If you've spent any amount of time pursuing the Inlander's concert listings over the years, there's one name that remains ever-present: Just Plain Darin.
Most weeks we've got listings for at least four Just Plain Darin shows around town. It's not an exaggeration to say that the 56-year-old, local singer-songwriter and one-man cover band plays over 200 concerts per year. And while that's a flabbergasting total for most individuals, it's just part of the job for Darin Hilderbrand.
When I enter the South Hill Grill on a recent Sunday evening, Hilderbrand is already plying his trade. He's stationed in a little nook to the side of the bar, almost out of sight, but his sound keeps him from being out of mind. From the other corner of the restaurant you could probably mistake his music for the joint playing an interesting acoustic covers radio station.
Hilderbrand is festooned in the manner of a low-maintenance rock guy, sporting a casual look with a fedora and vest highlighting his ensemble. While certainly he doesn't have the restaurant's rapt attention, it's clear he's having a great time as he and his beloved Larrivee LV-10 acoustic guitar maneuver through covers of familiar tunes like Santana's "Smooth" with the aid of some looping pedals, which can triple up his guitar work for more shredding solos and double his vocals to allow for harmonies.
Most Thursday nights, Just Plain Darin can be found playing at QQ Sushi & Kitchen in north Spokane, most Fridays downtown at The Ridler Piano Bar, most Sundays at South Hill Grill, and then usually at least one other gig, often on Saturdays. It's a rather breakneck pace, but playing that many shows — along with providing guitar lessons and teaching some music classes at East Valley School District — allows him to be a full-time professional musician without really touring much or needing to be in the cycle of putting out his own original music. And music remains his passion.
"I truly believe that music is what I was created to do," Hilderbrand says. "I think it's my purpose. And when I do it, it's just confirmation. Because it fills me up."
It's not exactly the rock star dream to be playing restaurants as sort of the background sonic ambiance — sometimes with low turnouts or a general lack of attention from those in attendance — but that's something Hilderbrand has learned to spin into a positive over the years.
"I deal with that quite frequently. And it used to frustrate me," he says. "And I was talking with a musician friend of mine about that whole dynamic. And he was just like, 'Dude, count your blessings. You're getting paid to play music? Treat it as a paid rehearsal.'"
When in that sort of live rehearsal mode, Hilderbrand is free to explore his creativity. Although he hasn't put out a new Just Plain Darin album since 2014's My Heritage, he still mixes originals into his sets.
Just Plain Darin originals fall into the category of heartfelt blues-y rock singer-songwriter tunes that go down very easy. He often finds it most beneficial to work out new songs live, almost like how a stand-up comedian has to work out their jokes on stage to perfect them. It's one of many ways to keep live performance at the same venues over and over from growing stale.
"It's a little bit more pressure, because you have to keep it fresh," Hilderbrand says. "So I make a point to learn new songs frequently, so I'm not always playing the same songs."
Aiding him in that freshness quest is his trusty iPad on a stand loaded with the OnSong app, which catalogs one's chords and lyrics charts. With over 1,000 songs available with a few taps on the screen, calling Just Plain Darin's repertoire robust would be an extreme understatement. He tries his best to judge the vibe on a given night and cater to the audience — maybe classic rock if the crowd's older (Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd rank among his personal favorites to play) or more country if he's playing out in the boonies — though admittedly he miscalculates reading the room at times.
There's also a certain daring to the process — Just Plain Darin is sometimes willing to do requests of songs he's never played before.
"Friday nights I do the Piano Bar. And it's pretty much all requests. And so there's a lot of times where they'll request songs that I've never played. But if I've heard it enough times, and if I can find the chord chart online, I can fake it," Hilderbrand says with a laugh. "It's pretty vulnerable, but I've discovered that they actually connect with you when you try and fail miserably because they hoop and holler and they love it."
Like many a guitarist of his generation, Hilderbrand has a certain metal wizard to blame for sparking his musical desire. His revelation came one night in 1981 at the old Spokane Coliseum.
"I went to a concert in the old Boone Street Barn when I was like 14. It was a Van Halen concert," he says. "I'd never played an instrument before, besides the recorder, but it just hit me. That's what I want to do. And I came home from that concert with determination. I told my mom when I got home, 'I need a guitar.'... So it's Eddie's fault."
Born in Moscow, Idaho, and residing mostly in Spokane since he was a toddler, Hilderbrand's musical journey wasn't always a straight line. As an insecure young lad, he kept practicing his instrument but wasn't in any bands during high school and essentially kept his skills private, not playing in front of people for about 10 years until one of his buddies hired him to play music at a hotel cocktail gathering. He served three years in the Army before using the GI Bill to study jazz and the business of music at Spokane Falls Community College. It was while in school that he finally started playing in bands — mostly jazz fusion and R&B. (His first band, years before The Office, was called That's What She Said.)
It was through a woman in his school choir that Hilderbrand got hooked up with the melodic metal band Kidd Robin. The group's singer had quit, and he stepped into that void, serving as the band's singer and bassist for six years. They tried to make a go of it, but the timing was bad as grunge was just hitting and bands with sounds like Kidd Robin became old news. But that disappointment led Hilderbrand to his solo career.
Although he released his first album, Back to the Basics, in 2000, music was still his side hustle. But in 2002, he took the plunge and attempted to do music full time.
"I was like, 'If I spent half the amount of time working on it as I do thinking about it, I might actually make it work," he recalls.
He fully committed to having a business schedule for music, doing his own booking, practicing, lesson plans and more. At first, lessons were the primary source of income, but gigging eventually overtook that. Around 10 years ago he landed his first weekly gig at the (now defunct) Laguna Cafe and soon started seeking out more and more consistent gigs like that.
"I love being on stage. I love performing. If I could afford to leave all of the booking and all of the other stuff that I have to do to someone else and just practice and perform, I would," Hilderbrand says. "So I've got to do all the other stuff that makes it a job. And like any job, there's certain parts that you could live without, but it's just part of the gig. Because there's times I'll just be, '[deep sigh] I don't want to do this.' And then as soon as I get going, it's like this is what I was made for. All the other stuff falls away."
In addition to being a therapeutic relief — his wife literally tells him to "go play your guitar for a while" when he's in a rare sour mood — music also brings spiritual fulfillment. As if the other gigging wasn't enough, he's also an itinerant worship music leader at places like the Gathering House on Sundays. This spiritual connection to music further helps him avoid feelings of burnout.
There's something comforting about the consistency of someone like Just Plain Darin. The larger Spokane music scene might ebb and flow. Bands start up and break up. Venues come and go. But for 50 or so weeks a year, Just Plain Darin is gonna be out there grinding and loving every moment of it.
"Just this weekend, I played Thursday, Friday, Saturday, twice on Sunday," Hilderbrand says. "And I got home, I was just exhausted. And I thought, 'I need to play my guitar!' [laughs] I sat down and I played my electric for probably over an hour. I feel very fortunate to be able to do something that I love, and I still love." ♦
To see Just Plain Darin's extensive concert schedule visit justplaindarin.com.
