Search - Doug Hoekstra :: Rickety Stairs

Doug Hoekstra?s second album, RICKETY STAIRS, was released in 1996 and earned him a NASHVILLE MUSIC AWARD nomination for Best Folk Album of the Year. The record was cut in Chicago and Nashville and the finished product represented a creative leap forward for Hoekstra, as he embellished his lyrical narratives and heretofore skeletal arrangements with strings, French horns, gospel singers, and other inventive musical touches. Highlights include the moody intro of "Driving to Georgia" ("what it is, is what it ain't, I don't think anyone was born that great," the song goes), "Dandelion Seeds" a ferocious rocker featuring the Monk-like piano of Jeff Kowalkowski, the Band-inspired "Slipping through the Cracks," and "Cottonwood Tree," a ballad of a Native American paratrooper trying to balance duty of work with the ways of his heritage. This tune was inspired by the New Mexico landscape paintings of Maynard Dixon and the writings of Tony Hillerman