Leave it to the impeccable musical tastes of the folks at Chickie Wah Wah and Family Fish Productions to bring another hard-to-categorize musical gem to the fine listening establishment on Canal Street since Austin-based Sam Baker has mostly flown under the radar of other booking agents in New Orleans. He makes an appearance at the intimate club on Wednesday night (12/9).
Though other musical poets have blamed/claimed demons that vex and/or inspire them, Baker’s entre into the world of professional music came via external forces far from home. The upstate New York native was traveling to Machu Picchu in Peru when a bomb placed by terrorists exploded in the bus he was aboard. It killed seven other passengers and forced the then-amateur musician to reinvent himself.
He had to relearn everything including playing guitar, which he was forced to play left-handed because of injuries to his fingers. His first album came out a place of anger, but since then he has traveled within himself to find a place of grace.
He latest recording, 2013’s Say Grace was picked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 10 country albums of that year. His work has been compared to the great John Prine and his influences are as much poetic and literary as they are musical.
In a review, Jim Fusilli wrote, “In Mr. Baker’s tales, the personal becomes universal through his keen-eyed writing, supported by well-chosen instrumentation and what might be called spoken-word melodies.”
