New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based creative whose poems, performances, songs, and stories, have criss-crossed the globe in publications and playlists, stages and setlists, his eight CDs and three books earning Independent Publisher Award, Pushcart Prize, Nashville
Music Award, and Independent
Music Award nominations, as well as a legion of friends and fans. His new album, The Day Deserved (Drop Autumn Records) will be released in April 2021, to be followed by a new short story collection Ten Seconds In-Between (Better than Starbucks press) in June, 2021.
The Day Deserved, is Hoekstra�s first album in over a decade, marking a stellar return to form and then some. Musically, the songs are diverse and deviate far from the typical singer-songwriter fare, with a nod to the likes of Cohen, Velvets, Kinks, and other folks Hoekstra tends to get compared to. All were fully demoed to explore arrangement ideas, but flowed from core band sessions, coalescing into a mix of the tight and the orchestral, reflecting rock, folk, and reggae touches, colors of everything from gypsy fiddle (�Seaside Town� a tale of a disenfranchised artist) to reggae roots melodica (�Carry Me,� an ode to fatherhood and connectedness). Lyrically the tunes are character based, but reflective of the day and the times.
Other highlights include the expansive build of �Higher Ground� (haunting guitars underscoring the viewpoint of an elderly man seeing his homeland disappear), the soul-inspired �Wintertime,� (layers of history, race, and music), the cello-driven �Unseen Undetected� (alternate tales of an immigrant and an intolerant, both heretofore hidden), and the funky noir fight the power groove of �Gandy Dancer� with its playful round robin vocals and honking saxophone � which we are pleased to join forces with the singer-songwriter and premiere the intriguing new visuals that does a great job by using the best of the very minimalistic animation on their advantage.
About the song, Doug comments: �Before my parents passed, I recorded many hours of interviews with them, family questions, about their lives and the times they lived. Recently, I was driving along listening to my Dad from the past coming to the present to tell me about his brother Herbie, who worked for a short time as a gandy dancer, on the railway in Chicago. Apparently, it was a terrible job, very hard, and he quit after a week. I didn�t remember this particular family tale and I wasn�t even sure what a gandy dancer was, so I looked it up. Herbie is not Eddie, the rest of this story is simply a noir tale I made up, but I thank my Dad for giving me the idea from then to now, as if he was just waiting to lay it on me, from the great beyond. This was the last song we worked on for The Day Deserved.
Basically, although we had a solid bass (Paul Slivka) and drums (Chris Benelli) when the pandemic of 2020 hit, it was unfinished at that moment. So, we wrapped up remotely, adding Wurlitzer (me), guitars (Dave Coleman), congas (Chris), and sax (Jimmy Bowland) getting added to the mix and creating a whole new stew. Friend/collaborators
Hannah Fairlight and Preacher Boy flew in extra vocals and we cut/sliced with mine to give the flavor of a round robin storytelling groove, like something you�d hear from the Band or the Staple Singers or
Prince (1999). Hence, this track really has a nice evolution, from my Uncle Herbie to my folk�s recordings to the studio to the �community� created during the pandemic.
Hence, this track really has a nice evolution, from my Uncle Herbie to my folk�s recordings to the studio to the �community� created during the pandemic. The video (by Goodnice Thanks in Nashville) has nice touches of homage to the noir themes, as well as the work of Saul Bass. Enjoy.
