image above courtesy of wil-ru.com

Finding a folk album that doesn’t indulge in horses or open fields is a feat. But, finding one that touches poignancy and sends you to a reflective place with every listen is also rare. While half heartedly browsing Bandcamp during a dull day at work, Davis Hooker’s Phoning It In caught my attention and has subsequently become a guide for my nocturnal commutes.

Phoning It In was originally recorded in Belfast, Ireland but was recorded again via telephone for the show of the same name on KDVS 90.3 FM. It was recorded on tape and is now offered on a limited edition batch of remastered tape reissues by Portland based Wil-Ru Records. The lo-fi quality definitely adds charm and intimacy with hisses and crackles of earnest warmth, but Hooker’s fingerpicking and poetic lyrics are equally enchanting; they convey depth with simplicity that is grand and sincere.

Phoning It In, Davis Hooker cover artwork

On the opening song titled “I Don’t Know”, Hooker sings of uncertainty with a bittersweet sense of acceptance and maturity that introduces the autobiographical. “Autobiography” ultimately defines the progression of Hooker’s songs on Phoning It In as themes of memory, childhood, love, growth and loneliness appear and resurface.

On first listen, the song that may leave one awestruck is “Rome”. It begins with an enthusiastic, melancholy chime of chords that settle into soft strumming and rise again in the chorus where Hooker sings: “always bow to Rome/ when in Rome…”. His thoughtful lyrics are expressed in the title’s wordplay, which suggest the word “roam”. Hooker has the ability to dip into sad melodies that fluidly shift to a feeling of resolve.

Comparisons to Bill Callahan can be made when Hooker begins a picking pattern coupled with a serious, baritone voice on “Monsoon”. But, the falsetto in the chorus changes the expectation of solemnity and instills a heightened, soaring vulnerability similar to the sense of resolve on “Rome”.

The fingerpicking that waltzes on “Suffer Boys” where he sings: “Where are those days where we frolic and play?/ We talk about everything/ and then talk some more…”, recalls Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” as well as the nostalgia and innocence in the opening song. The resigned but inviting lines of the chorus: “oh suffer, suffer, come suffer boys…” have a sensitivity that is subtle enough to trick Will Oldham into a tear, maybe two.

Regardless of the similarities, Hooker’s charm isn’t restricted to the likes of talented, jaded men such as Callahan, Cohen and Oldham. The tape ends with “I Don’t Know – Reprise”, which indeed follows the same tune as the opening song, but has been transformed into an astute distillation of vocals without accompanying music. The effect of this is striking as the autobiographical sense of growth and change extends to the listener as well. It gives one the feeling of reading a poem, then reading it again and coming to a different realization. Not only is Hooker’s songwriting clever, it is also intimate and immensely poetic, as he continues to accept uncertainty as he sings hymn-like to himself in the reprise:

“… Let my teeth fall out/ Let my back break down/ Let me always be alone/ Ghost that I am/ With my head in my hands/ Let me never find a home./ Why must I always/ go my own way/ I don’t know/ I shouldn’t have today.”

Phoning It In is consistently dark but comforting, with just enough variation in mood to maintain its intensity. These are the kinds of songs one seeks when in a sleepless, depressed rut at 3 a.m.; Hooker has all the right qualities to make lullabies out of existentialism, sadness and uncertainty.


Hooker has previously worked under the moniker A John Henry Memorial, played upright bass in The Watery Graves of Portland and contributed to Worms and Rob Walmart. His forthcoming joint release LP Davis Hooker II with Marriage Records and Wil-Ru Records will be out in May.