Doug Hoekstra
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The Image That Made Me Weep
published: 9 /
9 /
2020
Nashville-based musician and writer Doug Hoekstra in 'The Image That Made Me Weep' writes of the redisoovery of a reel to reel tape recorder on which he made much of his early music in his late father's house
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This is one of my dad’s reel to reels, discovered while cleaning out the family home after my parent’s passing. He had several, actually, and they changed my life. My musical path was not uncommon, from piano lessons to rock and roll to guitar to bands to gigs, and around the world in more than eighty days. But, for some reason it was the songwriting that always interested me the most, the desire to come up with work that invoked the narratives embodied in a well-placed instrument, melody line, turn of phrase, or diminished chord, creating a thread that would run strong and somehow connect, to self, and others, while following the oeuvre of the artists who embrace the long view, headphones on everyone, connections in a disconnected world.
Through the reel to reel, I learned to overdub, old school, layering, trying to figure out how things fit together, went forward, and then rewound, in the pocket, because when you are young, time stretches and bends and sometimes lasts forever, just like a good record, and I mean, 78, 45 or digital download, because it’s all the same, the record being outside of time and of time, together, performer and audience, spinning, turning, adding layers of meaning with every pass, like a day well lived, deep feeling, those I’ve loved or will love, close to me and far away, present and in motion, stopping to listen and then playing along until something comes out of nothing. One more time.
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