Review: Joe Pug, Messenger

Joe Pug
Messenger

A-

It took me a long time to decide whether to give this album an  A- or an A, and I must admit the only thing that kept me from bumping it up to the latter was the fact that I felt that I wanted to keep a grade in my back pocket for albums like Blonde on Blonde and Beggar’s Banquet without ever having to use the ultimate cliché that is the “A+”

Joe Pug’s Messenger is a spectacular album full of art and poetry. The opening song, whose title is the same as the album’s, rings with the folksy charm of artists long thought lost to the oblivion of Newport newsreels. Pug plays with rhythm and melody to create a song that you’re sure to be humming for days and maybe weeks to come. In “Sharpest Crown” he plays with messianic imagery and a distant, longing tone that fills the heart with abstract feeling.

An absolute must-listen.

-- Jonas Briedas
Host, "Good Music," Tuesday 12-2 AM on WGTB

Review: Have Gun, Will Travel Postcards from the Friendly City

Have Gun, Will Travel

Postcards From The Friendly City

B-

Postcards From The Friendly City contains a glimmer of bluesy folk charm, but this sliver of hope for a return to the folk music roots is all too quickly swallowed up by a an all too familiar 90’s style of songwriting leaving most of the tracks on this album sounding decidedly generic and unremarkable. The tracks “Wolf In Shepherd’s Clothes” and “Land of the Living” offer some hope, however, that this group has some talent and perhaps the potential to say something new on another album. At the end of the day Postcards From The Friendly City is probably not worth the cost of the album, but is worth at least one listen and makes Have Gun, Will Travel a group worth looking out for in future.

-- Jonas Briedis

Host, "Good Music," Midnight-2am Tuesday morning on WGTB