Alright, so I know it’s been a while and I apologize, but I’ve been studying for my LSAT exam like a crazy. In the meantime, I’ve been downloading a few songs here and there that I will share when I get a chance. But for now, it’s all studying. Sorry folks!
Last night I came across this song that I absolutely needed to share with you folks. I hadn’t heard of Josh Hoge before, so when he came up in the “similar artist” column, he was given a fair shot just like everyone else who appears there. Totally worth it by the way. For those of you who are like myself and have no idea who this guy is, here’s a little bit of background information from his website:
Growing up in Franklin, Tennessee and eventually settling in Nashville, singer Josh Hoge represents Music City’s competing spirits of tradition and rebellion. The 27-year old has always been surrounded by music – both from the city and from his family. Coming from a deep lineage of musicians, it wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles that the pieces finally started to fall into place.
Upon anchoring in L.A., Hoge quickly became friends with hit maker and future super-star, Ne-Yo. Together, the pair began to work on a series of songs. A strained personal relationship brought Josh back to Nashville where he eventually signed to Epic Records. His debut single, “360,” soon followed.
With “360″ beginning to make inroads, a sudden management shakeup at Epic resulted in Josh being released from its roster. Without a manager or agent, Josh booked his own gigs around the country and locked-in a corporate sponsor for his tour. While on tour, he recorded his Bedroom Sessions EP. Josh worked relentlessly, playing over 200 shows a year. His hard work paid off as the EP quickly moved past the 10,000 unit mark in just six months.
Opportunity knocked once again in the form of a new record deal with the recently-launched Blackledge Music.
Ten of the eleven songs Everything She Was (Josh’s long-awaited debut) were co-written by Hoge as collaboration with some of today’s most gifted producers. Superstar Ne-Yo puts his touch on “Beautiful Distraction” while One Republic’s Ryan Tedder helped write “Take It Or Leave It.” Nashville-based Ashley Gorley lent his skills to four songs including “Stay Away” and the already buzzworthy “360.”
The album’s title Everything She Was represents one big good and bad relationship. “Like other people, I’ve had a whole bunch of those,” says Hoge. ”I like to write songs about love and all the good and bad stuff that comes with it.” Nowhere is that more evident than in both “Stay Away” and “Space.” ”‘Stay Away’ really was never a song I intended to be on the album. It was just something I was working on with a few friends,” recalls Hoge. ”I was with this girl at the time and we were constantly breaking up and getting back together. It was like she just kept showing up after we would call things off. I just wanted her to stay away.”
It wasn’t a bad break-up that drove Josh to the studio to record the blues-inspired single “Space,” a duet with actress/singer Caitlin Crosby. Walking through Nashville late one night Josh had overheard someone on their cell phone say “there’s a whole lot of space in the house without you around.” The words resonated with Josh and he immediately took the idea to Nashville singer/songwriter Dave Barnes. ”I thought it was a great idea for a song,” says Hoge. ”It turned out that my producer, Marshall Altman, already knew her. She just had this unbelievable singing voice. There was a lot of hurt and pain you could feel from her when she sang and I thought she would be perfect to be part of this song with us.”
Everything She Was is a place of new beginnings for Josh Hoge.
So, about “Beautiful Distraction.” I won’t talk about the lyrics much because they really don’t matter much in this case. For me, it was the sound that really blew me away. This guy has an incredible singing voice on the album and awesome beats for all of his songs. As usual, YouTube has been giving me grief over posting the album version of the song, so below is a live version. If you get a chance, give the album version a listen on either Amazon or iTunes. Enjoy!