NEWS 4 U (Evansville, IN) (August 2001)

Folk Implosion: DOUG HOEKSTRA Makes You Believe by Jay Ditzer

There’s a trace of Robyn Hitchcock’s nasal drollness in Doug Hoekstra’s vocal delivery; there’s plenty of Dylanesque density in his lyrics (and he even covers Mr. Zimmerman’s "Isis" on his latest release Around the Margins; there’s a rootless yet distinctly American feel to Hoekstra’s musical backdrops. Sometimes it’s real easy to say "Sounds like this" or "Brings to mind that" when describing a performing artist’s work. Sometimes it’s hard. Like now.

Doug Hoekstra’s album Around the Margins is a challenging, complex work that manages to be accessible at the same time. A singer/songwriter at heart, Hoekstra spins tales of wedded bliss, broken lives, quitting smoking, and record industry weasels. Musically, the album contains plenty of acoustic guitar and Hoekstra’s dry vocals, but it also features oboe, drum loops, jazz sax, female vocals and spoken word passages.

A native of Chicago, more or less, Hoekstra was a member of the indie outfit Bucket Number Six, a band that played "country with an edge." After he kicked the Bucket, Hoekstra began his solo career and relocated to Nashville with his wife Molly. He tours whenever possible, although for "Around the Margins," he can’t afford to bring the chamber quartets and gospel choirs, so an acoustic guitar has to suffice. News 4U spoke with Hoekstra late one afternoon.

N4U: The new record is very dense, almost like a novel in spots.

That’s true. A lot of people have said that to me. It’s a long record, like 65 minutes.

I don’t care who you compare me with as long as it’s not Loverboy or something (laughs). My approach to record making is to make the entity just as important as the individual songs. So to me it does work like a novel and like little short stories from song to song.

Or, God help us, a concept album?

(Laughs) I don’t go into that preconceived notion, but after all the songs are cut, you kinda lay ‘em out and see what you’ve got and there do seem, invariably, to be connections in ways that the songs fit together into this piece. I’m glad it does that because all the records that I like do that if not in a tangible way, an intangible way.

Sonically, how can you pull everything off live?

Listening to he album versus seeing me play live are different experiences, but the songs are so song-based…they’re narratives, in a way the songs are very rooted, although the arrangements go all over the place and so if I have a setting where it’s solo or stripped down, it’s like peeling it back again. I begin the writing process with acoustic guitar and build the arrangement from there. Most of the songs transfer pretty well. Certain songs are gonna click better than others. I always find the best material works in just about any setting. Quite honestly, it’s overhead. If I could afford it, I’d travel with a six or seven piece band everywhere. Being realistic, you have to look at the bottom line.

I heard about them from a friend of mine named Leonardo. He’s a fine folksinger from the Chicago area. I think he played there earlier this summer. Lots of things work like that; writers, musicians, other artists you know will say, "Hey, check this place out." That’s how I wound up there.

I grew up in Naperville, a western ‘burb.

Why leave Chicago? Although, I’ve heard the Chicago music scene is a nest of vipers…

I always felt that (Bucket Number Six) got our best success when we toured around the Midwest. Even though we played very fairly regularly in Chicago. I didn’t find it to be a very healthy environment. I felt it was very compartmentalized in a negative way. It’s also a very band-oriented town as opposed to a songwriter’s town. There were a lot of cost of living and weather factors as well, but Nashville is a songwriter’s town. Also, a lot of musicians come here and there’s a lot of cross-pollination. Maybe they make their living playing on Garth records but they’re willing and able to branch out into different projects. I think it’s because everybody here comes from someplace else and they’ve done their bit in their bands from NY or Chicago or LA and they come where with an open attitude, like "I’m gonna try some new stuff." I’ve heard a lot of people say that Nashville is cutthroat, but to me, it’s much more of a friendly environment than Chicago was. Maybe the hardcore Music Row wheelers and dealers are cutthroat, but I don’t really deal with them. Ultimately, it’s a good place to be solo. Good place to tour out of geographically, too.

The challenge was doing it (laughs). It was tough. I love that tune, but I wanted to do something that not a lot of people had covered and something that would be a challenge.

Definitely.

The Beatles. I was influenced a lot by reggae, which doesn’t come out a lot in my music, early guys like Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe. R&B was always a big influence, especially Stax and the Memphis stuff. In terms of songwriters, Dylan, Tom Waits, Van Morrison. I was always drawn to people who were able to created bodies of work and have this sense of them continually growing and yet remaining connected from record to record, and have an audience that would kind of hang with that. I think that’s the best of what people like Van and Waits and Dylan have to offer. Even with their lesser records you can still find something of interest because of the thread.

Isn’t that a good question? (laughs) I think it’s easier now, because technology has empowered people to take the reigns and make records, but it’s even more difficult to cut through the mass of media, not just records. I think that’s difficult. It’s just a process where you have to hunker down and grind it out and keep producing and going out and playing and broadening the scope. It’s difficult for indie artists. I tour as much as I can, but again, I have to keep it economically feasible. I’ve been doing more overseas, which has been good and is broadening things up.

Answering the question more directly,. I just look at it on an album-by-album basis. I try to make better records and do a better job of promoting it and getting it to people. Usually in that process, things happen to you and come down the pike and that sustains it and moves it forward. It’s weird, because it’s an intangible thing. Each record I’ve done has done better, but then, what is "better"? Yeah, I’m reaching more people, but am I making as much money as I’d like to make? No. then if you go further along, how you gauge your act keeps changing and the bar keeps getting raised.

WHO: Doug Hoekstra

WHERE: Penny Lane Coffee House

WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m.

MORE INFO: www.doughoekstra.com

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