He goes country on the closing “Whose God is This,” an expansive account of that one jerk in a bar who ruins the atmosphere, except this place is in the afterlife. It’s sad, pensive yet sweet and even hopeful, as Hoge sings I can’t stand the thought of you wearing a black dress at his funeral. The melancholy “The Last One to Go” emerged from a discussion with his wife about what happens when one of them dies first.
On the blues-tinged “Birmingham” Hoge wonders if he has his life together singing that … I may not ever have this whole mess figured out over a lovely, somewhat dark groove. Intricate details about his grandmother “Queenie” are so specific that after less than four minutes the listener feels they know her as well as he did. While a few louder roots rockers may get the most attention, Hoge tends towards ballads to unspool his sagas. It’s hard not to compare him to fellow Americana stars like Hayes Carll, James McMurtry, or John Mellencamp, all of whom share a talent to create indelible images in the space of just a few minutes. Together they played these tunes live, keeping the best performances and refraining from fussing with excess overdubs that might dissipate some of the immediacy of the somewhat wordy but compelling blues-tinged, folk rockers. Hoge decamped for a week at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios with his four-piece touring band. Hoge’s 2020 recording was appropriately titled Tiny Little Movies, which aptly captures his intent. If anything, these tales are more descriptive and vivid than in the past. That doesn’t change on this, his 12th release, recorded during the (ongoing) pandemic. During a career spanning over two decades and eleven previous albums, he has told a lot of them. Singer/songwriter Will Hoge likes to tell stories.
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