Most people, especially guitarists and songwriters, faced a diagnosis that meant that they might not play again, at least not live and not in the way they used to, would struggle to find a silver lining. But I guess Greg Hoy is not most people. His instinct was to head to the studio and work out what he was still able to do.
Drums were the way in, so over the next six months, he worked up a set of song ideas from the beat, rhythm, and groove upwards. Eventually, he found a new way to make music again, and except for trumpeter Kelly O’Donohue and legendary Pittsburgh saxophonist Ben Opie, everything you hear on Hit Music – bass, keyboards, guitars, and drums – is Greg.
And if my last encounter with him and the boys was a neat slice of classic rock and roll called “Holy Mother of God” here, things are more DIY in nature, more underground, more alternative, sitting somewhere between his love of low-slung rock and roll and punk-attitude experimentation.
It runs from the groovy, brass-fuelled, glam swagger of “Last Quarter” to the energetic ’60s-infused Americana of “The Wheel” and from the alt-pop-rock of “Luck vs. Fate” to the psychedelic vibes of the title track, which plays us out.
Greg Hoy has always been an eclectic artist, able to run around the musical map effortlessly to get his kicks. With Hit Music, a title chosen to sound like a greatest hits album, he has let that eclecticism take point, leading him wherever felt right and into whatever felt doable. But if it is not a greatest hits album in the conventional sense, it certainly is a celebration of resilience and reinvention, the power of creativity, and the will to find a way to carry on doing the think he loves.
And as for playing live…well, yes, that’s back on the table too.
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