Sam Baker (born 1954) is an American folk musician based in Austin, Texas. He writes sparse poetic lyrics that have gained him acclaim from other notable folk artists such as Gurf Morlix and Fred Eaglesmith.

Biography

Sam Baker was born in 1954 in

Itasca, Texas Itasca is a city in Hill County in Northern Central Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,644. History Itasca began as a railroad station for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1881, and was incorporated in 1885. In ...

. He attended Itasca High School, where he played varsity football with fellow musician

Tommy Alverson Tommy Alverson is a Texas Country musician from Mineral Wells, Texas. He attended and played varsity football at Itasca High School with Austin's Sam Baker (then known as Dick Baker). During junior college, he played guitar with James Hand, and l ...

. In 1986, Baker was traveling by train to

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain range.UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, which ...

in Peru when a bomb placed on a luggage rack above his head by the Shining Path guerrilla group exploded, killing seven other passengers including the three people who had been sitting with him. Baker was left with numerous injuries, including brain damage, a cut artery, and blown-in eardrums. His injuries required 17 reconstructive surgeries. He has a constant case of tinnitus and the fingers of his left hand were left gnarled. He did retain enough dexterity to grasp a guitar pick and over time, re-taught himself to play his guitar left-handed. In a radio interview in 2020, Baker said his brain injury affected his use of language and he struggled to remember nouns. Writing helped him relearn. At the same time he was influenced by the music of

Lightning Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list o ...

and his writing became songwriting as he discovered melody. Previous to the bombing, Baker had worked as a bank examiner and whitewater river guide.

Music

Sam Baker's music has been compared to that of John Prine. Baker's 2013 album, ''Say Grace'', was listed by '' Rolling Stone'' as one of the top 10 country music albums of 2013. In his review of ''Say Grace'', 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."Fusilli, Jim
Sam Baker: Bard of the Workaday World.
''The Wall Street Journal'', August 20, 2013. Among Baker's influences for his songwriting are Ken Kesey, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Bob Dylan, and fellow Texans Lightnin' Hopkins, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt.

Painting

Sam Baker took up painting after he began songwriting.

Discography

References

External links

Sam Baker
(official website)
"Sam Baker: Finding Grace In The Wake Of Destruction"
interview on NPR's '' Fresh Air''
"Texan singer Sam Baker on how surviving a terrorist bomb changed his life"
from '' Wales Online'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Sam 1954 births American country singer-songwriters Country musicians from Texas Folk musicians from Texas Living people Singers from Austin, Texas People from Itasca, Texas Singer-songwriters from Texas