It is hard to believe that a farmer coming from Middle West states, can have a so wide a knowledge of black music. He skillfully mixes and develops his own blues style, full of rock and roll, country, swing and pop influences. The final result is an interesting cd, well done, with some drops of sensuality but, over all, built up with sober skill and personality. If you have some money to spend, do hot hesitate and buy it.
La Hora Del Blues
Barcelona, Spain
Erick Hovey is a native Midwesterner who has taken advantage of his central roots to draw from a variety of musical styles on his second release, Prairie Dance Music. Prairie Dance Music is an excellent follow-up to his critically acclaimed CD What You blue About?, offering blues fans a recording of excellent music and hookish lyrics. Juniors Motel Records - JMR 0028-2). With the assistance of twelve different musicians on bass, drums, keyboards, harmonica and backing vocals; Hovey sings and plays guitar on twelve original tunes. Hovey's lyrics are very original, addressing topics not normally found in blues songs. Things like cars filled with body putty to hold them together and food choices for a hungry man are among the more unique areas covered in some of Hovey's tunes. The songs cover a range of styles including roots rock and swing, along with Texas and Chicago-style blues. Juniors Motel Records - JMR 0028-2) "Blues and Love" opens the CD with some nice Texas style blues reminiscent of the style of Mike Morgan and Anson Funderburgh. One of my favorite songs on the CD is "Down the River of Love." The song includes an infectious recurring bass line by Dan Lodden and excellent harp by Mike Glass. On a CD where eleven of the twelve songs are less than four minutes long, "Down the River of Love" is comparably long at nearly five minutes. It is none-the-less an excellent tune. Another enjoyable song is "Devil in My Pocket," more of a straight ahead blues song describing the devil and angel-like aspects of women. Juniors Motel Records - JMR 0028-2). Erick Hovey is a hidden blues gem in the farmland of the Midwest. On his second CD, Prairie Dance Music, Hovey takes another step towards becoming a more familiar name in the blues community outside of the Midwest. Anyone interested in learning more about Erick Hovey, or wishing to purchase either of his fine CDs, should check out his website at http://www.erickhovey.com/.
Review: By Dave "Doc" Piltz DELTA SNAKE DAILY BLUES
"Great release!!
Intense feeling & groove. Kicking off the album with ' Blues and Love' (one of my all time favorite blues songs - period) connects you with a groove that Hovey has obviously been refining for some time."
Jeff Thornton
KZNM fm
"A CD of cool rocking blues by a songwriter from the Midwest...Lovers of rhythmic blues, this one is for you."
Le Cri du Coyote
France
Hi Erick,
Thank you for sending your fabulous Blues Album "Prairie Dance Music" to Lochbroom FM. I have had the pleasure of listening to it several times and its just simply brilliant, so much so, that on my radio show last night called "Kaleidoscope" where I play everything from Pop, Country, Blues, Jazz, Soul, etc - "Elvis to Jon Bon Jovi" really. I reviewed your album last night on my show. I played 6 tracks from your album and the listeners' just loved it. I will now pass the album over to our Jazz & Blues Presenter for him to review on his show "Maelstrom" on Friday nights, then it will go into our new albums box in our main studio for general play. My professional opinion is that your album will receive lots of airplay from all different Presenters'.
If you have any more Albums, please send them to us and I can assure you of feedback and lots of airplay and once again Erick thank you for sending us such a excellent album.
On a more personal note, I love your album and will be playing the tracks next Saturday that I did not play this Saturday and after that it will be a regularly feature in my show.
With best wishes for your future career from everybody at Lochbroom FM.
Sheena Guy
Director/Head of Music/Presenter
Lochbroom FM, Ross-Shire, Scotland
 My name is Kenn Hinton and I am the blues programer at WTCC in
Springfield, Mass. Last Thursday I received a copy of Eric Hovey's latest
cd-"Prarie Dance Music". After being thrown back a bit by the
title(thought it was a bluegrass cd) I scanned through it quickly and
took a liking to it right away. My congrats to the studio for producing a
fine sound. Very room sounding and not over produced. Being a guitar
player my self I found Eric's playing refreshing in that he used a number
of different sounds and textures. So much of the new music I hear sounds
the same that this was a welcome change. This cd will be in regular
rotation on my show. I would be very interested in any other blues and
roots artist you have and anything from the same recording studio(the
name escapes me and the cd is at the station). Again, great job and hope
to hear from you soon.
Kenn Hinton WTCC -90.7 fm
MY GOODNESS!! WHAT A CD. IT IS JUST GREAT.........THANK YOU, AND LISTEN ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT, I WILL BE PLAYING IT........LISTEN AT wglt.org click on listen.
8 to 1 Friday and Saturday nights
Delta Frank
Keeping The Blues Alive in Central Illinois
Web Site: Bluesblowtorch.com
Erick, I got your Prairie Dance Music CD. I had Down the River of Love on the air less than 15 minutes later. I really like the CD. I listened to all but the last 3 cuts on the way home. Very tasty. Nice groove. You sound like a group I could dance all night to. If you have more material I'd love to hear it. I've been doing my show for just over a year now and I'm especially interested in regional groups that Alaska has never heard of. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks again for the CD. It'll be getting some regular attention on my show. David "the Greybeard" Crewdson. canddcrewdson@msn.com.
Hi Erick!
Hope that everything's fine at the moment.
I am still playing some of my favorite tracks from your CD and fans here seem to like it a lot.
Let me know more about your recent activities.
Regards.
Vasja Ivanovski
Classic FM Skopje, Macedonia
Dear Erick,
Thanks for the new album which is very much to my taste - in fact, I'm
playing Fool Like Me on my blues show starting in just under an hour's
time. Keep 'em coming!
Best wishes,
Henry Ayrton BBC North HULL, England |
PRAIRIE DANCE MUSIC
All songs by Erick Hovey BMI © 2001
Recorded at Junior’s Motel, Otho, IA
Vocals - Erick Hovey
- Ky Haub, track 11
Guitars - Erick Hovey
Bass - Scott Cochran, tracks 1,4,6
- Kirk Kaufman, tracks 2,7,8
- Dan Lodden, tracks 3,5
- Larry Robertson, track 10
- Brad Heck, track 11
- Terry Allen, track 9
Drums - Jeff Foreman
- Ky Haub, tracks 4,9,12
Keys - Larry Robertson
- Doug Hines, tracks 1,3,9,11
Harmonica - Mike Glass
Backing Vocalists - Ky Haub, Doug Hines, Kirk Kaufman, Bill Matykowski, Larry Meyer, Al Stroufe |
