Joe Pug, Auckland New Zealand, 2017

Joe Pug

20th July 2017
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Mike Thornton.

The rain outside is coming down in hardened waves as I pick my way between the puddles and cross the courtyard to The Tuning Fork for tonight’s show. On a winter’s night such as this, the venue is a welcome respite with its warm red velvet curtains, and subtle mood lighting. The usual bar tables are dotted throughout the main floor; the audience perched atop stools, drinks in hand, while a few fans wishing for a closer view of the artist stand nearer the stage.

Courtney Marie Andrews is a singer-songwriter originally hailing from Phoenix, Arizona. Releasing five albums since her first in 2008 she is currently touring Australia and New Zealand in support of her latest release entitled Honest Life. Arriving on stage in a green dress and tan fringed jacket, the exact kind you would expect to see in a place such as Phoenix, Andrews picked up her guitar and began to sing. Her voice is delightfully lilting easily carrying throughout the venue. Andrews is not a particularly physical singer, remaining fixed to one spot for the duration of her set. However she makes up for it with her wonderful story telling; especially her anecdote about how her mother planted ‘Jumping Cholla Cactuses’ in the garden near to where they parked the car on a daily basis. To most of us kiwi’s that didn’t seem very amusing until Andrews explained that this particular cactus when sensing a threat, likes to throw it’s spines at you from up to three feet away. So her mornings were often spent in front of the bathroom mirror picking out cactus spines before school.

Her set tonight consists of mostly tracks from the new album, the track ‘How Quickly Your Heart Mends’ being a particular stand out for its sorrowful lyrics delivered with just the right amount of emotion. Her style and songwriting, especially on tracks such as ‘Honest Life’ is reminiscent of Joan Baez or a more modern version of Jewel. At only 26yrs old, she has certainly seemed to have experienced life, her songs reflecting her experiences with grace and ease. Andrews, like many American musicians we have had visit our shores this year spoke of her disdain for Trump and how on the day of the election she penned a song entitled ‘Heart and Mind’, and that while yes in part it was about Trump, at the same time it wasn’t as “he didn’t deserve an entire song”. Bidding the crowd goodnight, she had definitely impressed the many in attendance and obviously would be welcomed back with open arms.

Moving onto the main act tonight I was pleased to see the stage was set with a keyboard and a separate bar stool and microphone, which meant that there would be some variety to look forward to in Joe Pug’s set. Born Joseph Pugliese thirty three years ago and hailing from Greenbelt in Maryland, Joe Pug is also a singer-songwriter who has in total released three albums since he first debuted with his EP Nation of Heart in 2009.

He arrives on stage to the enthusiastic applause of several gentlemen in the front row, obvious fans who are more than pleased to be in attendance tonight. “Thank you for coming out on a Wednesday…Thursday…what day is it?” Pug asks the audience with a slightly confused look upon his face. After being advised that it is indeed Thursday he replies “well still you came out on a school night, oh nope, it’s the holidays, ahhhh I’m fuckin this up…” the audience laughing as Pug shakes his head and grins. Kicking his set off with the wonderful song ‘Lock The Door Christina” it is obvious that Pug is quite the accomplished musician playing both the harmonica and guitar simultaneously. After a particularly rousing rendition of his song ‘I Do My Father’s Drugs’, Pug begins to tell the story of a man, a musician no less, who was involved in a bar fight. The fight beginning after said musician had his drink stirred with a switchblade. New Zealand audiences being what they are sometimes, did not interrupt the story by reacting strongly to this sentence, causing Pug to enquire as to whether or not the term ‘switchblade’ meant the same here in New Zealand as it did in the states. Once Pug had ascertained that we did indeed comprehend the intensity of the situation he went on to tell how the musician stated that he shot the man (and this he reminds us can be found in the public court records) “between the mother and the fucker”. Both Willie Nelson and Robert Duvall attended court in support of the musician; that being the famous Billy Joe Shaver. Pug ending his rather interesting anecdote with a cover of Shaver’s track ‘I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal’. He follows this up quickly with ‘Stronger Than The World’ which he sings sans microphone, leaning out from the edge of the stage towards the audience. Not something I have seen many solo artists do before, and it was strangely raw, honest and rather refreshing.

Joe Pug is an artist with bite. There is an underlying current of aloof arrogance to him; my comment made not with the intention of placing a slur on his character, merely an observation. However it is due to that observation that makes it difficult not to immediately compare him to Bob Dylan; Pug’s mannerisms, song topics and style very similar to the legend himself. And that is not a bad thing by any means. Every few songs, Pug stops to speak, telling stories of his trials of attempting to eat from the five major food groups rather than “trash” and moderate his drinking in an attempt to change his lifestyle. He later tells a rather odd story of how the world can now be handed over to the machines if someone is going to be insulted by a comment he made towards their dogs…

Regardless, his set is filled with many a musical treasure and it is easy to see why he has more than a handful of fans in the audience. Returning to the stage for a well-deserved encore, Pug has Courtney Marie Andrews in tow, announcing to the audience that it is her birthday, but thankfully he does not lead us through that terribly cringe worthy version of the traditional birthday song. Instead advising us that they are about to perform a duet of the Tom Petty & Stevie Nicks song ‘The Insider’ and that if you don’t like Tom Petty “you’re obviously thinking about it way too hard”. Their duet is stunning, and a fitting (almost) end to tonight’s show, Pug performing ‘Deep Dark Wells’ as the finale to his set.

It was certainly a pleasant way to spend a winter Thursday evening.

Joe Pug:

Courtney Marie Andrews:

Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this Folk-tinged Americana extravaganza? Or have you seen Joe Pug perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!