Poor Life Choices Takes “The Hook” to the Horse Races

Of all the songwriters who’ve participated in the initial shows of the songwriting showcase The Hook, songwriter Paul Orehovec—who performs under the name Poor Life Choices—has definitely been one of the most colorful. His creative streak comes out in his formation of characters, and how he then puts those characters in interesting (and often compromising) situations. A great example of this is his unreleased song “Litta Bitta Luck” that he performed on September 29th at The Hook pilot taping in Nashville. What started out as a enjoyable enough song about a guy betting on the ponies turned into a wild sprint to the finish that had folks at Eastside Bowl on the edge of their seat. It’s not easy to get this type of emotional investment out of a 3-minute song. Paul Orehovec was born in in Ohio, but grew up in Miami where he would hang around the horse tracks and the scuzzy dudes it would often attract. After some early years as a live performer including appearing on the Warped Tour, Paul worked as a television producer in Los Angeles working on TV shows such as TNT’s The Closer and Major Crimes. In 2020, Orehovec decided to shift his focus entirely to music and songwriting, moving to Nashville, and adopting the name “Poor Life Choices” as a self-deprecating nod to his career pivot. He’s since released a handful of singles, including “Somebody Out There” and “Drag Queen at the Gun Range” ahead of a new album titled June Bug in July set to be released in the spring of 2026. The Hook is hosted by award-winning songwriter Caitlin Cannon, and yours truly, Trigger of Saving Country Music, with Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon acting as The Hook allows ANYONE to come up and perform a song in search of the next great song and songwriter. You can subscribe to The Hook on YouTube to get alerts whenever new videos are posted, and also follow The Hook on Instagram, Facebook, and Tik-Tok.More live tapings of The Hook will be happening starting in early spring of 2026, with March 9th at Eastside Bowl in Nashville being the next installment.

This is absolutely the sort of song I could easily envision Herman resonating with (as it did): as someone who grew up listening to KBCO in Boulder and later KINK in Portland and was exposed to plentiful Leftover Salmon then. =)

Still, nice song and I like his voice. I’ve spent many days at the races at nearly 30 tracks (many of which have closed) in my 70 years, so this song resonates with me. I’m grateful to have never been that guy who needs a big score in the 9th race just to make enough to eat.

You’re right, and I came back here just to correct that before it was cleared by you. Sorry about that. I know the trifecta is the first three horses in order, but from my days around horseplayers, I know that they often will include four or more horses in their trifecta bets.

Source: savingcountrymusic.com