Wade Bowen and Will Hoge at Granada

by Brittany Finnell

Last Friday night Greenville Avenue looked a little different than usual– cowboys boots and starched jeans replaced the typical scene of skinny jeans and v-neck tee’s. As the herds (pun intended) filtered through the sold out, yet organized chaos of the Grenada’s front room and in to the refreshingly cool concert hall (the Grenada wasn’t lying about their renovated A/C) to find the soulful sounds of Will Hoge; a surprising opening act for the classic Texas country artist Wade Bowen, since Hoge had opened at Grenada 4-years prior with the Avett Brothers. However, don’t disregard Mr. Hoge just yet, if you are looking for an artist that has that American guitar sound like the great Tom Petty then you may want to perk up. 

The audible pleasures of Will Hoge’s newest album, Number Seven (due out September 27^th) will go perfectly with a cold beer, your windows rolled down and a playlist which holds new and old classics from Stevie Ray, Tom Petty, and the John Mayer Trio.

Wade’s closing performance was a gift to the crowd

Headliner & Texas Tech alum, Wade Bowen is a seasoned honky-tonk vet and no stranger to the Texas country scene or how to energize the sold out crowd. Wade entered the stage offering the perfect mix of his biggest hits with tantalizing tunes from his upcoming album. Wade kept the crowd going with hit after hit and in true Texas Country fashion took a giant gulp of Jagermeister to keep his vocal chords hydrated.

Although I’ve seen Wade about a zillion times, this is the first concert where I wished his encore style would have been translated more in to the entire concert. Wade’s closing performance was a gift to the crowd where he and the Will Hoge crew covered songs by Bruce Springsteen and the infamous Beatles jam ‘Hey Jude’. Say, Wade—we dig your cover songs, bring the heat with those more often!