charleston072000

Will Hoge and his band have a gig opening for Five Way Friday on Friday at The Warehouse. They're coming back to play here for the second time in less than a month "Actually we just want an excuse to come back to Charleston. We all really like the town," Hoge said.

Hoge and company - guitarist Dan Baird, bassist Tres Sasser and drummer Kirk Yoquelet - had a rare day off here earlier in the month and took advantage of it. "And we were all just sort of blown away by the town," Hoge said. Hoge hails from Nashville, which has some history, too, but he really enjoyed the architecture here. "It's one of the more well-preserved communities that any of us have ever seen," he said.

While here, Hoge has a record to promote. It's a live CD made at a Nashville club. The first song, "Rock & Roll Star," is a dark ditty about the rock business. Hail, hail rock and roll/Come here son and let me help you sell your soul/Sit right down and everything will be just fine/Won't you sign right here and it will all work out in time Hoge said he wrote the song after hearing friends' horror stories about the record business. It's also based on his experience with a former manager.

"I figure the best way to get over things like that is just write a song about it, and then you can sort of wash your hands of it," he said. The rest of the CD isn't mired in melancholy. There's the melodic and cheerful "Be Together Again," the funky "Ms. Williams" and the rollicking "She Don't Care About Me." It's reminiscent of the Counting Crows, Tom Petty and Little Feat.

One reason this band sounds so good is former Georgia Satellites frontman Baird. Hoge has played live since '91 and is a veteran of Spoonful, a blues rock jam band.

Hoge and his band have finished a studio record they plan to release early next year. The live record has been in stores about three weeks. Publicity could come in other ways. The band's letterhead - a W set in a circle - is reminiscent of the emblem on Volkswagen cars. "We're hoping for a big lawsuit out of that. Any publicity is good publicity. Shoot for the top. Then maybe they'll give us some kind of Volks-wagen tour bus to use," Hoge said with tongue planted in cheek.