Sam Baker

11.26.2007 -- Review by: Don Zelazny

Infused with country and blues and with a gospel core, Sam Baker’s sandpaper voice conveys the numerous shades of meaning coloring his lyrics. And every word (every word!) has a place, a need to be right where it is and nowhere else. You get the feeling that with every decision made on Pretty World, whether lyrical, musical or aural, what we’re hearing is the inevitable conclusion, that there could be no other way than what we are privileged to hear right now.

Sam Baker lives in Austin and grew up in a small Texas town. The proud sensibilities of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett among others are certainly in evidence. Producers Tim Lorsch and Walt Wilkins have made the wise choice to feature as much white space as the sparse CD cover art indicates is contained within Pretty World. The choice of instrumentation is certainly a factor; Lorsch contributes violin and mandolin, Wilkins plays guitars and sings and players such as Lloyd Maines on resonator guitar and pedal steel, Fats Kaplan on accordion and Gurf Morlix on vocals and electric guitar lend delicate support along with Baker’s excellent regular band.

Much of what I’ve written here can be applied to Sam Baker’s debut CD Mercy, but Pretty World is even more self-assured and sonically rich that his previous effort. On both releases, Sam Baker has accomplished what few others have done: He’s given us a window to another view of the world.