Scene Scribe

Cityview, Des Moines, IA

By Michael Swanger

Iowa farmer-musician cultivates music, career his own way

Erick Hovey has the kind of freedom some people might envy. By day, he drives a tractor, working the tranquil 400-plus acres he inherited from his father on a farm in Fort Dodge. By night, he picks an electric guitar in local taverns and pubs, playing a mix of music that pleases him, yet doesn’t fit neatly into one musical category.

He is living life on his own terms.

But freedom comes with a heavy price. The 50-year-old Hovey isn’t getting rich working as a farmer and a musician, and lest some overseas airplay, he toils in relative obscurity from the media at home. Both vocations, you might say, have taught him a lot about the blues, which inform his rocking, roots sound that also encompasses pop, reggae and country.

“There are a lot of ups and downs in farming and the blues,” Hovey said. “Every day’s a gamble.”

Hovey’s Midwestern sound, however, has become a sure bet with disc jockeys in places as far away as France, the Netherlands, South America and Canada, where his two new independent albums that he released in June are enjoying airplay. “Blues Farm” includes 12 original blues-based songs like “Ball and Chain,” “I’m Through” and “Goin’ Down,” and has landed on the charts of Real Blues magazine. Its counterpart, “Recycled Souls,” includes 14 original blues-rock, reggae-tinged and pop songs like “When Will I See You Again,” “Ain’t Done With You” and “Ask the Stars” that revolve around a central theme of reincarnation.

“It’s funny, I haven’t received much press, but the blues DJs overseas are playing both albums. I guess they’re looking for stuff they haven’t heard before. Here [in the United States] you’re lucky to hear from anyone in radio,” Hovey said.
The northern Iowa native, who began playing guitar at age 10 and performing concerts at age 14, said he is pleasantly surprised that blues DJs have embraced both albums since “Recycled Souls” wasn’t intended to be a blues album. He decided to release both records at the same time following three years of stockpiling new material at his bass player’s home recording studio in Humboldt.
“I had such a backlog of material that I wanted to release them both so I wouldn’t forget them,” Hovey said, adding that he has a dozen more he wants to record. “We spent a lot of Sunday afternoons and winter nights working on them,” adding, “I’m not the only farmer in the band.”
The backlog of material is the result of Hovey’s ability to document ideas for songs when they strike. He often carries a portable recorder with him while working in the field, or jots ideas down on a piece of paper.
“I write songs just about anytime except when I sit down and try to do it,” he said. “That’s why I like to carry my recorder with me so I can hum a few bars or sing some lyrics. The goal is to document it and put your hands on it later and use it.”
That kind of hands-on approach defines Hovey’s farming and musical methodology. Whether he is engaging in wetland restoration on his farm and applying sustainable farming techniques he learned previously from working as an organic farmer, or writing, recording and performing real, honest music with the Erick Hovey Band or sitting in with other original Iowa acts like H&K (Kirk Hoffman and Heather Kelly) and FRB (Freedom Rock Band), there is a natural order to things for Hovey.
“I just want to put my own music out there and see what happens,” he said. “You can never predict what people will like. A lot of my stuff is cryptic and can be taken in different ways. If it provokes any thought at all, that would be good.” CV  8-20-09