Drawing influence from the golden age of rock and roll, including bands like The Kinks and The Animals, Duane Hoover is a new discovery for us through his album, Wayward Path.

By Graeme Smith

To make us certain of where his heart lies, Hoover opens his new album with a cover. Sorrow was recorded by the McCoys, The Merseybeats, and David Bowie, and now Hoover honours its original spirit while reviving it for 2025.

“A lot of energy is packed into an under 2-minute song recorded to 2-inch tape, and you can hear it,” he explains. “I chose it I think because I liked the words and melody originally by the Merseybeats from Liverpool. I came to know it by The Beatles song It’s All Too Much on the outro ending of the song vamp as it fades into George singing ‘with your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue’. I liked that so I found the original and wanted to put a charge into my version which I did. It has wild drum rolls ala Keith Moon. I played some big windmill power chord hits in the lead section. The guitar part is right out of the Pete Townsend handbook. I’m on backing vocals and harmonies as well.”

Hoover’s own compositions stay in the spirit and sound of the ’60s and ’70s, unashamedly so. His gritty and charismatic vocals suit the style, so it certainly works for him. The simple poetry of his lyrics prove compelling too. Some sentiments are timeless, and Hoover zeroes in on them in the likes of It’s a Different World and the earnest Dreaming My Dreams. Love, too, has no expiration date, and we get the light and dark of it in tracks like Wishing Well and Over The Years.

Though his sound is throwback, it’s not simply a nostalgia trip. Hoover finds new mileage in a scene that many have left in the past. Perhaps it’s time to revisit it, and reinvent it as Hoover does. There’s a rawness to it that feels refreshing in an overproduced modern landscape.

Wayward Path is out now and you can give it a listen below.