Artist description see press review

Music Style New Age improv

Artist History see press review

Group Members see press review

Instruments guitar, pedal steel, bass, mandolin, violin, sitar, hurdy-gurdy

Albums Live at The Acoustic Cafe Vol. 1

Press Reviews Steve Hoke's music is a nightmare to describe. His tastes are all over the map. He defies category. And he does it on instruments he created. Hoke, however, is not a nightmare to listen to. Every Sunday morning, his soft musical explorations form the backdrop to steaming mugs of coffee and lively conversations at Acoustic Coffee Lounge. (Acoustic Coffee Lounge closed October 2002, Steve now performs at Club 32Blue every Sunday morning, 11 am to 2 pm) Hoke calls his music "earth fusion". Acoustic Coffee Lounge owner Jason Spears calls it "mellow world jazz." But really, you have to hear it. It's impressive enough when Hoke is playing the Indian sitar, a hurdy-gurdy he made, or beating out percussion on a Gatorade bottle, but then he pulls out "the Trimeister. "The Trimeister is a guitar, mandolin and fiddle he built into one body. Hoke carved it out of poplar, rosewood and maple, bolting the necks onto the instrument and stringing it himself. "I have to be careful not to put my eye out with that thing," Hoke says of the instrument. "I'm still tweaking this thing up. It's more than two years in the making." But the mad scientist doesn't stop there; he's also gotten into looping. Hoke can feed up to 32 seconds of (his) music into his looping machine, then replicate it endlessly. So he switches instruments as he goes, making loops and then harmonizing with himself as he builds layer after layer of music. Though the Sunday morning surroundings are lazy and slow, his study of sound is rigorous. "It's just a big experiment," says Hoke, 45. "I've got enough stuff up here that I can surprise myself or get myself in trouble. So much of what I do is just improv. Born in North Carolina, Hoke took up the trumpet as a kid but switched to electric guitar as a teen. He loved the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Hoke made it into the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, but at that jazz-loving institution he became infatuated with country-rock. He and his Loco Pony band buddies landed in Colorado Springs in 1978 and made a living playing five nights a week until he left town in 1981. "Every once in a while, I'll meet somebody who used to come out and see Loco Pony," says Hoke. The musician has spent the last two decades in Virginia, learning new instruments, making new instruments and getting deeper into bluegrass-rock jams. But when Hoke returned returned to Colorado Springs last year, this spacey solo jazz is what started coming out. He makes a living by playing gigs and giving lessons on guitar, mandolin, bass and violin. It is futile to attempt to pigeonhole Steve. He is seeking new musical ideas as fervently as a Buddhist seeks enlightenment, and his curiosity bubbles over into whatever genre, technology or invention is necessary. article by Bill Reed, Colorado Springs Gazette

Location Colorado Springs, Colorado - USA

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