Artist:     Jim Hoke

Album:     The Floating Zone

Label:     Hochanadel Music

Release Date:     7.16.19

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A casual read of the liner notes could lead one to believe that all Jim Hoke had to do to see this project through was dream. That’s because all of the songs, started out either as musical fragments or lyrical scenarios in dreams he has had in the last half a century or so. One undistracted, uninterrupted listen from start to finish, however, should lead you on an exhilarating magical musical trip, with well-crafted and clever words that make sense of what dreams don’t.

But don’t get me wrong, this ain’t no aromatherapy, New Age thing, although the trip he takes you across the Anzo-Borrego desert in “Timelessly” made me curious enough to want to see how surreal it is. So I Googled my way to that beautiful place. Imagine that Brian Wilson, Steely Dan, Burt Bachrach, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, CSN, NRBQ, and probably one or two of your personal favorites from any genre, or time period got together to make a record and none of them phoned it in. In “Doldrums” a welcome-to-my-nightmare tune, Jim gives us no less than Ginger Baker beating the crap out of your spirit in a rat hole rental house he lived in, when first arriving in Music City. That’s what kind of sparks and scenarios you will get in this ten-and-a-half-song set. “Dat Doot” is a coda that wraps it up and leaves you wanting more.

Decades ago, I used to tell my fellow Nashville tunesmiths, if you only have Hoke (who can really play any instrument he sets his mind to ), do finger snaps on your demo, you are going to wind up kicking it up a notch. It was far more than my word that got around. One look at his amazingly varied discography of sessions and live performances, tells that story. But allow me to name a few. Don Henley, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Emmy Lou Harris, Boz Scaggs, Dr. John, Jorma Kaukonen, Mark Knopfler, Dr. John, Billy Joel, Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb.

A few others, I know you know, showed up to help out. John Oates brings his stacked voices to “Zero Gravity” a whopper of a doowopper, that had me snapping fingers with both hands. The spirit of NRBQ, Terry Adams, brings his Clavinet, to “If You Change Your Mind”, a Beatlesque number that could of easily appeared on Revolver. Would you believe, Duane Eddy brings his new six string bass guitar, which is an octave lower than what you heard on “Rebel Rouser” and 40 fathoms of reverb, to the title track and a test for your sub woofer.  Arranging it all, Jim sings and plays a multitude of wind, percussion and string instruments, to weave textures and flourishes of sonic surprises throughout. One as simple as a guitar, harmonica and voice. Also helping out are some very talented voices and players of Jim’s family, wife Lisa Haddad and their son Austin, who grew up into another generation of his father, a total music man.

—Ken Spooner