has a full band backing him up, as on the tunes that bookend the album, 

"Messenger" and "Speak Plainly, Diana," you get the impression that however 

much the musicians may add, the man up front could easily keep your 

interest all by himself on these cuts as well. "I was born into a circus, but I ran 

off to join a home" sings Pug on "How Good You Are," and it's a perfect 

example of how he can subvert clichés and come up with striking images 

without ever letting the seams show. It doesn't hurt that Pug brings an 

emotional accessibility to these tunes without seeming over-indulgent and 

emoting all over your shoes. On his first album, Pug already seems like an old 

hand at this game, even if he's exaggerating a touch when he brags "I wrote 

John Steinbeck's book" on "Not So Sure."

cd ripped by dBpoweramp

please seed

 
http://dickthespic.org/2010/12/23/joe-pug/