Newsletter        29^th November 2007

Contact details
Tel. 01342 716975
or email:
info_at_acousticsussex_dot_org_dot_uk

REMINDER – MONDAY, 3^rd DECEMBER at The Ravenswood
SAM BAKER

Visit our MySpace to isten to sample tracks and extracts from a KGSR radio interview with Sam

Monday
3 December
SAM BAKER
at The Ravenswood
www.theravenswood.co.uk
Support:
Adeline

£10 (£12  door)     8pm
Tickets 01342 714810
or buy online via Acoustic Sussex website

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“I don't think it's premature to think of Baker as being part of the hallowed singer-songwriter tradition blazed by the likes of Townes Van Zant, Guy Clark and John Prine. It's like there was a storm, a couple of huge oaks fell down at your local park and you suddenly saw another big tree behind them in full bloom. In a music world riddled with deadwood, Sam Baker is a redwood”  Tony Peyser, CDBaby

20 years ago, Austin songwriter Sam Baker was riding on a train in Peru when it exploded, the result of a terrorist bomb. Many people died and Sam was seriously injured, enduring 17 reconstructive operations over 10 years. Sam doesn't understand how he survived. He wrote about it in the song Steel on his 2004 debut album, Mercy -  "God have mercy / I believe my heart has failed / Smoke rises through a hole in the roof / The dead say fare thee well."  Sam began writing stories in an effort to make some sense out of the chaos in his mind. He also re-evaluated his songwriting. "My prior songwriting was pretty boilerplate: 'I love you, you love me, you don't love me.' After (the incident) those songs didn't make as much sense to me. I was a better observer of other people and how they lived their lives." The bomb damaged Sam’s hearing and he now plays guitar left-handed. At times, he almost talks through his songs, with his gravel tones inflecting deep humanity into the stories he is telling.

These days, Sam is becoming one of the biggest underground Americana names of recent years. His debut album gained much critical acclaim, largely by word-of-mouth. Within days of its release in Europe, his new album, Pretty World, was sitting at the Number 1 slot on the Euro Americana Chart, compiled from returns sent in by over sixty Americana music journalists, radio show presenters and internet sites in the UK, Eire, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.  The album looks set to project this unassuming Texan out of his cult-hero status and into mainstream consciousness.

On the inside cover of Pretty World, are the words "how beautiful are these days". Come and discover Sam Baker’s beautiful world for yourself.

"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.” AmericanaUK.com

“Absolutely fantastic reaction to the Sam Baker track I played last Saturday. He is a major artist. He'll be playing play live on the show when he's in the UK in December. 'Pretty World‘ is magnificent - one of the great albums of the year."  Bob Harris

“Sparse, haunting, evocative, sui generis; Sam Baker’s Pretty World is quite possibly the finest collection of music I’ve heard since Lucinda Williams Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” AmericanRoots.com

Sam Baker

MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "cdbaby.com" claiming to be Read a review of Mercy on CDBaby.com here

MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.americanaroots.com" claiming to be Read a review of Pretty World on AmericanaRoots.com here

Adeleine

STOP PRESS – Listen to Sam Baker being interviewed for East Grinstead’s MeridianFM this Sunday between 8-10pm on 87.7 or online.

More information on all up-and-coming artists can be found on our website: www.acousticsussex.org.uk. You can also find us on MySpace (with samples from some of the artists appearing) at: www.myspace.com/acoustic_sussex. If you know anyone who you think may enjoy our events, please forward this email to them.

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