El Cabron Pug Johnson

• 1 Big Trains 03:18
• 2 El Cabron 02:57
• 3 Buy Me A Bayou 02:32
• 4 Waxahachie 02:55
• 5 Believer 04:29
• 6 Hole In Me 03:16
• 7 Thanks To The Cathouse (I'm In The Doghouse With You) 03:01
• 8 Pipeliner Blues 03:54
• 9 Last Call (with Apologies To Terry Allen) 03:32
• 10 Change Myself Today 03:26
• 11 Time Well Wasted 06:07
• Total Runtime 39:27

Info for El Cabron

Pug Johnson grew up on the outskirts of Beaumont, Texas, listening to the multicultural soundtrack of a city flanked by Louisiana, the Big Thicket, and the Gulf Coast. Those influences would resurface years later on his solo records, coloring Johnson's eclectic version of American roots music, turning him into a country artist whose songs reach far beyond the genre's borders.

"There's a lot of Cajun music, swamp pop, and New Orleans flair down there," he says of his hometown. "There's Mexican music, Texas swing, and honky tonk, too. It's a real vibe. Whenever I write songs, I try to dabble in all those different sounds that have influenced me."

With his second album, El Cabron, Johnson salutes his homeland's traditions while creating his own musical geography, too. Released on the heels of his acclaimed debut, 2022's Throwed Off and Glad, El Cabron is an album for roadhouses, dance halls, and the long drive from sin to redemption, anchored by timeless country twang, humor, and plenty of greased-up groove. Johnson doesn't just nod to his influences; he reshapes them into something new, finding room for Tejano, barroom boogie-woogie, and southern soul, too. Tying that diverse sound together is the sharp songwriting of an artist who's built his audience on the road, playing shows with headliners like Steve Earle, Eli Young Band, Midland, and Hayes Carll.

El Cabron was recorded between San Antonio and Austin, where Johnson and his wife relocated during the early 2020s. For a musician who has always taken cues from his surroundings, the Hill Country proved to be equally influential for Johnson, who found himself leaning into the area's Mexican influences. "I began working with a group of Austin musicians who could play any style, and we dipped into some Tex-Mex border music," he says. That inspiration helped fuel tracks like "Last Call (With Apologies to Terry Allen)," whose mariachi guitars provide the backdrop for a risqué, tongue-in-cheek narrative about a late-night hookup. Johnson doesn't deliver the song like a smooth-talking ladies' man; instead, he turns himself into a hapless and humorous narrator, a role he revisits throughout the record. "Would you like a beer for the road?" he asks as he exits the bar and stumbles toward his truck with a woman in town. Then, without missing a beat, he adds, "Before we get started, would you be a darlin' and give my breathalyzer a blow?"

Humor is one of the central characters of El Cabron. Like John Prine and Bobby Bare before him, Johnson blurs the dividing line between silliness and seriousness, writing songs that deliver punchlines one minute and earth-shaking truths the next. "I love writing songs where the narrator is a lovable fuck-up, like a mix between a Hunter S. Thompson-based character and Gus from Lonesome Dove," he explains. That character — El Cabron himself — reappears often, making appearances on the album's title track (where he gets drunk on Singapore Slings, runs up a bar tab that he can't pay, and escapes to Mexico in search of cheaper cervezas) as well as Johnson's fast-and-furious cover of Moon Mullican's "Pipeliner Blues."

Johnson admits that El Cabron — Spanish slang for "the bastard" — might not be an entirely fictional character. After falling in love with Waylon Jennings' music at 11 years old, launching his songwriting career two years later, and building an audience with his first band, Slow Rollin’ Lows, Johnson headed east to Nashville. His brief time in Tennessee was spent indulging in all the vices available to a young, 20-something songwriter. Throwed Off and Glad chronicled that turbulent era, with Johnson singing lighthearted songs about addiction, promiscuity, and depression. El Cabron, on the other hand, was written after he returned home to Texas, met his wife (whom Johnson serenades with "Believer," a soulful love song punctuated by horns and swirling organ), and began sanding down his rougher edges. Old habits die hard, though, and El Cabron finds its central character caught halfway between the righteous path and the highway to hell, writing songs about the haphazard journey toward some improved version of himself. If it's difficult to tell which parts are fictional and which are autobiographical… well, that's sort of the point.

Co-produced by Johnson, Ryan Len Johnson, and Paul Walker at Fischer Studios, El Cabron features a murderer's row of musicians who've played with some of the Lone Star State's biggest names, from Charley Crockett to Asleep At The Wheel. There's certainly no mistaking the album's Texas roots. Even so, Pug Johnson's songs tell a more universal story. This is an album about messing up, growing up, and striving for something better, no matter how distant that goal may seem. It's a story about the American everyman, set a soundtrack of borderland twang, honky-tonk muscle, and swamp-pop swagger.

"I carried the first half of this one around for a while before I decided to call in my “Rancho Cucamonga” co-writer Tyler Darby to help me finish it. I never expected it to be the song that would tie a record together, but bastards will do that sometimes. Purely a work of fiction, this narrator is more of an amalgam of characters that have influenced my writing (e.g. Hunter S. Thompson, Terry Allen, Augustus McRae) and a continuation of the “Rancho Cucamonga” narrator."

"I’m a big fan of music that paints a picture of a time or place. That extra dimension underscores a craftsman who put together a whole story, not just a collection of random songs from their notebook. From that perspective, Pug Johnson is a helluva storyteller, and El Cabron is quite a treat." (Shawn Underwood, twangville.com)

Pug Johnson, vocals
Jason Baczynski, drums
Josh Hoag, bass
Caleb Melo, pedal steel
Jan Flemming, piano, organ, accordion
Ryan Johnson, percussion
Cody Braun, fiddle
Paul Deemer, trumpet, trombone
Brian Donahoe, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Josh Levy, baritone saxophone
Donovan Bourque, accordion
Latricia Badgett, vocals

Pug Johnson
grew up on the outskirts of Beaumont, Texas, listening to the multicultural soundtrack of a city flanked by Louisiana, the Big Thicket, and the Gulf Coast. Those influences would resurface on his solo records, coloring Johnson's eclectic version of American roots music, turning him into a country artist whose songs reach far beyond the genre's borders. Praised by Lonesome Highway for "exploring life's darker side in places… with high spirits and wicked humor," he hits a new peak with El Cabron, an album that finds the songwriter saluting his Texas roots while also delivering universal songs about the American everyman. The album's central character — El Cabron himself — reappears in multiple songs, running up bar tabs on both sides of the Mexican border, evoking personalities from Lonesome Dove's Gus McCrae to Hunter S. Thompson to the flawed protagonists in John Prine's catalog. Rooted in equal parts fiction and autobiography, that character becomes the unlikely hero of El Cabron, an album that follows its predecessor (2022's critically-acclaimed Throwed Off and Glad) in highlighting the wry, witty songwriting of a road warrior who has shared shows with Steve Earle, Eli Young Band, Midland, and Hayes Carll.

This album contains no booklet.