When we spoke with the Beaumont, Texas-born artist Pug Johnson in 2023, he had just released his debut album, THROWED OFF AND GLAD. That record found him checking in on his past with brutal honesty as he navigated himself through some personal adversity and prepared to move on. That moving on included Johnson and his wife Mindy selling their house, purchasing a motorhome and relocating to San Antonio. His new album, EL CABRON, released on the Break Maiden label and distributed by Thirty Tigers, plays out like an update on Johnson’s affairs and finds him abandoning some of the Southern Rock edges of his debut album in favour of a more country approach. The album straddles both the music Johnson was introduced to growing up alongside the influences of his current place of residence. The playful sensibility that featured heavily in his debut album has not been abandoned, and the album more than lives up to the promise of his earlier work.
It's been two years since we last spoke. You were moving to Hill County close to San Antonio at the time and buying a motorhome. Did that all happen?
Yes, we are north of Canyon Lake, about an hour further west than the last time when we spoke, and we're in the motorhome right now.
I presume your wife Mindy is still managing you.
Yes, she is sitting right here making sure I don't say anything stupid.
You have a record deal with Thirty Tigers now, which must be very helpful in advancing your career.
We reached out to a lady named M.J.McDonald, who has a boutique label that is aimed at young artists who are trying to get their first album out, which I really didn't qualify for. She liked what I did with the first album, and she distributes through Thirty Tigers, who have taken a personal interest in me.
How helpful has that been? Has it raised your profile?
I'm getting much more press, and because of the record deal, I'm now with the international talent agency, UTA; one of their offices is in Nashville. That's how I've been getting these runs with Midland, Clint Black and Steve Earle. Everything has been just going up and up.
Your debut album, THROWED OFF AND GLAD, was credited to Pug Johnson and The Hounds. Your new album, EL CABRON, is simply Pug Johnson.
There was a bit of confusion, including the band name. People thought that The Hounds was a specific group of guys, whereas my band, although still called The Hounds, is a revolving group of characters when I'm playing with a band.
El Cabron translates into English as badass, dude or bastard. Is there something autobiographical in that title?
It is a little bit autobiographical; I've been called a bastard many times, but the title is also a blend of different characters that I admire. There is a nod to Hunter Thompson and Gus McCrea from the novel Lonesome Dove. Terry Allen's album, JUAREZ, was also a big inspiration. I had just found that album when I was starting to put my track list together for the album, and I realised I needed some more songs. Mindy and I were in South West Texas, where I am from, and we were moving further west, where you get a lot more Mexican and German culture and where a lot of the border music was born. The album mirrors the life moves that Mindy and I were making at that time; it's a continuation of where we are now, wrapped up in a kind of bullshit narrative since THROWED OFF AND GLAD.
There is less Southern Rock on this album than the last album.
Yes, it's more country and more based on the border music vibe. You also have a South Texas root thing where we dip into a little bit of Cajun music and a Swamp-poppy vibe with the song Believer.
I'm getting a real Memphis sound from that song Believer. Given that it's a romantic song, did you feel that the introduction of horns and a big production on the song suited that sentiment?
Yes, I write that song with the horn arrangement in mind. The song was going to have a lot of space in it, and I wanted to fill that space with some good horn parts. My guitarist and co-producer, Paul ‘Sweet P’ Walker, what he is playing on that track is wonderful.
How many sessions did you spend recording the album in the studios?
We tracked the bulk of the record in four days, and I had four or five other sessions where it was just me and my co-producers Ryan Johnson and sometimes (Paul) Sweet P (Walker) to touch up some guitar parts or lay a backing vocal. Ryan has worked with me on everything I have put out, and I found Sweet P over here after we had moved to the hill country area where we are now; he came to one of my gigs and sat in and played lead guitar with me. He can play almost anything and was able to find top-notch Austin musicians to play on the album. We also added some ancillary instruments by guys who couldn't make the sessions, but for the most part, it was tracked in that four-day window.
It plays out like a confessional lifestyle update for me. Songs like Last Call and Change Myself Today suggest moving away from an edgier lifestyle and settling into a more relaxed lifestyle.
That is true, but I'm personally actually less relaxed now than when I was putting out THROWED OFF AND GLAD because my career has got a bit of momentum to it now, whereas when we put the last album out, I didn't have very much going on. I haven't yet had a huge amount of success, but the demands are going higher.
The 'tears in your beer' Hole In Me is a regular honky tonker, and you include a cover of Moon Mullican's Pipeliner Blues.
You have to have at least one honky tonker on a country album, and that is Hole In Me on this album. I learned Pipeliner Blues from Johnny Bush's album GREEN SNAKES. My dad had that album when I was a kid, and when he would come home from work and wanted to dip into the whiskey a little bit, he would put that album on. Dad has a certain dance that he does with a whiskey glass in his left hand, and his right-hand points a pistol finger out. That is a memory from my childhood, and I always want to tip my hat in the direction of people who are not that well known or maybe are forgotten about. Pipeliner Blues has a driving, smoking-hot rockabilly beat. That was done live in the studio with everybody in the same room, Caleb Melo, who played the pedal steel, just tore it in the studio.
Are you nervous about the album's release and how it will be received?
Absolutely, the album might take off or do nothing whatsoever, and I don't know which one scares me more.
You are returning to Nashville later in the month for shows at The Basement and 3rd and Lindsley. Are some of your friends still down there, or, like you, have they moved?
Most of the guys I hooked up with when I was there are still in Nashville. One of my buddies is a tech for Kane Brown and has been working with Travis Tritt for a while, and another buddy is playing bass for Hailey Whitters. I'm the fool that came back home and didn't want to stick around (laughs).
Interview by Declan Culliton. Photograph by Lyza Renee.