Will Hoge and Dave Hause, two of roots music’s most incisive songwriters, join Nashville Now live onstage at the Mile of Music Festival in Appleton, Wisconsin, for one of our most charged podcast conversations yet. Both artists toe the line between rock & roll and Americana and use their music to make pointed cultural and political statements. Onstage at Mile of Music, one of the U.S.’s must-attend boutique festivals, Hoge and Hause tell the stories behind songs like Hoge’s “Whose God Is This?” and Hause’s “Tarnish” — and perform them live too.
“In Nashville, especially in the music business, there’s a lot of talking about this Jesus and then living very differently than any of the books I’ve ever read about your Jesus,” Hoge says of writing “Whose God Is This?” off his 2022 album Wings on My Shoes. “I was always incredibly annoyed by that.”
Hause, who came up in the Philadelphia punk scene as the leader of the group the Loved Ones before going solo, connects the dots between punk and country music by way of the Clash. “I do like ‘White Riot,’ but I also like ‘White Lightning” by George Jones,” Hause says. “The Clash is the embodiment of both of those things.”
Hoge released his latest album, Sweet Misery, last year, but dropped the standalone track “The Epstein Files” in March (in other words, Hoge…released “The Epstein Files”). Hause, meanwhile, put out his …and the Mermaid LP in 2025 and recently re-recorded Loved Ones songs for a three-album project with his brother and bandmate Tim Hause. Hause is currently working on a new album, which features “King of Madness,” a tribute to Lou Koller, the Sick of It All frontman who died this summer.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by deputy editor, head of country Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts orSpotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Shania Twain, Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Blackberry Smoke, Jason Newsted, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Kings of Leon, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, the Black Crowes, the War and Treaty, Carly Pearce, Amy Grant, Luke Grimes, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Adam Mac, Devon Gilfillian, Braxton Keith, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Michaela Anne, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, Love on the Spectrum‘s Tyler White, Willie Nelson scholar John Spong, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray, and Jonathan Bernstein.
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