August 26, 2009
Sam Baker's amazing "Cotton"
Posted by Jim Pipkin at August 26, 2009 12:57 AMOn the day after its release, I wanted to hail this entrancing piece of brilliance. It deserves to be talked about, listened to, poked and prodded like a patch of fertile bottomland. Some of the best damn poetry I've ever heard set to music is on this disc.
From the opening harmonies of "Dixie", into the hardscrabble tale of "Cotton", the folkie nonesuch of "Moon", the heartwarming "Mennonite"...dang this is just an incredible experience. If a person can fall in love at first sight, I can fall in love with Sam Baker's music at first listen.
The textures, tales, and tones here simply have not been done before.
Sam's own special vocal delivery comes to us courtesy of the Peruvian terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, who almost killed him with a bomb in 1986. He survived terrible injuries - many caught in the same blast did not. Sam had to relearn everything from the ground up. He now picks guitar left-handed, and sings out to us through permanent, painful tinnitus.
Sam Baker has fought his way back from horror and pain with some of the deepest, finest American music since Stephen Foster suffered for our sins back in the 1800s. Ignore him to your very great loss.
Sam's a treasure! Live he runs the gamut from hilarious to tear-stained. No words are wasted in a Sam Baker song. Every vowel, every pause, every breath is a brush stroke. The man is a poet, a dreamer, a healer and a clown. Your soul will never be the same after being touched by his music. You need "Cotton." You might not think so, but you do.
Posted by: Paula at September 3, 2009 7:57 PM
