Pug Johnson Announces New LP FROM A BEAUMONT BAR
The Texas artist previews the heartbreak-themed record with new single Lowering The Bar.
Texas country artist Pug Johnson has announced a new album, FROM A BEAUMONT BAR, set for release October 23rd via Break Maiden Records/Thirty Tigers. Johnson has released the leadoff single from the record, 'Lowering The Bar.'
'Farewell to the nines / A thick six will do fine / I'm lowering the bar,' sings Johnson in the first single from his upcoming album, From a Beaumont Bar. What started as a portrait of, in Johnson's words, 'a guy who's bumming everyone out at the bar,' turned into the gut-busting soliloquy of lowered standards and earnest admissions called 'Lowering The Bar.' And, it doesn't take long throughout the tune for 'I's' to become 'we's,' the song's narrator convincing his fellow patrons to join him on his mission in a somehow elegant, yet still 'dirty old man' way.
'So just loosen up on your backswing / This time you're not shooting for par,' sings Johnson. 'The name of the game is having no shame / When we're lowering the bar.' The lively chorus, ripe with an unwavering snare drum, accordion, pedal steel, piano, and tuba, highlights Johnson's broad swath of sonic influences, from Tejano to Boogie-Woogie, as he lets the anthemic refrain fly: 'I'm lowering the bar / And I've broken my record, by far / To tell you the truth, I'm not raising the roof, I'm lowering the bar.'
For his upcoming From a Beaumont Bar—out October 23rd on Break Maiden Records and Thirty Tigers—Johnson set out to make the kind of heartbreak album he grew up loving. 'One that could stand alongside records like Jerry Lee Lewis' When Two Worlds Collide or Merle Haggard's Serving 190 Proof,' he says. Johnson used that set of coordinates to make his most cohesive album yet. 'Every song is about a failed relationship in some capacity, but they're all different kinds of heartbreak,' he says about From a Beaumont Bar's tracklist. 'Some are funny, some are regretful, some are full of hope, and some just hurt. Together, they tell the story of a chapter of my life that I finally felt ready to write about.'
'The bars in these songs are real places, and a lot of the stories come from things I witnessed, lived through, or carried with me for years,' says Johnson. 'It's a record about heartbreak, hindsight, and realizing that none of us are as alone in those moments as we think we are. More than anything, I hope people hear these songs the same way I heard the country records I grew up with—that feeling of, 'I'm not alone, and I'm going to make it through this.' If this album gives someone that feeling, then I did what I set out to do.'
Leading up to the release of his new album, Johnson will be making several special tour stops around his home state of Texas, including Luckenbach, The Lonesome Rose, and Devil's Backbone Tavern. A list of tour dates can be found below or at pugjohnson.com.
From a Beaumont Bar Tracklist
Bubbles in My Beer
Thirsty's
Where Dowlen Meets Phelan
Tucson
Bar Local
Shuckin' and Jivin'
Just to Love You
Second Chances
Can't Fall In Love With You
The Closest Thing To You
Hangaround
Back to Thirsty's
If I Told You
Lowering The Bar
Catch Pug Johnson On Tour
August 22 - Fredericksburg, TX - Luckenbach Texas
September 5 - San Antonio, TX - The Lonesome Rose
September 11 - Spring Branch, TX - Bourbon & Branch
September 17 - Conroe, TX - The Table At Madeley
September 19 - Fischer, TX - Devil's Backbone Tavern
October 18 - Anna, TX - Gar Hole
More About Pug Johnson
Raised on the bars and backroads of Beaumont, Texas, recording artist and songwriter Pug Johnson's mission is simple: be a gateway. He wants listeners who think they don't like country to find him, feel something, and go digging into the long, rich history the genre was built on.
On his third full-length, From a Beaumont Bar, Johnson doesn't soften the past so much as define it, turning The Bruises and barroom debris of his messier years into solid country gold heartbreak songs – sharpened by hindsight and delivered in a borderline-nasal drawl that probably owes Shotgun Willie a few rounds.
The result is a rueful songbook that doesn't romanticize the past so much as report it, line by line, from a stool that's seen too much. Deliberately old-fashioned in the best way, the record nods to Bob Wills, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Merle Haggard while staying rooted in lived experience.
By mining the memories of his past mistakes and the musical legacies of his heroes, Johnson crafted a collection that not only bears the weight of history but promises to blossom into something timeless.
