Wings On My Shoes
Soundly, 2022
9/10
The Nashville resident Will Hoge has enjoyed a lengthy and esteemed career, and here he brings us a new batch of tunes using few overdubs, and has the capacity to rock pretty loud, but also finds calm moments to reside in, too.
“John Prine’s Cadillac” opens the listen with loud, buzzing electric guitar, as the setting gets powerful with soulful backing vocals and thumping drums, and “It’s Just You” follows with a vibrant rootsy flavor populating the driving rock’n’roll.
In the middle, the setting gets more intimate with the soft and expressive “The Last One To Go”, while “All I Can Take” gets quite rowdy, amid the dynamic rhythm section and gigantic swells of guitar driven retro-rock.
Approaching the end, “Dead Man’s Head” illustrates vivid storytelling with a stylish demeanor front and center, and “Whose God Is This?” exits with a more country influenced delivery that’s got some twang via the well timed pedal steel.
Hoge shows a lot of muscle here, and it’s quite exciting and sometimes even borders on punk influenced, and his more vulnerable moments are quite eloquent and just as memorable. The bulk of this was recorded live, and it sounds incredible and resonates so much tuneful grit.
Travels well with: John Fullbright- The Liar; Butch Walker- Stay Gold