JOE PUG – MESSENGER

Old school name, old school sound – that’s Joe Pug. Perhaps he is being a tad skite-ful on a debut album when he sings “”I wrote John Steinbeck’s book”, but we can put that down to nerves. Messenger is imbued with the comfortable sound and feel of a pair of much loved, much worn ol’ boots. Sure they are scuffed, patched and re-soled, but they feel like home each time you slip them on. With little more than voice and guitar on most tracks, Pug infuses these tracks with enough gravitas that they never feel lightweight. Think the 70’s troubadours, when the like of Loudon Wainwright III got lumbered with the “next-Dylan” millstone. And when Pug does allow a band to kick in on tracks like The Door Was Already Open the impact is to further propel his songs along the railway tracks. Showing how the simple can be the most effective, it is lines like “I was born into a circus / but I ran off to join a home” on How Good Are You that marks Pug as one cut above the pack. I’m sure Steinbeck would withhold his wrath after listening to the Messenger.

*** 1/2