Doug Hoekstra - The Past is Never Past (Inbetweens) - by Chris Parker

Hoekstra's odds and sods, this album hangs together so well that it's as vital as his regular releases -- which themselves place him among the best unheralded songwriters. Hoekstra's voice is as aerodynamic as a Formula One racer, skating lightly over languid strums, and hugging the corners of his lilting inflections. The broad stylistic palette of his early albums is beginning to coalesce into a Hoekstra sound, which starts in the folk tradition, but also imbibes a little lazy country stroll and the warm melodic overtones of 80s Southern pop. What hasn't changed is the depth and breadth of his writing, highlighted by the Boss-like redemption epic of the titrle track, the rambling folk-blues love paen, "Break My Fall," and the loping country-tinged melancholy of "500 Miles Away". (P.O. Box 41141, SF, CA 94141-1141; www.uah.de/inbetweens)

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