Joe Pug / Photo by Amber Meairs

Who? Chicago's Joe Pug admittedly sounds like the wooden stool and mic-less icons before him, but it's all in genuine homage to days spent confiding in his father's record collection. "I've come to know the wish list of my father / I've come to know the shipwrecks where he wished," beams the grainy pipes of this old soul trapped in a young heart on "Hymn 101," his airy wisps reminiscent of the Boss and Woody Guthrie, though simply the throat the good God gave him. And the circle of folk certainly continues with his seven-song, bar-chord to finger-pluck debut of blue collar, rambling-on-social-consciousness ditties and heartfelt ballads.

His latest: Nation of Heat EP, out this week (May 13)

Recommended if you like... Bob Dylan, Paul Westerberg, John Prine

Now Hear This: "Hymn #101" (DOWNLOAD MP3)