About this time last year, I was listening to the latest from roots rocking road warrior Will Hoge called, “The Wreckage” (review here). He’s back again so soon with an EP aptly entitled, “The Living Room Sessions”, which consists of new versions of five songs from “The Wreckage” as well as the tune “All Night Long”, a favorite from Hoge’s 2003 landmark record, “Blackbird On A Lonely Wire”. And yes, they were all recorded in his living room.
The six songs are stripped down to bare essentials, but by no means do they sound boring or dull. The organic nature of this format is perfectly suited to nearly every song Hoge has ever put to tape. Indeed, one could argue that his songs sound better this way than with a full blown band and highly polished sheen. “The Living Room Sessions” is like a love letter to fans, but also serves as an appropriate introduction to the world of this talented yet criminally underrated Nashville rocker.
“I like acoustic recordings that try to be different from the album version,” says Hoge. “We just got together and camped out at my house for a couple of days…it’s not a home studio, no real fancy set-up or multi-tracking. The console was a laptop on a card table, and that same table also served simultaneously as the keyboard stand. There were no real overdubs or re-dos or pitch correct. We just did it ‘til we liked it and let it be…not out of laziness, it just seemed to fit.”
Don’t miss Hoge on the “Anything and Everything” tour with (!) Shinedown (an unintuitive combination if I’ve ever heard one) from November 4 – December 9. “The Living Room Sessions” EP is available now.
Will Hoge on MySpace. Official site.
Listen to “Favorite Waste of Time”
