Doug Hoekstra
“Waiting”
(Paste Records)
Ensconced in his home “waiting” the birth of his child, Doug Hoekstra turned to home recording and basically alone, with some help from George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, James Taylor), recorded this album. The music has the intimacy and revealing nature of a singer-songwriter album done alone, with no prying eyes and in the comforts of home. This intimacy of form is the ideal conduit for these songs ripe with emotion. For, while distance lends enchantment, proximity emphasizes warmth and communication.
Thus we are introduced to the personality of the artist as he muses upon a list child in Sao Paolo, Brazil (“Theresa”) and offers such sublime simile as “Like single drops of rain each with a single sound” from the song “Crawling out from Under”. Such great lines as this seasons Hoesktra’s songs. Lines like that, fusing the group with the individual are like Captain Beefheart’s “ice cream for crow”, it’s black and white at the same time. Subtly arranged of understated melodies, the sparse music backing brings the lyrics into sharp relief on this exquisite album.
