Doug Hoekstra
The Past is Never the Past
CD- Inbetween Records
With gentle eclecticism, Doug Hoekstra’s breezy voice expresses his alternative musical world through the power of graceful lyrics and musical movements that are like waves on a summer lake; moving passively, but possessing power. While maintaining the wonderfully unusual production of his prior works, “The Past is Never the Past” still somehow manages to deliver the completely unexpected and envelop the listener in intoxicating storylines. This is art as pure as the first winter snow. “World Folk” would not begin to describe this CD, but for lack of a better term we’ll leave it there for now.

The words breezy, windy, breathy and whispering have all been used by countless journalist to describe this man’s voice yet none of these terms really captures the essence of what Hoekstra is able to express when he opens his mouth to sing. Sometimes posturing his vocals with deliberate and barely detectable out of tune-ness, he expresses a world not quite right. Unlikely assemblages of instrumental movements, such as the sudden melodic clarinet solos strolling dubiously over rolling acoustic guitars on track nine “Staring out the Window”, bring these “World not right” songs “right on home” to an audience. In other songs, with power and steadfastness, he sings to his storylines.

Hoekstra accesses art completely in his music; in his voice, in his lyrics, in his production. It’s no wonder he has won as many awards as he has for his songwriting. Touring in Europe up to twice a year, this young songwriter and performer has a lot in front of him. As unthinkable as it seems with what he has accomplished already, perhaps he has only just begun his journey.

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