Hoge opened the all-acoustic show with "Secondhand Heart" one of my favorite tracks off of the "Blackbird" CD.  He then moved gracefully into "Let Me Be Lonely" with one of the greatest lines from a song dealing with "red lipstick and lies."

Will didn’t bother with a set list.  He told the crowd that, "This is off the cuff and we’re going right off of it."  He then took song requests from the audience.

The show continued on as Hoge and company played "Hey Tonight" and "Someone Else’s Baby."  Before the guys played "Wish," Will talked a little bit about the girl the song is about. He met her at a wedding and by the end of the day, she had made quite the impression on him. Intrigued by the story, I asked Will more about her later on.  Will said, "She was just a friend of a friend. I was completely captivated by her. It lasted about a day.  It was great.  She’s in Nashville.  I still see her out and about occasionally.  Don’t think she knows about the song."

Hoge and the Lucky Harmonica Holder
(Photo: Laura Leigh)

Hoge plays his harmonica on "Lover Tonight," and anyone who is familiar with him is also probably familiar with some of his horror stories about his harmonica.  Will is currently sporting a Grizzly Adams look and managed to get his harmonica strap caught in his beard the night before.  After loosing a small amount of his beard to the harmonica, he decided to enlist a harmonica holder from the audience at the Eddie’s show.  The inexperienced but lucky lady might have held the harmonica upside down at first, but she soon got her bearings and held the harmonica for Will during the song "Better Off Now."

The guys also played "Heartbreak Avenue" and "Rock and Roll Star" off of the "Carousel" CD.  Will explained that he wrote "Rock and Roll Star" as a tongue in cheek piece when a lot of his friends were being signed to record labels while he was not.

At this point, Will told us a little more about his bandmates John and Brian.  Will described John as an "incredibly gifted, incredibly talented, classically trained keyboardist – helping the singer songwriter."  And as for Brian’s guitar abilities, Hoge pledged that we were hearing "the most rockest sitting down shit" possible.

The band continued to please the crowd by playing "She Don’t Care," "Not that Cool," and "Your Fool."  Will then got ready to sing "Ms. Williams" by himself because Brian needed to pee.  Will said he didn’t mind sharing this information with us since we were in such an intimate "singers and songwriters" setting.

He also took this time to address the guy who kept requesting "Free Bird" (yup, there’s always that one guy).  Will admitted that he wouldn’t be a singer if it weren’t for, Lynyrd Skynyrd and "that ugly dudes from the South are his biggest inspiration in his music career."  Will also mentioned that the first song he ever sang in public was Skynyrd’s "All I Can Do is Write About it."

Continuing in the "singers and songwriters’ mode," Will addressed the subject matter of his songs.  In a recent interview, a reporter was trying to get Will to dog John Mayer.  The reporter even went on to call Will the "Anti-John Mayer."  Will explained to all of us that he has nothing against John Mayer, that he likes him, and that he couldn’t figure out what the guy was talking about.  However, he went on to explain to us the difference between his music and John Mayer’s. According to Will, "John Mayer writes about dating and how he wants to hold your hand."  Will, in contrast, is the guy you date and then when you break up, writes a really bitter song about it.  Hoge then appropriately sang sang his "Sweet Magdeline."

For a very impressive ending, Will climbed on top of the bar and sang "Carousel."  Everyone sat silent and amazed as his beautiful voice carried throughout the bar.