Will Hoge is a mainstay of 21st century rock & roll, carrying the torch for a blue-collar sound rooted in ringing Telecaster guitars and anthemic songwriting. He makes music for roadhouses and rallies, for car stereos and dive-bar jukeboxes, for Saturday night hell-raising and Sunday morning comedowns. In an era of social media influencers looking to fast-track their way to fame, Hoge has proudly taken the long way around, dedicating himself not to the destination, but to the journey itself.    The trek continues with Wings On My Shoes, the twelfth studio album in a career whose milestones include Number One hits, Grammy nods, major-label record deals, and hard-won independence. Written amidst the doom and gloom of a pandemic that brought his touring schedule to a standstill, it's a record that seeks out silver linings, emphasizing bright moments over looming darkness. For Hoge, Wings On My Shoes also marks a recommitment to the amplified Americana sound that's earned him a global audience, as well nods from Rolling Stone, Forbes, and NPR.    "I always want to embrace change — to accept new things artistically— but at the end of the day, I can try to run from this idea that I love good, guitar-based rock & roll music, or I can wear that badge of honor," he says. "I'm in the 'wearing the badge of honor' phase now."   He wears it proudly with songs like "All I Can Take," a fast 'n' furious blast of bar-band bombast that he recorded in a single take. "Dead Man's Hand" slows the tempo but deepens the groove, with Hoge delivering a Springsteen-sized story of desperation and dirty business dealings. "John Prine's Cadillac" celebrates life and love with power chords, cymbal crashes, and a nod to Hoge's songwriting hero, while "It's Just You" remakes the jubilant jangle of Buddy Holly's best work into a heartland-rock love song.    Recorded during a week's worth of live performances at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios, Wings On My Shoes spotlights the chemistry shared by Hoge and his group of hard-touring road warriors: guitarist Thom Donovan, drummer Allen Jones, and bassist Christopher Griffiths. Hoge pulls triple-duty as the album's writer, frontman, and producer, while guest multi-instrumentalist Joshua Grange adds touches of pedal steel and organ throughout. Featuring few overdubs and zero studio trickery, Wings On My Shoes stands tall as a document of a hardscrabble band at work, wearing its rough edges with pride, sweating and stomping its way toward rock & roll redemption.    "There are common things we all love — the Beatles, the Stones, the Mount Rushmore of rock music — but everyone brings their own influences to the table," Hoge says of Wings' lineup, whose members previously joined him on Tiny Little Movies and My American Dream. "Allen comes from a punk-rock background. Christopher is a Detroit native with Motown influences. Thom loves Johhny Marr and does great things with guitar effects. As we're arranging the songs, I'm encouraging these guys to push a little bit and help steer. I don't want to make a record where I play everything, because that defeats the whole purpose of ensemble playing. I'm trying to incorporate everyone else's gifts into what we're doing."   At its core, though, Wings On My Shoes remains a songwriter's record. Hoge began writing these 10 songs months into the Covid pandemic, his world rattled by the isolation that came with the world's shelter-in-place recommendation. "I was a mess," he remembers. "I didn't realize how much this touring lifestyle had afforded me a certain level of built-in vulnerability and connection with people. Normally, you get into a van with a group of musicians, and you naturally hang out during the weeks that follow, and there's a communal aspect. There's a feeling of being connected. I'd gotten used to that, and without it, I went through something of a nervous breakdown. I needed to recenter myself."   Hoge revamped his schedule, making time for daily blocks of journaling, exercise, and songwriting. He meditated. He practiced yoga. He read and wrote. "It was regimented and unsexy," he admits, "but it helped. There was a real focus on songwriting once again. Over the course of eight to nine months, that's where the music came from, and I got really excited about this new batch of songs."   Those daily songwriting sessions yielded more than full-throttle rockers. On the acoustic "Whose God Is This," Hoge explores the middle ground between classic country textures and irreverent Bible School takeaways. "Queenie" finds him strumming a gentle salute to the strong, determined women in his life, while the stunning "The Last One To Go" — a career highlight, laced with gorgeous strings and interwoven acoustic guitars — tackles hard realities about marriage and mortality. Wings On My Shoes makes room for all of it, highlighting the diverse perspectives of a craftsman whose songs turn southern storytelling into universal sentiment.  Years before Americana music received its own category at the Grammy Awards, Will Hoge was on the frontlines, helping to pilot and popularize the genre's blend of American roots music. With Wings On My Shoes, he distills that sound down to its strongest ingredients, steering himself from roadhouse rock & roll to southern soul, from guitar-driven grease 'n' grit to Tennessee twang, from amplified barn-burners to acoustic numbers. For Will Hoge, that's how you take flight, and Wings On My Shoes finds him flying high.

People Talk is the album Lauren Morrow was born to create. The Nashville-based, Atlanta-raised singer-songwriter has spent the better part of the last fifteen years cultivating her sound, pouring in a variety of influences, and honing her live show until the sound felt unabashedly her own. After spending more than a decade as the frontwoman of popular Americana band The Whiskey Gentry, Lauren stepped out with a 2018 self-titled debut EP and received widespread acclaim. She landed on many Best Of year end lists from Rolling Stone to Garden & Gun, filmed an episode for PBS’ “Bluegrass Underground” and toured the US playing festivals such as Pickathon and Bristol Rhythm & Roots. However, there were so many parts of her that remained creatively silent through the years. Sure, with her soprano voice and vulnerable vibrato, she could belt a country tune with the best of them. And yes, she could write a fast-paced, witty, Americana banger with the bands she fronted before. But what about all of the influences and truths she knew were untapped? The years of obsessing over 90s Alternative, BritPop and 80s New Wave bands with moody, brutally honest lyrical content and rock n roll attitudes that she so deeply loved? With the encouragement of her husband and business/creative partner, Jason, she mined those memories and dug into the root of who she is, pulling the pieces together to forge sincerity and vulnerability into an uninhibited creative work.   When it came time to write the songs for her first full-length record, Lauren knew she had to find those around her who could pull her out of the Americana rut and inspire her to tap into parts unknown. After moving to Nashville in 2017, both Lauren and Jason found the community they so desperately wanted, including a mental/songwriting guru in producer Parker Cason. “It was the best decision we’ve made. We decided in July 2017 to move and we sold our house, packed our bags, and moved here less than two months later. We met Parker almost immediately, and it felt so kindred to me. I’d finally found someone who understood all of my influences and could really see the vision beyond what I’d done in my prior career.” They began writing and recording the songs for People Talk in 2019. Lauren found herself finally writing the songs she always knew were within her, and together they created a soundscape that reflects her eclectic well of influences and songwriting growth since moving to Nashville.“I used to write stories, made up things about others I’d imagined in my head, but this record is all true to me. There’s not a single lyric that hasn’t happened to me in some shape or form, and I think it’s taken me to this point in my life to be able to articulate it and confidently stand behind the vulnerability of it all, which isn’t easy for me. I didn’t want to be defined anymore by my past musical experiences or feel like I was ‘enough,’ because my past bands didn’t quite ‘make it.’ In my head I was thinking, ‘Geez, she’s in her 30s and releasing a debut record? Shouldn’t she hang it up already? Her time is running out.’ But in reality, I had to silence that negative voice, and let myself show through these songs, and it’s taken all of this time and these experiences to really shape who I am as a human. I feel like I’m just now figuring that out, and now I finally have something to say.”    While recording for People Talk began at Sound Emporium in November 2019, the pandemic put an immediate stop to the record production, forcing Lauren to surrender to the uncontrollable (not an easy task for her) and learn to trust the cosmic alignment that awaited her debut record. It also fully committed Lauren and Jason to their craft - they knew they had a great set of songs and now they had the extra time to fully plan its wealth of soundscapes and its release. They truly learned the meaning behind the word “Hustle,” just like Track 7 on People Talk, implies - they painted houses to make ends meet when touring stopped, took out a second mortgage on their East Nashville home to self fund the release, and even sold a little “Mary Jane” to pay for players on the record and studio time. Determined to never give up on this dream, they made use of every resource and every free minute - they transmuted all of that angst and uncertainty into the originality of this record.    You’ll find even more of these universal truths on People Talk: arguing with a loved one and just wanting the fight to be over (“I’m Sorry”) or doing whatever it takes to live your dreams (“Hustle”) and trying to find whatever brings you peace when you’re having anxiety attacks (“Only Nice When I’m High”) or having to claw your way through self doubt (“Nobody But Me”). “I just want the stories on this record to feel relatable and real. We’re constantly fed a fake narrative through social media and reality TV, etc, and I just want to come across as the person I am. Flaws and all.”   That “realness” came early to Lauren as a child. On the surface, she had a fairly conventional childhood, riding her bike around her suburban Atlanta neighborhood and stealing her older brother Kris’s alternative rock albums. From there she fell into a world of U2, Oasis, David Bowie, The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, Outkast, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Alanis Morrisette, and Tori Amos. She gravitated towards lyrics that made her feel deeply and allowed a form of escape. Her homelife turned tumultuous - her parents’ constant fighting ultimately led to a divorce, and her mother fell into addiction which drove Lauren to further retreat into her room and into her headphones. Never the “popular girl” but always oddly confident in her nerdy quirkiness, she bought her first guitar at 15 and realized she possessed a tool to express herself through song and also escape the chaos around her. That same year, she won a radio contest that allowed her to sing with Butch Walker in front of 90,000 fans and ultimately changed the trajectory of her life - she knew she wanted to play music forever.    As Lauren moved further into adulthood, she was still rattled by adolescent trauma and ultimately felt trapped in Georgia. “I wanted to get away as far as possible, and by doing so, I was able to disconnect from that baggage, responsibility, and codependency I’d felt for my mom as a teen and really spread my own wings and discover myself.” She moved to Newcastle, England and dug more into her songwriting and eventually found the confidence to perform in front of others. Up until then, she only sang in front of a very small group of trusted friends. Moving to the UK changed Lauren in a way she didn’t fully understand until she came back home to the states. As much as she wanted to get away, she missed the South. She returned home self-assured and with the initial building blocks of her sound.   At Georgia State University, Lauren majored in English and started her first band, where she was lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She met Jason shortly thereafter. They fell in love, broke each other's hearts, but ultimately settled into their destiny together where they have been creating music and a life ever since. Lauren credits Jason with pushing her to fullest potential. “He was the person who always had my back as soon as he heard me sing. He’s always believed in me even when I didn’t - whether it was in The Whiskey Gentry, or now as a solo artist, we’ve been on the journey together, and it’s really special.”    A firm believer in timing and synchronicities, Lauren knows that every moment in her life thus far has led her to make People Talk. The untapped musical influences, the move to Nashville, the people in her life, her childhood, and decades of touring, writing, and fronting bands has all melded within her to explode in the form of ten songs that express a woman fully formed. “I couldn’t be more proud of anything in my life. It’s real, and it’s me. Finally.”    People Talk will be released on March 31, 2023 via Lauren & Jason’s own label Big Kitty Records.