GOSHEN, Ind. — I don’t drink or smoke often, but my fingertips would do good with a Marlboro Red in my right hand and a draft of the heaviest lager in the left when the country-jazz suave of Pug Johnson’s “Believer” plays.
The energy of this song feels as though I’m listening to a story from the counter of a bar, but it also makes me feel as if I’m kicking back by the fire-side, appreciating a slower pace of life.
“I told you ’bout my reputation // You said my honesty was strange // And I felt a new sensation // When you said my name.”
He starts with this sentiment of trust and then the unfolding of trust between him and his muse. The lyrics heed a warning, which she, the muse, turns into a positive, noting his honesty, starting off this journey.
Through the trumpets, drums and intricate guitar play, the song’s tone comes off as sexy, but the lyrics make it clear that this isn’t that — it is intimacy. Johnson portrays a simple, honest love with this song as a testament to the work required for it.
Johnson encapsulates the beauty of vulnerability and letting another person break his “armor off,” followed by “believing” and “dreaming.” This is a love song to a woman, but it’s a love song about, well, love in its entirety and the beauty of allowing the journey of this “believer kind of love” into your life.
So now I’ll sit by the fire, light that cigarette, crack open that drink in this imaginary scenario and indulge in the process of believing and reflect on who, or what, makes me a one.
– Charlie, Globe Pal
Each week, a Globe-pal (AKA a DJ at 91.1 the Globe) uploads a review of a Globe track that is sent out and posted on globeradio.org/music. The Globe Track of the Week is proudly presented by 91.1 the Globe, the best college radio station in Indiana.
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