The day before his senior year as a playwriting student at the University of North Carolina, Joe Pug packed up his belongings and drove the long way to Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day and recording songs fast and fervently at night, Joe didn't need more than a guitar and a microphone. His EP debut, "Nation of Heat," evokes the young Dylan, and he's also mentioned John Prine, Warren Zevon, Beck, and the late alt-country songwriting master Walter Hyatt as influences. He's been getting startling raves like this one from 3Hive: "In Pug's hard plucking, exaggerated choruses, and lyrical vignettes you can draw a pretty straight line from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Steve Earle to Josh Ritter. Like all of them, Pug is a populist at heart, a singer who can't help but talk about all of us when he sings about himself and can't help but sing about himself when he's talking about all of us." A spotlight artist on the 2009 Ann Arbor Folk Festival bill, Joe has recently appeared at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and the Newport Folk Festival. Come to the show, sign up for Joe's mailing list, and get a copy of his "In the Meantime" EP!