Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Back on the road with Joe Pug

The folk-singer's latest Windfall

Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure.
Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure.

He was about to quit music three years ago, the folk singer Joe Pug claimed to anyone in the media who would listen. And, there were many. A couple of years earlier he’d ditched school in Chapel Hill, moved to Chicago, and started performing at open mics. Come 2009, Pug released his debut EP, which would sell better than 20,000 copies and land him on the national stage as Steve Earle’s opener and within the safe harbor of a Nashville record label deal. But the road, with its one-nighters, crappy food, and thin profits will turn any artist sour. Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure: love and detachment.

Video:

"Bright Beginnings"

...off of Joe Pug's latest, <em>Windfall</em>

...off of Joe Pug's latest, Windfall

The comeback was Windfall in 2015 and the big boys (Rolling Stone, Paste) who’d reported on his leave-taking could not say enough good about his return to form.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Joseph Pugliese is 32 and lives in Austin. He’d studied playwriting in college, which accounts for the Steinbeck, Dos Passos, and Raymond Carver on his book shelf. Ruminate on this Carver-esque turn in Pug’s “Disguised as Someone Else”: “I wish that I could work for you with someone else’s hands/ Be behind the counter of a bookstore that you’re in/ Charge you seven dollars for a crossword and a pen/ You would leave and not look back again/ Even hardened criminals, they get a second chance.”

Past Event

Joe Pug

  • Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 9 p.m.
  • Casbah, 2501 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego
  • 21+ / $15 - $17

The way that Pug sings his music, the deeper meanings leave a lingering after-taste not altogether unpleasant, considering the inner melancholy of the material. Listeners old enough to recall a time when folk guitars fired the biggest shots at the troubles of society will no doubt hear a lot of young Bob Dylan seeping through Joe Pug’s own singing, which is always welcome — not even Dylan does Dylan anymore.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Celebrate Holi, Borrego Springs Music Festival

Events March 23-March 27, 2024
Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure.
Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure.

He was about to quit music three years ago, the folk singer Joe Pug claimed to anyone in the media who would listen. And, there were many. A couple of years earlier he’d ditched school in Chapel Hill, moved to Chicago, and started performing at open mics. Come 2009, Pug released his debut EP, which would sell better than 20,000 copies and land him on the national stage as Steve Earle’s opener and within the safe harbor of a Nashville record label deal. But the road, with its one-nighters, crappy food, and thin profits will turn any artist sour. Joe Pug put his guitar down for months and he got engaged, which turned out to provide the cure for his perceived failure: love and detachment.

Video:

"Bright Beginnings"

...off of Joe Pug's latest, <em>Windfall</em>

...off of Joe Pug's latest, Windfall

The comeback was Windfall in 2015 and the big boys (Rolling Stone, Paste) who’d reported on his leave-taking could not say enough good about his return to form.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Joseph Pugliese is 32 and lives in Austin. He’d studied playwriting in college, which accounts for the Steinbeck, Dos Passos, and Raymond Carver on his book shelf. Ruminate on this Carver-esque turn in Pug’s “Disguised as Someone Else”: “I wish that I could work for you with someone else’s hands/ Be behind the counter of a bookstore that you’re in/ Charge you seven dollars for a crossword and a pen/ You would leave and not look back again/ Even hardened criminals, they get a second chance.”

Past Event

Joe Pug

  • Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 9 p.m.
  • Casbah, 2501 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego
  • 21+ / $15 - $17

The way that Pug sings his music, the deeper meanings leave a lingering after-taste not altogether unpleasant, considering the inner melancholy of the material. Listeners old enough to recall a time when folk guitars fired the biggest shots at the troubles of society will no doubt hear a lot of young Bob Dylan seeping through Joe Pug’s own singing, which is always welcome — not even Dylan does Dylan anymore.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Digital Currency Wave Hits the Shores of San Diego

Next Article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.