Interview with Will Hoge in Birmingham, AL April 2015

Never in my years of doing music journalism did I ever think I would get to interview one of my all time favorite musicians.

I have listened to Will Hoge since I was eight years old. In September, I will be 20.

I cannot explain the happiness that came over me in that moment.

So here it is, my interview with Mr. Will Hoge. 

How has the response to Small Town Dreams been?

Really good. It’s been a pleasant surprise. You never know when you put out a new record what the response is going to be. I feel like with this one, I tried to really push myself to do some things that I’ve not done before or that I haven’t done in a long time and so there’s a part of you that thinks “This may push people away, but it’s still the record I wanna make,” but that hasn’t been the case at all. It’s been completely opposite.

What’s your personal favorite song on the album?

“Little Bitty Dreams” is the one I always come back to. I mean, I like lots of things about all of the songs, but that one, even just from the recording process, that is all one take. It’s the scratch vocal. We just went back and added one little pedal steel part and one part on the lead guitar track and everything else is exactly how it went down in the studio, there’s no click track. So it feels real alive, which I like.

Is that your favorite to play live too?

No, I don’t have a favorite live yet because some of the songs we haven’t even played live yet. It’ll be 6 or 8 months of playing the stuff before I can decide.

How is this one different from other albums in the past? I mean, aside from obvious reasons.

I don’t know, I feel like this one is… I’ve kinda done, I wouldn’t say concept records, that makes them sound so heavy, but records that have a theme through them. I’ve kinda done it with political records with the America EP and with Modern American Protest Music, but I don’t know that I’ve ever done it just on a regular album and I feel like maybe this one, even though I didn’t intend when we started to be that way kind of ended up being a real concise snapshot of this one little thing whereas I think all the other records are a snapshot of kind of the moment in time of where I was making the record, this was a snapshot of a whole theme.

How was the recording process for this one different?

Well, using a producer. For the last 4 recordings, I don’t think I’ve used a producer. I’ve just done them all myself. Using Marshall [Altman], I learned a lot from him because everybody that I’ve worked with, I tend to glean something off of production wise if they’ve got a different micing technique or a different way of doing something and there was some of that with Marshall but more importantly, I didn’t have to worry about the ins and outs of how we were doing things. I just had to worry about being the singer and the songwriter, which was really liberating in a lot of ways.

So the ACMs were this past weekend, let’s talk about that.

It was fun. It’s always fun to get to hang with those people, so many of those folks have become dear friends so it’s a great moment to catch up with all of them, but it wasn’t nearly as much fun as when they did it in Las Vegas. Las Vegas was way cooler, so hopefully they’ll go back next year.

Going back to the album, I know you’re friends with Vince Gill, but he was on “Just Up the Road”, right?

Mhmm.

Talk about that, how did that come about? That’s one of my favorites.

Vince is foolish enough to answer the phone when I call and always says yes. [Laughs]. It’s hard for me not to abuse that because I feel like I could just call him with every song and be like “Could you add anything?” because he’s so incredibly musical and well versed, way more than he gets credit for. You could take him a salsa record and he would find something awesome to put on it. I mean really, it’s amazing.

I believe that!

I knew the solo needed to be really big and epic in a way and there’s a lot of the cool guitar players that are afraid of that because they don’t want to do something that feels that way I think and I know that lead guitar players that are also lead singers play very differently because they think like a lead singer and not just a guitar player. It’s one of my favorite things about Vince. So when I called him and told him that I wanted him to stretch out and do something that was more of a rock guitar hero country solo and he was excited about it and he kills it everytime so it was great having him onboard.

So when people like Lady Antebellum and Eli Young ask you to cover your songs, I know it makes you feel great, obviously, but how does that come about or what’s your reaction to that? Have you ever turned anyone down?

I have never turned anyone down. I can’t imagine the situation, unless it were for like a product for something… the morning after pill or whatever [laughs] I mean I don’t know, I don’t want my song involved with that or you know, a tampon commercial. But artist wise, there’s not anything that I would not let somebody do. I mean one, they don’t really even have to ask, they can legally just go and register the song and do it. But in those situations where it’s happened, it’s always been something where I’ve gotten phone call. Charles from Lady Antebellum called me to ask if it was okay if they did it, and the Eli Young guys have always kind of communicated with me and I see them all the time. They didn’t even call to ask, they just sent word that they were going to do it. It’s just one of those things, ya know there’s a point where there’s this incredible feeling when you hear your own record on the radio and it’s really special. It never gets unspecial. And it’s a very similar thing in that situation. Ultimately in radio, there’s a program director who's taking the chance. He hears something in your record and goes “I think people in my city will like this and I’m gonna play it.” It’s the same kind of thing, I mean somebody that’s an artist or somebody that’s an A&R person at a label is hearing something you did and going “I believe that I can bet on this song for so and so to sing or for me to sing” and that’s a huge compliment.

So what’s next?

I mean for all intents and purposes, the tour for this record really kicks off tonight. We’ve kind of done some warm up shows and one offs, and this is gonna kind of ramp up a little bit throughout this week and then we just start getting busy with the road and we start getting busy with planning the European release in June and the tour over there in September. The rest of our summer tour will get announced I think May 5th or something like that and that takes us through fall. And post-Europe, we’ll come back and probably headline and there’s some co-bill things we may do and just writing a bunch. There are some songs that are getting recorded by other people, Craig Morgan just cut something last week. Two or three other things are kind of laying around from a writing standpoint.

Is there anything you want to add? It could be anything, like words or wisdom or…

I don’t have any of those!

[We both laugh for a few seconds.]

If I could I would, but no, I’m just excited you’re still doing this. It means a lot.

Will Hoge Small Town Dreams Album Review

On his ninth studio album, Small Town Dreams, listeners hear Will Hoge tell stories about growing up in a Southern town.

The first song, Growing Up Around Here tells of spending time trying to leave his hometown, swearing he'd never come back. But then after reminiscing about "kissing his first girl under the Texaco sign" and playing football he realizes he will never live far from where he began. He feels a sense of pride and contentment where he is now.

Track 2, They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To, tells the story of the traditional southern working class. Someone much older than the narrator would always say whether it be "cars, fences, houses, or family names, they don't make them like they used to. This line is repeated throughout, my favorite instance being "Solid as the gospel truth, they don't make 'em like they used to."

As the album progresses, Better Than You and Little Bitty Dreams show his love for a girl and their lives together. LBD was written for his wife. It is comforting to hear songs of people who still have love for each other even through all of their dreams. The song is a tale of sacrifice and hardship, but love wins through everything.

Guitar or a Gun is one of the best "story" songs I've heard in a long time. Dad says one of these will last forever and the other's just for fun and he knows which is which. Narrator did not know which to choose, since they could both last forever and both be for fun. "I can learn to shoot like Jesse James out there on the run. Play guitar and be a Rolling Stone. Well, that just sounds like fun. A rockstar or an outlaw, either way, I've won when I walk out this door with a guitar or a gun." The choice he makes is crucial to he will become, but whichever he chooses, he will leave the pawn shop "feeling like a king." This is a song that, to me, is Will Hoge through and through. The song has remnants of Rock and Roll Star from Hoge's first album Carousel, which shows he can stay true to his roots.

Middle of America is the perfect small-town anthem. Fitting, given the name of the album and the reference to it in the song. "Tomorrow there's gonna be talk, but it'll be alright. It's just another night in the middle of America." I grew up in a small town and this song is remnant of that. Can we say nostalgia?

All I Want Is Us Tonight gives the listener a break before the best (and most emotional) song on this whole damn album comes on.

That leads me to Just Up The Road. The first time I listened to the album, this was the song I kept going back to. Being a person that loves words, I adored the imagery of "chasing white lines" and "taking the fast lane" in relation to the title of the song "Just Up The Road." That is poetry at its finest. This song reminds me of It's A Shame from Blackbird on a Lonely Wire. This song is a Will Hoge song. Of course, it's his song, but in this sense, I'm talking about when I describe Will's sound to people, this is my reference. 

Desperate Times, The Last Thing I Needed, and Til I Do It Again wrap up the album with hand claps, the blues, and Rock and Roll, in that order. If you pay attention to the linear notes of the album, the hand claps in DT included Will's sons which I thought was precious.

Overall, this album ultimately set out what it was supposed to do: give you the small town feel. I feel that it shows how artists can learn to stay true to their roots, just like Will always does. Rock and Roll is not dead. It just comes in different forms.