Josh Hoge

JOSH HOGE
"EVERYTHING SHE WAS"
(Blackledge, 2008)


"Addicted"


I hadn't even heard of Josh Hoge until about a week ago. Right after I did, I hopped over to Amazon and listened to the audio clips. Fairly confident I'd enjoy it, I put it on my mental "to buy" list. What I didn't know until today (managed to pick up the CD at a local shop yesterday) was how bowled over I was going to be -- those clips didn't do the songs justice.

When Josh Hoge says he "can be country or city" on the barnstorming "Take It Or Leave It" (featuring roots rocker Marc Broussard), he means it -- that track could tear up the contemporary country charts as much as the rock charts. But Hoge can also be R&B ("Beautiful Distraction"), soul ("Keeps Getting Better"), acoustic-singer-songwriter ("Shadow"), and blues (the scrumptious duet "Space" with Caitlin Crosby).

A guy this versatile and this good is all but guaranteed a long recording career. Silly as it might sound, I think we need to thank Epic Records for dropping this guy from their roster before recording his debut album, 'cause I bet it wouldn't have sounded half as good coming from a major label. Of course, even "half as good" in this case would still have been great, but Epic's loss is turning out to be our gain.