Chuck Ragan

Few punk veterans have made the move from full-throated band singing to bare acoustic songwriting as convincingly as Chuck Ragan. He shared lead vocals and guitar duties with Gainesville, Florida's Hot Water Music for over a decade, yet his solo work pulls in a quieter direction, with folk-tinged songs built around a single voice. Alongside music he is also an author, a pairing that suits a songwriter who thinks in stories about life on the road.

Hot Water Music disbanded on good terms in 2005, and Ragan carried on as a solo artist, signing to Side One Dummy Records. The band returned in 2007 for a tour of the United States and Europe, and in 2012 released the album Exister. That same year he published The Road Most Traveled, a book of tour stories. His Revival Tour, conceived in 2005, brought acoustic performers from punk, bluegrass and alt-country together on the road, and its 2011 line-up included Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem. In November 2023 he signed to Rise Records, and in October 2024 he released Love & Lore, his fifth solo studio album.