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Hoekstra began working on his first solo disc When the Tubes Begin to Glow (1994) at various "hipster" Chicago studios from Lincoln Park to Wicker Park. An assortment of players appeared, including all of his old Bucket Number Six chums, Hugh Hart, and whiz producer Brad Wood, .The album was released at the beginning of 1994, after Hoekstra moved to Nashville, and has one foot in Bucket's alt-country beginnings. Songs such as "Bankrupt," and "Mama Was a Pinkerton" became staples of Hoekstra's live set. Other highlights include "The Home-Town Rule" (a countrified diatribe on the price of fame via John Lennon, Frank Lloyd Wright and others) and "The Way the Wind Blows" (a plaintive tribute to folks struggling with AIDS - featuring Hoekstra's whispered vocals and Alison Chesley's beautiful cello work. |
"A genuine find - a low-key, deliberately minimalist
modern folk record that combines the instrumental eccentricity of recent Tom Waits with
the hushed intimacy of early Nick Drake without sounding like either of them, let alone
anybody else you can put your finger on. Original and very impressive." (
Steve Simels, Stereo Review Sound & Vision)
When the Tubes Begin to Glow production credits,
track list, lyrics, and personnel...
| Hoekstra's second CD Rickety Stairs, came out in 1996 and earned him a Nashville Music Award nomination for Best Folk Album of the Year. Recording was split between Chicago (Streeterville) and Nashville (Robb Earl's Sound Vortex, the studio home of Tom Ovans, Dave Olney, Lambchop, and others). Hoekstra went deeper into developing his new artistic voice as he embellished his arrangements with strings, French horn, gospel singers, and other interesting musical touches. Featured tracks include the fragile "Driving to Georgia" (what it is, is what it ain't, I don't think anyone was born that great), "Dandelion Seeds" (a ferocious rocker featuring the Monk-like piano of Jeff Kowalkowski), and "Cottonwood Tree," a ballad of a Native American paratrooper trying to balance duty of work with the ways of his heritage. Inspiration courtesy of the New Mexico landscape paintings of Maynard Dixon and the writings of Tony Hillerman |  |
"In an ideal world Hoekstra would be listened to by folk enthusiasts, middle American mainstreamers, retro-heads, and indie-land purists...fifteen years ago, he'd have been heralded the next Dylan or Springsteen." (Chris Parker, Option)
Rickety Stairs production credits, track list, lyrics and personnel...
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Hoekstra's third CD, Make Me Believe was recorded entirely in Nashville in the fall of 1998 and released in the U.S. in February of the following year. The disc combines songcraft and production savvy, showcasing Hoekstra's tightly-written narratives and challenging blends of folk, pop and soul. The record draws its title from the disc's lead-off cut, "Sam Cooke Sang the Gospel, " which lays the story of the famous soul singer over an infectious acoustic hip-hop groove, weaving narratives of Cooke's life choices through a celebration of the human experience and spirituality of all types of music, labeled "secular" or not. The rest of the disc cuts a cross-section of rock and roll culture, handily balancing the past with the future. There's the Bernard Herrmann-esque post-modern arrangement of "Kirkwood Hotel;" the joyously raucous mersey metal drive of "Every Lover's Breath," (courtesy of Scott Baggett's Electric Sandbox); and the Antonio Jobim-inspired lovers dance of "Celebrate the Trance." |
Make Me Believe also garnered Hoekstra "first-phase" Grammy nominations (Best New Artist, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Male Rock Vocal), acclaim in CD Now’s Top 10 Blues/Folk Albums of 1999, and a European deal with U.K. imprint Round Tower Music, where it made its debut on "the other side of the pond" in April of 2000.
Make Me Believe production credits, track list, lyrics, personnel and the stories behind the songs!.
"With each album, Doug Hoekstra mines a fresh way to present his moody, unpredictable story songs. On Around the Margins, his songwriting remains uniformly powerful, while his arrangements once again introduce new sonic elements to his tunes. This time out he weaves a female voice, electronic effects and natural instruments into a spellbinding setting that, rather than distracting a listener, instead pulls them into the story. Hoekstra makes good use of the attention he receives, spinning a provocative thread of personal tales involving death, family and how relationships change as the years advance." (Michael McCall, Nashville TN) Around the Margins was the first of two Hoekstra discs released in 2001. It includes 14 Hoekstra compositions, along with a cover of Bob Dylan’s "Isis," and finds Hoekstra running the full gamut of his lyrical and musical range, including everything from a gospel rave ("Birmingham Jail") to a plaintive bluesy waltz duet ("Desdemona")’; expansive narrative folk-jazz ("Undone"), loopy synth-pop ("Laminate Man"), and hip-hop inspired samples ("Houses Flying") included among its many surprises. |
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Recording for Around the Margins began when Hoekstra friend and collaborator Dr. Jeff Kowalkowski (Jack the Dog, the recent Famous Door production of Ghetto, and Pauline Oliveras) invited him up to his brand-new Mondale Oakdale studios in Chicago for a series of artist-in-residence marathon recording sessions. Doug and Jeff went to it, experimenting, grabbing whatever instruments were available to lay down the bed, to be joined in the overdub process by a variety of guest contributors covering guitar, vocals, trumpet, sax (Hat Art Records' Guillermo Gregorio), clarinet (Allison Stanley on loan from Silver Measure). The results were wild and marginesque, and upon wrapping sessions, Hoekstra jumped into tracking in Nashville, at George Marinelli's Wing Ding Studio. There, a crack rhythm section of Waldo LaTowsky (drums) and Pat Meusel (bass and guitar), and Hoekstra (rhythm guitar) whipped through seven songs, with frosting included amazing vocal contributions from former Fisk Jubilee Singers Antonio Meeks and Nirva Dorsaint and the fretted handiwork of Mr. Marinelli, (Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, and his own Air Parma) who added a plethora of instruments and production savvy. The fine cover art you see here was created by Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick, purveyor of Big Cat Press and jacket man to the likes of Steve Earle, the Neville Brothers, and others. Joe Croker formed the design. Upon its release, Around the Margins immediately garnered loads of critical praise and radio play across the U.S. and Europe, ignited three European tours (England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium among the itinerary), was a finalist in the Independent Music Awards for Best Singer-Songwriter Album of 2001, and along with it's "second-half" follow-up, The Past is Never Past, made several Best of 2001 lists in the U.S. and U.K.
"Around The Margins, stays true to its title…it stretches the imagination through arrangements that race from fragile and genteel to barely controlled chaos…it is in every way a magical and commanding listening experience, a telling of well-crafted stories that makes equal use of the freedom of imagination and the more earthbound tenets of a well-schooled intellect." (Ed Bumgardner, W- Salem-Journal)Around the Margins production credits, track list, lyrics, personnel
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"The Past is Never Past is a collection of songs that, like memory and
experience, could not lay fallow. Some are selections that didn’t quite fit
stylistically on Around the Margins. Others were cut as
songwriting demos; and still others were released on special compilations, magazines, and
websites. As I compiled them for my own archives, I saw an alternate look into aspects of
my journey of the past year take shape. Jos Starmans at Inbetweens Records suggested
we prepare a special limited edition release of this work, with a couple of new pieces
added for good measure. So, much like memory and experience, this collection took on a
life of its own, and the songs now belong to the present and future, proving that the past
is indeed, never past." (Doug Hoekstra, Nashville TN, September 2001)
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" ***1/2 (out of 4) - Ever versatile, his arrangement skills present traditional Twang in a new way...colleagues have drawn comparisons from Beck to Leonard Cohen. My proposal: Forget comparisons, listen to this record." ( Joerg Feyer, German Rolling Stone)
The Past is Never Past production credits, track list, lyrics, personnel
doug hoekstra discography
albums
The Past is Never Past (Inbetweens, IRCD 011, Europe
only, October 2001)
Around the Margins (Inbetweens, IRCD 008, US and
Europe, March 2001 www.uah.de/inbetweens)
Make Me Believe (Round Tower RTMCD98, UK, May
2000, www.roundtower.com )
Make Me Believe (One Man Clapping OMC 0018,
February 1999, www.theorchard.com )
Rickety Stairs (Back Porch BP3030, 1996)
When the Tubes Begin to Glow (Back Porch BP2828,
1994, www.theorchard.com )
compilations/rarities
Written on the Hood of an Old Car - Bob Velvin (lead
vocals on two tracks, July 2002)
Acuarela Songs ("Watercolor
Rose," Acuarela Discs, Spain, November 2001 )
Doug Hoekstra Combo Live at Sal's Music
Emporium (Hinah
002, France, May 2001)
Comes With a Smile ("If the World Was Blind",
previously unreleased, Issue 7, UK, March 2001)
Pop Culture Press ("Broken Tower," from Around
the Margins,- USA, March 2001)
Songwriters Cafe Volume 1 ("The Way the Wind
Blows," Yew Tree, UK, October 2000 )
Millennium Project – Riffage.Com
("Desdemona," alt. version, April 20000 )
Best of Riffage.Com ("Sam Cooke Sang the
Gospel," from Make Me Believe, November 1999)
Best Unsigned Acoustic Acts ("Choices," from Make
Me Believe, Folk Alliance compilation, 1998)
Warren County Plug ("Atticus," WWHR 91.7 -
KY, 1997)
Songwriter: a contemporary collection ("Cottonwood
Tree"/"Slipping Through the Cracks", XIII Bis, France, 1996 )
Outstandingly Ignited ("Indiana," Duplex
Planet compilation, 1996)
