He has released two EPs, as well as the albums Messenger, The Great Despiser, Windfall, The Flood in Color, and The Diving Sun.

While working as a carpenter in Chicago after dropping out of the University of North Carolina, Pug wrote and recorded what would eventually become his debut EP, Nation of Heat.

Its literate lyrics received widespread acclaim and Pug's unorthodox promotional strategy of distributing free CDs to anyone interested in sharing his music resulted in the EP selling over 20,000 copies.

After touring with Steve Earle in 2009, Pug was signed by Nashville indie label Lightning Rod Records and released Messenger in 2010.

Pug's acclaimed narrative songwriting has led critics to draw comparisons between his work and that of John Prine[3] and Bob Dylan.

While in high school, Pug, according to a Washingtonian interview, "played in cover bands and at New Year's Eve parties to make money" but "never seriously considered a career in music."

[13]In 2005, on the night before his senior year fall classes were to start, Pug dropped out of college and drove directly to Chicago, having thought (as he mentioned later to The Daily Tar Heel): "I had a moment where I realized life is short and I knew where I wanted to be and I should just get there.

Pug has described his two-day trip from Chapel Hill in his Ford Ranger and his first week in Chicago as "the most magical experience of my entire life".

The unconventional promotional strategy was a success, resulting in Pug sending out over 15,000 samplers and Nation of Heat selling over 20,000 copies.

"Hymn #101," Nation of Heat's opening song, drew special attention, being spotlighted on NPR's Second Stage music blog.

[15] Pug considers this his "first big break": When Steve Earle released his Townes album, he tapped me to open his tour.

[20]As he toured the country in 2009 and 2010 in his 1995 Plymouth Voyager, Pug became increasingly linked with the burgeoning indie-folk scene associated with bands such as The Low Anthem, Langhorne Slim, and Horse Feathers.

[21] The Earle tour and the crowds generated by Nation of Heat piqued the attention of Lightning Rod Records, the Nashville independent label behind folk and Americana acts such as Jason Isbell, James McMurtry, Amanda Shires, and High Cotton.

[22] On Messenger, a full backing band supplemented Pug's guitar, vocals and harmonica, a change featured most notably on an electric version of Nation of Heat's "Speak Plainly, Diana."

'"[23]The album met critical acclaim, with Paste Magazine rating it 9.1/10, adding: “unless your surname is Dylan, Waits, Ritter or Prine, you could face-palm yourself to death trying to pen songs half as inspired as the 10 tracks on Joe Pug's debut full-length.

"[1] The success of Nation of Heat and Messenger led Pug to tours and performances with M. Ward, Josh Ritter and Levon Helm, as well as invitations to Lollapalooza and the Newport Folk Festival.

Club described The Great Despiser as an album of literate regret, comparable to the work of John Prine, Josh Ritter, and Richard Buckner.

So we walked off stage after a particular show when I played terribly, and pulled my manager aside in the green room and told him to cancel the rest of the tour dates and that I was essentially through.

"[33] Coming out that turning point, he became engaged to fellow musician Jamie Zanelotti of The Hems[34] and began writing again, penning what would eventually become his next album.

As a Paste review notes, the optimistic album "steps away from the more traditional Americana for a folk-soul hybrid that places greater emphasis on his vocals.

"[36] The Lexington Herald-Leader praised the album's two-band approach as presenting an "elegiac, electric vitality" to the "unhurried solemnity" of the songs.

[35] Windfall's hopeful final track – "If Still It Can't Be Found," which featured Wilco's Pat Sansone on mellotron – received particular acclaim, with a Rolling Stone review noting that "it showcases the singer's unique and achingly honest point of view that spins lyrics into folk poetry.

Pug cited Walt Whitman as the biggest influence on Nation of Heat, calling "Hymn #35" the "palest imitation of 'Leaves of Grass' in recorded history!"

He told Rolling Stone that the biggest influence on The Great Despiser was short story writer Raymond Carver, praising him for how "when you return to a piece of his that you read long ago and realize just how much of your own detail was placed in the gaps.

I’d go sell records after my set and as the lights would go down in the lobby I’d run backstage and pull up a chair next to his guitar tech and just watch the show from the side of the stage every night.

On Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A., Pug performed Bruce Springsteen's "Downbound Train", telling Esquire: "It is at once a testament to the timelessness of the Boss's songwriting and to the unchanged economic torpor of working people in America that this song is so relevant 30 years later.