Hoekstra's music parallels the subject matter of his masters thesis -- the study of the intrusion of pop culture into mainstream academia, with a focus on rock singers and detective novels. His songs are filled with mystery men flickering through life like shadowy refugees on a journey to nowhere.

Hoekstra describes his stuff as "a bit Americana, a bit avant-garde", adding, "I tend to get comparisons to folks like Dylan, Beck, Leonard Cohen, Ray Davies."

But before he embraced his folkier side, the singer was more tuned into the country side of life. Growing up, Hoekstra's first love was country music. Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash inspired him to start an alt-country band called Bucket Number Six. The band played covers of Cash and company interspersed with originals, two of which ("Only the Ball Was White" and "Andy Pafko's Shoestring Catch") ended up in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The band also got to record at Memphis' famed Sun Studio before breaking up in the early '90s.

Hoekstra moved to Nashville, and put out a solo album, Rickety Stairs, nominated for a best Folk Album of the Year Nashville Music Award in '96. Shifting gears for '98's Make Me Believe, the singer-songwriter introduced pop, hip-hop and gospel to the mix. He even dabbled in soul, with "Sam Cooke Sang The Gospel." The disc also was nominated for a Grammy in three areas, Best Contemporary Folk Album, Best Male Rock Vocal and Best New Artist.

In 2001, Hoekstra put out a pair of albums. Around the Margins shows Hoekstra's' vision come full circle, incorporating rock, folk, soul, gospel, country and folk. But once again, the songwriter doesn't do anything in a conventional manner. "Birmingham Jail" is a protest song. But instead of going the traditional stool-and-solo-guitar route, with his whispery, sing-song delivery and a hoo-doo gospel choir that sounds like they'd be at home on a Dr. John record backing him, Hoekstra turns the song into an other-worldly tone poem on the ultimate penalty for civil disobedience.

The companion release, The Past Is Never Past, was composed of tunes that the artist felt wouldn't fit stylistically on the Margins release. Hoekstra has said that he "needed the space," apparently to make room for all the songs jostling around in his head looking for an escape route.

Hoekstra's not just a singer-songwriter. He recently found time to polish his academic chops, earning a BA in English from DePaul University, as well as a M.Ed in English from Belmont University. He's working on a book, and has just finished his third European tour.

As a growing number of fans can attest, Doug Hoekstra's training as a man of letters serves him well in his other career, making him the rarest of musical oddities -- a literate rock star.

Doug Hoekstra

Friday, July 12

The Garage