Hi and welcome to the working songwriter, the show where today's best songwriters come to Talk Shop.

I'm your host, Joe Pug.

Each episode here, we host a distinguished guest, and we ask them to go deep,

on their inspiration, on their process, on the general ups and downs of making a life in music.

So whether you're a grizzled veteran,

developing the songwriting software

that will eventually replace us all,

or else, a scrappy upstart,

listening to family members

thoughtfully ask whether you've ever thought

of playing Saturday Night Live or not.

This is your show,

because ultimately, it is what every writer

seeks most, an ironclad excuse to put off actually writing.

Hey, everybody. It's the last Friday of February 2017.

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the boot and saddle in Philadelphia last week

and to City Winery in New York City and to the show in Baltimore.

Also, I'd like to thank American Aquarium for hosting me at their road trip to

Raleigh concert slash mini festival last month in particular it's really nice that

Will Hogue and his band were on the same bill I opened for Will almost seven or eight

years ago at the old Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky,

loved his voice and his tunes and had followed him ever since, but hadn't seen his live show

...