Will Hoge, Elizabeth Cook Bring Great Songs, Whole Lotta Fun to Little Rock's Stickyz

by Julian Spivey
Singer-songwriters Will Hoge and Elizabeth Cook, two of the best within the Americana/Alt-Country genre, brought some great songs and a whole lot of fun with them to Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack in Little Rock, Ark. on Friday, April 12.
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Hoge, who’s music I’m more familiar with of the two performing Friday night, performed his set first and of the two sets during the night it would be my favorite. Hoge’s eleventh studio My American Dream, released last year, was one of my favorites of the year and highly political, which could rub some the wrong way. The album is essentially a protest song based on all of the bad shit happening in the country right now mixed into one record.

Hoge would begin his set on Friday night with the track “Oh Mr. Barnum” from that album, which is a nicely written allegory where “Mr. Barnum” is a stand-in for our current President Donald Trump and his disappointing circus for his presidency. But, if you just want to take it as a song about a disappointing circus and ringmaster, I guess you could do that, as well.

Hoge would mix songs from throughout his career to good measure on Friday night at Stickyz giving us stuff from recent albums like “The Reckoning,” “Through Missing You” and “Young as We Will Ever Be,” one of the highlights of his performance, coming from his 2017 release Anchors and older stuff like “Secondhand Heart” and “Better Off Now (That You’re Gone)” from all the way back on 2003’s Blackbird on a Lonely Wire.

Around the midpoint in his set Hoge told the packed room that it was the point in his set that they would either realize that they liked him or they didn’t before playing the comical, but important messaged “Jesus Came to Tennessee” about Jesus Christ showing up at Hoge’s house in Nashville and seeing some disturbing stuff, even from hypocritical Christians. The song comes from Hoge’s 2012 EP Modern American Protest Music, which is essentially a precursor to My American Dream.

A few songs later Hoge would perform my favorite song of his on the night “Still a Southern Man,” which appears on My American Dream, but was originally released as a non-album single in 2015 and is about how the South’s continued love of the Confederate flag is basically bullshit and an image of continued hatred. The performance was well-received, which is great, because it’s a rather controversial topic to bring up in the South – but certainly an important one.

Despite not being afraid to get political in song and during this concert, there weren’t too many politically charged or message songs in Hoge’s 14-song set Friday night. I spoke briefly to him after his set to tell him how much I appreciated his music, especially last year’s release, and asked him if he received any pushback to his music. Unfortunately, he responded that he’d received quite a bit of push back, which was somewhat shocking to me as he’s not been afraid to speak his mind in song throughout his career. But I think it just shows a divide in his fan-base between those who actually know him and his music and those who just love his song “Strong” from an old Chevrolet commercial and know that he wrote “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” which became a No. 1 hit for Eli Young Band in 2012.

Hoge performed “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” the song which earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song, on Friday night and it was fantastic. I wish that Hoge had seen success with it as a performer, he did release it as a single three years before Eli Young Band topped the charts with it.

Hoge ended his terrific set with “A Little Bit of Rust” from Anchors.  

When you’re as talented of a songwriter as Hoge you’re going to have to leave some truly great songs out of your set and the only disappointment I had from him on Friday was these songs I enjoy not being in the set like “Middle of America,” “17” and basically anything he didn’t perform from My American Dream.

I’ve known who Elizabeth Cook was for years, she was one of the favorite performers and guests of one of my personal heroes David Letterman when he hosted his late night talk show, and I know she’s a award-nominated DJ for SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country station, which may be the best station on SiriusXM, but I hadn’t paid enough attention to her music before her most recent release Exodus of Venus dropped in 2016. That was my mistake.

Cook is an incredibly talented songwriter and performer and just incredibly cool.

She performed a bunch of stuff from her most recent release on Friday night including “Dyin’,” which she opened her set with. Other fantastic performances from Exodus of Venus included the just absolutely cool sounding and catchy “Methadone Blues” and “Broke Down in London on the M25.”

Cook would also give roaring performances of “Slow Pain,” featuring some great guitar work from Andrew Leahey, and “Dharma Gate.”

Maybe my favorite performance of Cook’s set was “El Camino” from her 2010 release Welder, which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2011 Americana Awards. It’s just a cool (I know I’m overusing that, but it fits her so well) song with some great and comical lyrics like: “I told him your car is creepy man/and not in a gansta kinda way/but in a perv kinda way.”

Cook’s set, especially because she was the second act of the night, was shockingly short and didn’t include an encore, which was strange. I’m not sure if her set was planned to be that short or if she just wasn’t feeling it, but if the set lasted 10 songs that’s pushing it and it was certainly shorter than Hoge’s opening set. 

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