AMERICANA-UK.COM (Liverpool UK) (June 19, 2002) http://www.americana-uk.com

Doug Hoekstra - Live - Acoustic Engine, Stamps, Liverpool - 4th June 2002

Given Her Majesty's constabulary's newfound love for stamping down on anything that might be considered vaguely threatening, it was actually pretty difficult to find something to do on the Golden Jubilee Tuesday that wasn't illegal or vomit-inducing. Luckily, singer-songwriter Doug Hoekstra is neither of those things (!) and his second trip to the Acoustic Engine at Stamps in less than a year was a perfect opportunity to engage with Doug's own style of amusing but evocative self-penned artistry and forget about the outside world for two hours. Anyone who saw Doug last year can't help but remember the stunning sound of his voice against Kat Parsons', each feeding off the other and adding a certain sparkle to even the most lowkey song. This time round, there was no such vocal accompaniment available, and it's significant that Hoekstra can pull it off just as well without. Kicking things off with three tracks from the acclaimed "The Past is Never Past," including the janglepop of Americana UK favourite "Break my Fall," one of Doug's biggest talents is his workmanship with words and his unrelated but significant way of connecting songs making the setlist feel like an event rather than a routine - something thankfully even the perfunctory heckler got the hang of as the evening went on. For fans, the range was wide, with material from "Around the Margins" ("Giving up Smoking" and "Birmingham Jail"), "Rickety Stairs" (the pensive "Slipping Through the Cracks") and even a new song ("Theresa" - currently up on Doug's site for the curious) By the end of the night, Hoekstra's cover of Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go." and his own "The Way the Wind Blows" bought a perhaps premature (time's fault, not his) closure to the set, but that wasn't all bad - it's just another reason to see him again next time round. For the uninitated to date, there's less an excuse to miss him than ever. MW

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