RIYL: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Dan Baird, The Damnwells

There’s never been anything terribly rock & roll about riding a scooter, but leave it to Will Hoge to change that: the roots-rockin’ singer/songwriter was on his way home from the studio last year when he collided with a van, ending up with a Dylanesque list of broken bones and lacerations that landed him in intensive physical therapy. Barely a year later, he’s back on his feet with the defiantly titled The Wreckage, an 11-song collection of snarling rockers and slow-burning ballads whose unflinchingly casual cool brings to mind vintage Tom Petty. Wreckage is a classic rock record in the best sense of the term – the type of album that would sound great coming out of any jukebox in America, packed with songs that smell like leather, bourbon, and cigarettes. Deeply unfashionable, in other words, but Hoge has been at this for over a decade, releasing an album every year or two, mostly on his own – and if getting pulverized by a van isn’t enough to stop his music, something as silly as current trends shouldn’t be able to hold him back either. If you’ve been wondering what happened to good old-fashioned rock & roll, here’s your answer: Beaten, battered, bruised – and stronger than ever. (Rykodisc 2009)

Will Hoge MySpace page