Reaction to pre-release review copies of Pretty World was so instantaneous when they
went into circulation in Europe that the CD jumped straight to the No 1 slot on the Euro
Americana Chart, compiled from returns sent in by almost seventy music journalists, radio show
presenters and internet sites in the UK, Eire, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany,
Denmark and Sweden, indicating that the vast majority thought it was the best album they had
received in July. Contributors send in their top six albums each month to make up the Chart which
acts as an indicator of who and what is hot.
As a result, Pretty World has been featured on many radio shows and been praised by leading
presenters such as Bob Harris, Bryan Burnett, Iain Anderson and Archie Fisher (all BBC)
Among the responses received were:
"Beginning to make big waves" - Rob Adams, The Herald
"A super-sensitive, classy album" - Graham Hassall, Radio Nightingale, UK
"Sam Baker's Pretty World is a masterpiece of intense Song-writer craft, as certain as a rock in a
Tornado and upright and juicy as a Cactus in the desert" - Frank Ipach, www.home-of-rock.de
"One of the stand-out albums of 2007" - Karen Miller, The Miller Tells Her Tale, UK
"Sam Baker is a genius" - Freddy Celis, Rootstime, Belgium
“Brilliant” – Frank Ipach, Germany
"Amazing" - Jacques Spiry, Americana Music Club, RCF Radio, France.
“A five-star fantastic release from Sam Baker” – Francois Braeken, Belgium
“Sam Baker’s Pretty World is a great album” – Leo Kattestaart, Holland
"This is an exceptional album, just brilliant" - Folk Radio UK
“Sam Baker could soon become a very big star” - Jackie Blair, Country Music & Dance magazine
(Scotland & Ireland)
went into circulation in Europe that the CD jumped straight to the No 1 slot on the Euro
Americana Chart, compiled from returns sent in by almost seventy music journalists, radio show
presenters and internet sites in the UK, Eire, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany,
Denmark and Sweden, indicating that the vast majority thought it was the best album they had
received in July. Contributors send in their top six albums each month to make up the Chart which
acts as an indicator of who and what is hot.
As a result, Pretty World has been featured on many radio shows and been praised by leading
presenters such as Bob Harris, Bryan Burnett, Iain Anderson and Archie Fisher (all BBC)
Among the responses received were:
"Beginning to make big waves" - Rob Adams, The Herald
"A super-sensitive, classy album" - Graham Hassall, Radio Nightingale, UK
"Sam Baker's Pretty World is a masterpiece of intense Song-writer craft, as certain as a rock in a
Tornado and upright and juicy as a Cactus in the desert" - Frank Ipach, www.home-of-rock.de
"One of the stand-out albums of 2007" - Karen Miller, The Miller Tells Her Tale, UK
"Sam Baker is a genius" - Freddy Celis, Rootstime, Belgium
“Brilliant” – Frank Ipach, Germany
"Amazing" - Jacques Spiry, Americana Music Club, RCF Radio, France.
“A five-star fantastic release from Sam Baker” – Francois Braeken, Belgium
“Sam Baker’s Pretty World is a great album” – Leo Kattestaart, Holland
"This is an exceptional album, just brilliant" - Folk Radio UK
“Sam Baker could soon become a very big star” - Jackie Blair, Country Music & Dance magazine
(Scotland & Ireland)
Magnificent -
one of the great
albums of the
year
Bob Harris
one of the great
albums of the
year
Bob Harris
Americana UK
David Cowling
Invite an outsider inside your life
Baker is the kind of outsider figure that
Vic Chesnutt or Johnny Dowd cuts,
singular in style, almost astylistic (if there
is such a term). His vocals are halting,
spoken like he is singing to himself with
no mind for the audience, this is a private
dialog, the songs are short films playing
in his head. It doesn’t exclude the
audience though; you are drawn in to
these tightly sketched dramas by the
imagery, the broken vocal and most
importantly for the initial listens – the
sympathetic musical backing. ‘Slots’ is a
prime example, a simple story of an old
woman playing the slots at Reno; the
backing is restrained, bleached almost,
highlighting with squiggles of electric
guitar and some excellent backing vocals
from Britt Savage, the song burning itself
into your mind like you’ve been looking
into the sun for too long. Odessa
brilliantly sketches the desiccation of a
life spoilt in youth, the pedal steel from
Lloyd Maines finding just the right tone
and the song finds poetry in heartbreak
and disappointment - lines like ‘he is
going to die without a trace’ are the kind
that Willy Valutin is lauded for; spare
economical, believable, Faulkner in five
minutes. Stories captured in the dust
motes of the instrumental notes, shafts of
light illuminating the everyday ‘Days’
mixes Spanish with a elegiac soundtrack,
cello and steel guitar bringing to life a
simple domestic memory.
These songs have solidity, substance and
authority - everything is done on Baker’s
terms. You enter into his cracked world
and it offers up a rewarding listen.
David Cowling
Invite an outsider inside your life
Baker is the kind of outsider figure that
Vic Chesnutt or Johnny Dowd cuts,
singular in style, almost astylistic (if there
is such a term). His vocals are halting,
spoken like he is singing to himself with
no mind for the audience, this is a private
dialog, the songs are short films playing
in his head. It doesn’t exclude the
audience though; you are drawn in to
these tightly sketched dramas by the
imagery, the broken vocal and most
importantly for the initial listens – the
sympathetic musical backing. ‘Slots’ is a
prime example, a simple story of an old
woman playing the slots at Reno; the
backing is restrained, bleached almost,
highlighting with squiggles of electric
guitar and some excellent backing vocals
from Britt Savage, the song burning itself
into your mind like you’ve been looking
into the sun for too long. Odessa
brilliantly sketches the desiccation of a
life spoilt in youth, the pedal steel from
Lloyd Maines finding just the right tone
and the song finds poetry in heartbreak
and disappointment - lines like ‘he is
going to die without a trace’ are the kind
that Willy Valutin is lauded for; spare
economical, believable, Faulkner in five
minutes. Stories captured in the dust
motes of the instrumental notes, shafts of
light illuminating the everyday ‘Days’
mixes Spanish with a elegiac soundtrack,
cello and steel guitar bringing to life a
simple domestic memory.
These songs have solidity, substance and
authority - everything is done on Baker’s
terms. You enter into his cracked world
and it offers up a rewarding listen.
John Gjaltema
He wears a blue suede cowboy hat. He’s
in a brothel in Juarez with a lady on his
lap. Without anyone hearing it, he sings a
song. He sings waiting around to die. This
is how Sam Baker starts his second cd
Pretty World (self released). The next
song is about a woman who her whole
life long tells everyone she’s an orphan.
But really she isn’t. Truth is, her mother
was fed up with a child who was
constantly demanding attention. So
mother dearest took her to an orphanage
for girls. Which is where she finds herself,
the only girl with straight hair in a house
full of curls. Sam Baker (acoustic guitar,
mouth harp) is a gifted story teller. He
only needs a few words to grab your
attention. He makes visualising easy. The
third song is about a woman in her mobile
home outside Reno. She hangs out in a
casino most of the time. In one hand a
glass of gin, in the other coins for the slot
machines. She needs that kind of action.
In yet another song a woman stuffs her
life in boxes. Pictures gap-toothed kids.
Drawings made by same children.
Trophies and an old newspaper showing
a wedding picture and a bunch of
valentine cards that say I love you. Sam
Baker still has the prairie sand on his
vocal chords, according to Peter Pleyte in
his review of the debut cd, Mercy, one of
the strongest albums of this decade. With
Pretty World, the Texan has once again
delivered an album for the yearly lists.
Once again he’s accompanied by Mike
Daly (pedal steel, slide), Ron DeLaVega
(bass, cello), Micky Grimm (drums,
percussion), Rick Plant (electric guitar)
and producers Tim Lorsch (violin,
mandolin) and Walt Wilkins (acoustic
guitar, vocals). The guests include Joel
Guzman, Lloyd Maines, Fats Kaplan and
Gurf Morlix. A sublime piece of work
He wears a blue suede cowboy hat. He’s
in a brothel in Juarez with a lady on his
lap. Without anyone hearing it, he sings a
song. He sings waiting around to die. This
is how Sam Baker starts his second cd
Pretty World (self released). The next
song is about a woman who her whole
life long tells everyone she’s an orphan.
But really she isn’t. Truth is, her mother
was fed up with a child who was
constantly demanding attention. So
mother dearest took her to an orphanage
for girls. Which is where she finds herself,
the only girl with straight hair in a house
full of curls. Sam Baker (acoustic guitar,
mouth harp) is a gifted story teller. He
only needs a few words to grab your
attention. He makes visualising easy. The
third song is about a woman in her mobile
home outside Reno. She hangs out in a
casino most of the time. In one hand a
glass of gin, in the other coins for the slot
machines. She needs that kind of action.
In yet another song a woman stuffs her
life in boxes. Pictures gap-toothed kids.
Drawings made by same children.
Trophies and an old newspaper showing
a wedding picture and a bunch of
valentine cards that say I love you. Sam
Baker still has the prairie sand on his
vocal chords, according to Peter Pleyte in
his review of the debut cd, Mercy, one of
the strongest albums of this decade. With
Pretty World, the Texan has once again
delivered an album for the yearly lists.
Once again he’s accompanied by Mike
Daly (pedal steel, slide), Ron DeLaVega
(bass, cello), Micky Grimm (drums,
percussion), Rick Plant (electric guitar)
and producers Tim Lorsch (violin,
mandolin) and Walt Wilkins (acoustic
guitar, vocals). The guests include Joel
Guzman, Lloyd Maines, Fats Kaplan and
Gurf Morlix. A sublime piece of work
Country Music People
Michael Hingston
5 stars out of 5
"This is an album of fascinating rhythmic
ideas, stunning poetic lyrics and
beautifully-judged arrangements. Sam
Baker comes from the rich tradition of
Texas songwriting and his narrative skills
are in the mould of Guy Clark and
Townes Van Zandt. He deserves to be
far more widely heard" -
Michael Hingston
5 stars out of 5
"This is an album of fascinating rhythmic
ideas, stunning poetic lyrics and
beautifully-judged arrangements. Sam
Baker comes from the rich tradition of
Texas songwriting and his narrative skills
are in the mould of Guy Clark and
Townes Van Zandt. He deserves to be
far more widely heard" -
Maverick Magazine UK
August 2007
pretty world
A fantastic album that is guaranteed to
open your mind and your heart
* * * *
Every day we witness people behaving
like crazy people - selfishness and greed
and rat race short tempers there for all to
see. The art of looking after number one
has reached epidemic proportions. And
all the time if we just took a minute to
slow down and be a little more
thoughtful, what rich rewards we would
gain. Does ugly, negative energy have
an effect when it floods the space around
us? You bet. Those who carry a
positive charge, then, must be good to
have around, to counter-balance things.
It is well documented that Sam Baker
has had to learn to be a survivor. He
has learned forgiveness when most of us
would have emerged bitter and looking
for some payback.
Like a kid filled with wonder, he has
become an observer with a keen eye
and a heart of gold. He takes in the
idiosyncrasies others wouldn't pick up
on as he closely studies the characters he
encounters. He is tuned in and
appreciative of the little things that most
of us take for granted. In this consumer
crazy age we could all do to take a page
out of his book; stop and smell the
flowers. Baker's last fine album,
MERCY was extraordinarily moving.
When he first heard it, producer Gurf
Morlix was prompted to describe Baker
as the best songwriter he had heard in
years. While PRETTY WORLD finds
the half-whispered sandpaper voice still
sounding fragile and vulnerable, the
power of the message is as strong as
ever. Not that the 'message' is
necessarily spelled out in black and
white so much as subliminally there in the
very energy that he carries with him.
There is a basic spirituality running right
through the core which makes it almost
therapeutic to listen to someone who is
so well-balanced and at one with himself
and the rest of the world, even its darker
underbelly. One or two of the stories
are set to sparkle almost hymn-like with
the band bringing an old-time
Preservation Hall feel to create just the
right amount of uplifting spirit.
Stephen Foster's Hard Times Come
Again No More is cleverly used to
thread around the main melody on
Odessa, a tale about a poor soul who
made all the money he could ever have
wanted from being oil-rich, but lost the
things that really mattered. Over-all the
production job is perfect, with
arrangements and playing hitting just the
right level of sensitivity, most of the time,
involving little more than bare, albeit very
tasty, essentials.
There is just one break-out with the full
band - Mike Daly, Ron Dela Vega,
Mickey Grimm, Tim Lorsch, Rick Plant,
Walt Wilkins and Bill McDermott - all
cranked up and breaking sweat for
Psychic. He shows us that the healing
process for him is ongoing, Broken
Fingers a reminder that there are scars
he'll carry with him forever. Then almost
as a thanksgiving piece, with Days, he
lets us know he is grateful for everything
from the smell of baking bread to the
simple light of candles.
His voice trails off..."These days, how
beautiful..."
With a little help from the Sam Bakers of
this world, some day, we might hopefully
all see it that way.
- LT, Maverick magazine, UK.
August 2007
pretty world
A fantastic album that is guaranteed to
open your mind and your heart
* * * *
Every day we witness people behaving
like crazy people - selfishness and greed
and rat race short tempers there for all to
see. The art of looking after number one
has reached epidemic proportions. And
all the time if we just took a minute to
slow down and be a little more
thoughtful, what rich rewards we would
gain. Does ugly, negative energy have
an effect when it floods the space around
us? You bet. Those who carry a
positive charge, then, must be good to
have around, to counter-balance things.
It is well documented that Sam Baker
has had to learn to be a survivor. He
has learned forgiveness when most of us
would have emerged bitter and looking
for some payback.
Like a kid filled with wonder, he has
become an observer with a keen eye
and a heart of gold. He takes in the
idiosyncrasies others wouldn't pick up
on as he closely studies the characters he
encounters. He is tuned in and
appreciative of the little things that most
of us take for granted. In this consumer
crazy age we could all do to take a page
out of his book; stop and smell the
flowers. Baker's last fine album,
MERCY was extraordinarily moving.
When he first heard it, producer Gurf
Morlix was prompted to describe Baker
as the best songwriter he had heard in
years. While PRETTY WORLD finds
the half-whispered sandpaper voice still
sounding fragile and vulnerable, the
power of the message is as strong as
ever. Not that the 'message' is
necessarily spelled out in black and
white so much as subliminally there in the
very energy that he carries with him.
There is a basic spirituality running right
through the core which makes it almost
therapeutic to listen to someone who is
so well-balanced and at one with himself
and the rest of the world, even its darker
underbelly. One or two of the stories
are set to sparkle almost hymn-like with
the band bringing an old-time
Preservation Hall feel to create just the
right amount of uplifting spirit.
Stephen Foster's Hard Times Come
Again No More is cleverly used to
thread around the main melody on
Odessa, a tale about a poor soul who
made all the money he could ever have
wanted from being oil-rich, but lost the
things that really mattered. Over-all the
production job is perfect, with
arrangements and playing hitting just the
right level of sensitivity, most of the time,
involving little more than bare, albeit very
tasty, essentials.
There is just one break-out with the full
band - Mike Daly, Ron Dela Vega,
Mickey Grimm, Tim Lorsch, Rick Plant,
Walt Wilkins and Bill McDermott - all
cranked up and breaking sweat for
Psychic. He shows us that the healing
process for him is ongoing, Broken
Fingers a reminder that there are scars
he'll carry with him forever. Then almost
as a thanksgiving piece, with Days, he
lets us know he is grateful for everything
from the smell of baking bread to the
simple light of candles.
His voice trails off..."These days, how
beautiful..."
With a little help from the Sam Bakers of
this world, some day, we might hopefully
all see it that way.
- LT, Maverick magazine, UK.
‘Something can happen
in a flash – and there’s
your song’
ROB ADAMS
The Herald
August 02 2007
Sam Baker has a simple philosophy. "You
do what you can with what you've got,"
says the Austin, Texas-based, singer-
songwriter whose work is beginning to
make big waves. "And if you start looking
at what you don't have, well, you're lost."
An upbeat character whose conversation is
punctuated at regular intervals with easy
laughter, Baker has reason to count his
blessings. In 1986, while he was visiting
Peru, a terrorist bomb exploded on the
train that was about to take him to the Inca
city of Machu Picchu. The German family
sitting opposite him and with whom he had
been sharing typical tourist chat were all
killed. Baker passed out, came to on the
operating table and felt sure that he
wouldn't survive either.
His recovery was slow. His left femoral
artery had been severed and his left hand
was, he says, "badly chopped up".
Following emergency surgery in Peru, he
had to undergo 17 corrective operations
back home in Houston. At first he couldn't
walk or feed himself and for a long time he
expected every room and every car he sat
in to blow up.
Eventually, he got back to work. Before
the incident he'd been a carpenter and a
rafting guide. But he found a job in a bank
and in his spare time he began writing
short stories to try to make sense of what
had happened to him.
"It's a surreal experience, of course,
because we're not living in that kind of
situation all the time," he says. "One minute
everything is normal and safe and I'm
speaking to this German kid who's
translating for his mum and dad, who are
sitting so close our knees are almost
touching. Then suddenly this red backpack
in the rack above the mum explodes. It
blows her head off. The kid is pinned to
his seat by shrapnel through his chest and I
can't breathe with the force of the
explosion. I remember thinking, This is it.
I'm not going to make it'."
The long-term physical consequences for
Baker were complete deafness in one ear
and only 70% hearing in the other, and
when he got back to playing the guitar, he
had to adapt to playing left-handed.
"I wasn't exactly a virtuoso before. I'd had
piano lessons as a kid because my mum
played piano and organ in the church, and
there was always music in the house," he
says. "But I soon gave up music for
baseball and football until I was about 19,
and then I bought a guitar in a pawn shop
and taught myself. That was terrible,
though. Your hands hurt and it sounds
dreadful." Looking back, the songs he
began writing in his 20s were, he says,
pretty awful, too.
"They were all that kind of I love you and
you don't love me' thing and it wasn't until
the year 2000 that I decided to try to get
serious," he says.
Writing fiction had given him what he
considers his most valuable tool: the ability
to pare down words and just accept that
sometimes it's necessary to take something
he's laboured over for hours, if not days,
and "boot it out the door".
The songs on his first album, Mercy,
which came out in 2004, were so sparse
that even their titles consist of only one
word. It's an approach that has worked,
though. Radio 2's Bob Harris has just
pronounced Baker's second album, Pretty
World, one of the albums of the year.
"I'm not trying to capture whole lives in
these songs," says Baker. "They're just
moments, because you can cover so much
in two or three minutes. Something can
happen, as I know from that train in Peru,
in a flash and you have the basis for a
story right there. I often start out with a lot
of stuff and start peeling away, and if I can
get it so that there's not one phrase that
annoys me and where every word carries a
lot of implication without sounding false,
then I'm happy."
With his hearing difficulties, taking his
songs on to the stage hasn't been easy. But
with a guitar style that he describes as
"three chords and a cloud of dust, but I'm
working on getting more expressive", he
has persevered. He's due to play his first
concerts in Scotland later in the year and
says that since live performing is part of
the reality of being a singer-songwriter, he
can't let physical problems become an
obstacle.
"When it's quiet and the onstage sound is
good, I'm OK," he says. "At other times,
it's like experiencing the Braille equivalent
of music.
I know when it feels right through my
hands and my vocal cords. In the end,
though, if you have something to say, you
have to do it and find ways of working
round whatever comes along. If it doesn't
all fall apart, that's great."
http://www.theherald.co.
uk/features/features/displ
ay.var.1589492.0.0.php
in a flash – and there’s
your song’
ROB ADAMS
The Herald
August 02 2007
Sam Baker has a simple philosophy. "You
do what you can with what you've got,"
says the Austin, Texas-based, singer-
songwriter whose work is beginning to
make big waves. "And if you start looking
at what you don't have, well, you're lost."
An upbeat character whose conversation is
punctuated at regular intervals with easy
laughter, Baker has reason to count his
blessings. In 1986, while he was visiting
Peru, a terrorist bomb exploded on the
train that was about to take him to the Inca
city of Machu Picchu. The German family
sitting opposite him and with whom he had
been sharing typical tourist chat were all
killed. Baker passed out, came to on the
operating table and felt sure that he
wouldn't survive either.
His recovery was slow. His left femoral
artery had been severed and his left hand
was, he says, "badly chopped up".
Following emergency surgery in Peru, he
had to undergo 17 corrective operations
back home in Houston. At first he couldn't
walk or feed himself and for a long time he
expected every room and every car he sat
in to blow up.
Eventually, he got back to work. Before
the incident he'd been a carpenter and a
rafting guide. But he found a job in a bank
and in his spare time he began writing
short stories to try to make sense of what
had happened to him.
"It's a surreal experience, of course,
because we're not living in that kind of
situation all the time," he says. "One minute
everything is normal and safe and I'm
speaking to this German kid who's
translating for his mum and dad, who are
sitting so close our knees are almost
touching. Then suddenly this red backpack
in the rack above the mum explodes. It
blows her head off. The kid is pinned to
his seat by shrapnel through his chest and I
can't breathe with the force of the
explosion. I remember thinking, This is it.
I'm not going to make it'."
The long-term physical consequences for
Baker were complete deafness in one ear
and only 70% hearing in the other, and
when he got back to playing the guitar, he
had to adapt to playing left-handed.
"I wasn't exactly a virtuoso before. I'd had
piano lessons as a kid because my mum
played piano and organ in the church, and
there was always music in the house," he
says. "But I soon gave up music for
baseball and football until I was about 19,
and then I bought a guitar in a pawn shop
and taught myself. That was terrible,
though. Your hands hurt and it sounds
dreadful." Looking back, the songs he
began writing in his 20s were, he says,
pretty awful, too.
"They were all that kind of I love you and
you don't love me' thing and it wasn't until
the year 2000 that I decided to try to get
serious," he says.
Writing fiction had given him what he
considers his most valuable tool: the ability
to pare down words and just accept that
sometimes it's necessary to take something
he's laboured over for hours, if not days,
and "boot it out the door".
The songs on his first album, Mercy,
which came out in 2004, were so sparse
that even their titles consist of only one
word. It's an approach that has worked,
though. Radio 2's Bob Harris has just
pronounced Baker's second album, Pretty
World, one of the albums of the year.
"I'm not trying to capture whole lives in
these songs," says Baker. "They're just
moments, because you can cover so much
in two or three minutes. Something can
happen, as I know from that train in Peru,
in a flash and you have the basis for a
story right there. I often start out with a lot
of stuff and start peeling away, and if I can
get it so that there's not one phrase that
annoys me and where every word carries a
lot of implication without sounding false,
then I'm happy."
With his hearing difficulties, taking his
songs on to the stage hasn't been easy. But
with a guitar style that he describes as
"three chords and a cloud of dust, but I'm
working on getting more expressive", he
has persevered. He's due to play his first
concerts in Scotland later in the year and
says that since live performing is part of
the reality of being a singer-songwriter, he
can't let physical problems become an
obstacle.
"When it's quiet and the onstage sound is
good, I'm OK," he says. "At other times,
it's like experiencing the Braille equivalent
of music.
I know when it feels right through my
hands and my vocal cords. In the end,
though, if you have something to say, you
have to do it and find ways of working
round whatever comes along. If it doesn't
all fall apart, that's great."
http://www.theherald.co.
uk/features/features/displ
ay.var.1589492.0.0.php
Plato Record Store – The
Hague, NL –
newsletter of 16 August 2007
Sam Baker – Pretty World
It’s probably rather lame, but Sam Baker’s
first cd, Mercy (in stock again soon), hit
us like a bomb. (This debut album
consisted of an intense description of a
very traumatic experience; the train in
which he was travelling became the target
of a terrorist assault by the group the
Shining Path. Not all passengers were this
lucky, but Sam (barely) survived this near
surrealistic incident and went through a
long period of rehabilitation. He used
Mercy to work through this absurd period
of hovering between more dead than alive.
This new album goes further, further into
life. In Pretty World Sam Baker celebrates
life and modestly enjoys the little things,
that otherwise might well have so easily
gone unnoticed. This cd is of the same
sublime quality as its predecessor.
Musically and textually Pretty World offers
the best that Texas has to offer right now’;
cleverly deep about friends, family and
loved ones. No bite-size nuggets but
beautiful story songs about everyday living.
This living is a one-off, it’s short enough,
focus on the essentials and take the rest as
it comes, that, in short, is the message. Be
happy with simplicity. (Rein v/d Berg).
- To which I, Harry Hoving (record store
owner), want to add that this cd hit me like
a bolt of lightning, it’s awesomely beautiful.
Hague, NL –
newsletter of 16 August 2007
Sam Baker – Pretty World
It’s probably rather lame, but Sam Baker’s
first cd, Mercy (in stock again soon), hit
us like a bomb. (This debut album
consisted of an intense description of a
very traumatic experience; the train in
which he was travelling became the target
of a terrorist assault by the group the
Shining Path. Not all passengers were this
lucky, but Sam (barely) survived this near
surrealistic incident and went through a
long period of rehabilitation. He used
Mercy to work through this absurd period
of hovering between more dead than alive.
This new album goes further, further into
life. In Pretty World Sam Baker celebrates
life and modestly enjoys the little things,
that otherwise might well have so easily
gone unnoticed. This cd is of the same
sublime quality as its predecessor.
Musically and textually Pretty World offers
the best that Texas has to offer right now’;
cleverly deep about friends, family and
loved ones. No bite-size nuggets but
beautiful story songs about everyday living.
This living is a one-off, it’s short enough,
focus on the essentials and take the rest as
it comes, that, in short, is the message. Be
happy with simplicity. (Rein v/d Berg).
- To which I, Harry Hoving (record store
owner), want to add that this cd hit me like
a bolt of lightning, it’s awesomely beautiful.
| Rock 'n' Reel magazine, UK Sean McGhee December 2007 Readers perhaps imagine that receiving lots of review CDs must be a real joy and, although I’m not separated enough from reality to realise that it’s a very privileged position to be in, sometimes ploughing through hours and hours of unrewarding recordings can become a real chore. Despite that, amongst the thousands of CDs received each year, the tiny percentage of life-affirming releases means that when they do appear they’re cherished like the gems they are. Sam Baker’s Pretty World is one of these truly special recordings. You want comparisons? Imagine Steve Earle, Shane MacGowan and Johnny Cash jamming in a back street Austin, Texas bar when in comes Nick Cave and the spirit of Townes Van Zandt. Although it’s Baker’s writing and half-spoken, half-slurred vocals that prove the charismatic attraction, the fact that he’s surrounded himself with a sympathetic musical dream team who contribute violin, slide, mandolin, accordion, bass and a gently rolling percussion means that the results are utterly wonderful. Amongst such a collection of unforgettable originals it’s a near impossible task to select highlights, although the poignancy and power of songs such as ‘Orphan’, the dark tale of ‘Odessa’ that inhabits a similar place as Dylan’s ‘The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll’ and the majesty (and nearest he ever gets to rockin’) that is ‘Psychic’ will suffice. A classic album. |
The Irish Times
Joe Breen
pretty world
This is a remarkable album. It is the work of a survivor,
someone who came so close to death that grasping every
fragment of life is everything. As he says on his website,
"all we've got is this one breath. And then, if we're lucky,
we have the next breath." He should know. Sam Baker
was a Texan college graduate travelling the world when
he was caught up in a train bomb blast in Peru in 1986.
Now 53, two years ago he released his first album, and
now comes Pretty World. There are lots of influences,
not least the gritty poetic voice of Guy Clark and the
stories of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. Baker
picks from all to create something that buzzes with truth
and honesty framed by alt.country melodies,
arrangements of earthy elegance and a voice of gravelly
grace. Hear him at the forthcoming Kilkenny Rhythm &
Roots Festival.
Joe Breen
pretty world
This is a remarkable album. It is the work of a survivor,
someone who came so close to death that grasping every
fragment of life is everything. As he says on his website,
"all we've got is this one breath. And then, if we're lucky,
we have the next breath." He should know. Sam Baker
was a Texan college graduate travelling the world when
he was caught up in a train bomb blast in Peru in 1986.
Now 53, two years ago he released his first album, and
now comes Pretty World. There are lots of influences,
not least the gritty poetic voice of Guy Clark and the
stories of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. Baker
picks from all to create something that buzzes with truth
and honesty framed by alt.country melodies,
arrangements of earthy elegance and a voice of gravelly
grace. Hear him at the forthcoming Kilkenny Rhythm &
Roots Festival.
| The Irish Times Tony Clayton-Lea May 2008 Sam Baker? He’s an under the radar kinda guy of indeterminate age (we’d guess in or around his mid-50s), with long hair, a laconic turn of phrase and the kind of disposition that could well be the epitome of world-weary. Baker is a relatively unknown quantity to many people in this part of the world – and he isn’t too well known in his native America, either. From Texas, his adopted home is Austin; he was working full time until 2005, which was the year his 2004 debut album, Mercy, began to be heard outside his locality. By his own admission, he came to what he refers as “the world of entertainment” quite late. “The fact that I’m pretty much invisible is something that’s perfectly okay with me - that’s just the way it is. Invisibility is something I’m used to. Most people are used to being anonymous, anyway - well known only within their town or locality, or even within their family, and that’s fine, too.” Mercy may have been Baker’s calling card, but his latest album, Pretty World, is unquestionably a hard knock on the door and a foot in the hallway. The songs are equal parts fragile and tough, and reflect a number of lives lived, lost and yearning for release. While it extols the ecstasy of living, it also views life through a pair of fractured binoculars, and if Baker has a knack for writing songs that are full of distinctive characters – observed to the point of the listener being virtually able to hear them think - then this knack also provides the unique selling point of Baker’s delivery, which is as lived in and worn down as an old boot. Unsurprisingly, what he excels at – his uncanny skill at being to humanity what David Atttenborough is to the animal kingdom - is the very thing that inspired him to become a songwriter. “Songs and words are something I’ ve always played around with, the actual craft of them. It started when my sister Chris made a record in the late 90s - she had a couple of my songs on it. At that time I thought I should try to learn how to be more precise in what I was saying as opposed to putting something down that was an emotional impulse, or surge. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I really wanted to learn the process of rewriting, redrafting until I got it right. “In 2000, I thought of doing a record that involved a whole body of work. I went to Nebraska, a beautiful state, and I thought I would focus on a more cohesive creative streak that was not so erratic and not so diffuse. That’s where the album Mercy came from – when it was finished I thought it was one good piece of art.” Baker says he never had many expectations of Mercy, other than that it was forged out of truth and a sense of justice. Actually getting to the point where he conceived a life beyond his day job was an alien thought. He didn’t promote the record, neither did he advertise it; and he manufactured, initially, about 1,000 copies. “I’m not sure I thought too much ahead of that,” he says in a tone of voice that really means what it says. “I gave a copy of the record to a guy who worked at a radio station in Fredericksburg, Texas, and the next day he began to play tracks from it. That started the ball rolling, but it didn’t do much until a friend of mine (Austin producer/songwriter Gurf Morlix) gave a copy to the BBC’s Bob Harris. At that point, the invisibility cloak I was wearing started to slip off. And then Harris played tracks off of Pretty World, too.” Once again, Baker expresses mild surprise that anyone would take notice of his observational songwriting. Is there a point at which he’d rather not observe, or is observing the characteristics and idiosyncrasies of people simply what he does? “Frankly, I don’t have a choice. The songs come from a combination of certain things that I’m drawn to. Some create an emotional response in me, and if my writing skills are pretty good then I come closer to being able to describe it so that it has some small measure of completeness. Included in that completeness is in some way a reproduction of whatever it was that drew me in emotionally. If the writing is reasonably accurate then I can approximate it. It takes a lot of work to do that – how the characters behave, how they dress, and so on.” He says that the album title is from the heart and not to be misinterpreted as ironic. This is interesting; in 1986, Baker was travelling on a train across the arid landscapes of Peru, when a terrorist bomb blew up the rail car he was in. He took a bunch of shrapnel, while the people he was with were killed. Gravely injured and deafened by the blast, the following decade was spent recovering physically and spiritually. “The world is a very difficult place,” Baker states calmly. “It’s full of terror, dread, guilt and can be frightening, but at the same time there are places on earth that are so exquisitely beautiful it’s heart wrenching. I do think the world is a pretty world. Do I think that everything is pretty? No, I’ve seen some stuff that would rattle your teeth. Living in the world without the things that are unbelievably beautiful is wrong. To ignore the awful and accept only the bright and shiny, to celebrate the joy over the despair, is also wrong. Somewhere, at any given time, there are both. For Pretty World it felt like it was right to emphasize the beauty. So yes, I pushed a bit more spotlight on the prettier side of things.” The bomb blast in South America was clearly a pivotal moment in his life; Baker doesn’t even take breathing for granted. “The force from the blast knocked the breath out of me, and I couldn’t re-inflate my lungs,” he recalls, the memory of it making his voice contract. “The things that we all take so much for granted are quite possibly the things that can be pivotal moments. “I genuinely think we have pivotal moments all the time. Some are subconscious, some are obvious, some are pre- destined. Perhaps my course in life is to be more accepting of what is taking place naturally. Honestly, anytime that I can draw breath is a pivotal moment for me.” Sam Baker plays Kilkenny’s Clubhouse, Saturday May 3rd and The River Court Hotel, Sunday, May 4th. The Carlsberg Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots event takes place from Friday May 2nd to Monday May 5th. |