SAM BAKER

Event information

In 1986, at age 32, Baker was traveling in Peru when, as he says,"I got in the middle of somebody else's war." A terrorist bomb (the Sendero Luminoso or 'Shining Path' Maoist group) blew up the train he and some friends were riding on. Several passengers died, including a German boy and his parents, who were sitting next to Baker. Though he nearly bled to death, Sam survived but suffered a constellation of injuries and aftereffects - shrapnel in his leg, renal failure, brain damage, even gangrene.

"Right now, the loudest thing I hear is the ringing in my head," he says of the Tinnitus, which will never go away. The other obvious reminder of the blast is his left hand, the fingers of which are permanently scrunched and twisted. Fortunately, he has enough dexterity to grip a pick, after re-learning to play guitar left-handed (fretting with the less-injured right hand), so that he can sing and play some of the most vivid, compelling, truly original songs of any artist working today. The brain damage he initially suffered affected mainly the part of the brain where words are stored.

Which is ironic, since it's the stories and images he paints with words that brought him acclaim - first with his 2004 debut, Mercy, and now with its 2007 follow-up, Pretty World (both self released). Of forging a career out of writing and singing his own songs, Baker beams,"To start this at this age is a real interesting thing. I'm 53 - a great age. It's a fabulous age. Just to be, as they say, 'walking the face of the earth' is a miracle - no matter what age you are. I'll take it every day."

"Sam Baker still makes music that hangs together by threads. Still coming to grips with the train bombing that left him mentally and physically scarred over twenty years ago, Baker took his new lease on life to examine the small things that make up this world. On Cotton, his observational style helps pull the threads together - the homeless and disenfranchised that dot our landscape on Signs, the hazy night and "bourbon and ice" clinking on "Moon" his signature weave of traditional songs - "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Hard Times" from the last record, "Dixie" and "Meet Me in Saint Louis" on this one all mesh in a way that makes perfect sense." - SOUNDS COUNTRY

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