SHERMAN BAKER
SHERMAN BAKER
By Bruce J Maier
When I first heard this record by Sherman Baker it struck me as warm and familiar, bringing me in yet something was strange enough to keep me listening. We've all been told that less is more but I believe there are other times when more is right. Such is the case with the deep tank reverb used on the album’s opening track The Knave which contributed a bit of a wash-out like the way some of the old Columbia recordings of Simon and Garfunkel’s voices were produced and of which I always loved. To accompany his voice Baker uses a steady rhythm on the low strings of the guitar to carry all the beat of the song’s intro while he weaves his melody in and out of the empty spaces and then, much to my joy the guitar tracks start to build with the drums and Bass coming in at the precise moment of perfection and I think I’m hearing a song that Al Stewart (Year Of The Cat) could have written back in the late nineteen-seventies. Not a bad way to start off a good record and I’m not implying that the song lacks originality at all. In fact most everything we hear today has pretty much been done before but the genius plays out by how we use the colors in the crayon box of music doesn't it? There are only a few notes in our musical scale yet there are millions of ways to sequence them, and Sherman Baker does a fine job arranging them his own way.
I found myself engaged in his song “ Highway Prayer “ with its arpeggiated acoustic guitar moving at a rapid pace against an ethereal sea of guitar-effect pads in the far background. It is soothing but not to the point of becoming a new-age meditation track by any means. The words of the poem are beautiful but sung softly so as to not be in your face unless you chose for them to be. Then I start getting into Baker’s head and his thought process as a producer; why he chose this, why that was left out – and realize the sheer artistry of the man.
There are several tracks on this CD that I really like for different reasons but most of all I favor the consistency that has Sherman Baker’s own brand in every melody, poem, arrangement and production. If I were to pick a personal favorite it would have to be We Grow Old because this song is sparse and quirky with it’s up-stoke rhythm and just a single voice setting the stage and slowly building the story. It then blooms like a sunflower of brightness and color with the drums and other instruments, criss-cross harmonies cascading and of course, that killer little slightly de-tuned upright piano that gives it a little Abbey Road charm. I don’t know that Mr. Baker is consciously channeling some Mr. Lennon or not, but it’s a very pleasant, touching and subliminal tribute to the man, or at least a style that the Fab One brought to the world so long ago with his Liverpool mates. So whatever the reason or motivation this is a great song!
Sherman Baker has proved in this self-titled release that he is a songwriter of substance and a very capable musician that I don’t always find combined in the music of today. See, I kind of think there are singers, songwriters, singer-songwriters and then a few of us other weirdo’s who not only want to paint the picture, we want to go to the store and mix the paint ourselves, maybe even make the canvas so that when the song is completed it’s our baby. There’s no one else to consult or to blame. When a record turns out this good though, we deserve to take a longer bow !
SHERMAN BAKER WEBSITE
By Bruce J Maier
When I first heard this record by Sherman Baker it struck me as warm and familiar, bringing me in yet something was strange enough to keep me listening. We've all been told that less is more but I believe there are other times when more is right. Such is the case with the deep tank reverb used on the album’s opening track The Knave which contributed a bit of a wash-out like the way some of the old Columbia recordings of Simon and Garfunkel’s voices were produced and of which I always loved. To accompany his voice Baker uses a steady rhythm on the low strings of the guitar to carry all the beat of the song’s intro while he weaves his melody in and out of the empty spaces and then, much to my joy the guitar tracks start to build with the drums and Bass coming in at the precise moment of perfection and I think I’m hearing a song that Al Stewart (Year Of The Cat) could have written back in the late nineteen-seventies. Not a bad way to start off a good record and I’m not implying that the song lacks originality at all. In fact most everything we hear today has pretty much been done before but the genius plays out by how we use the colors in the crayon box of music doesn't it? There are only a few notes in our musical scale yet there are millions of ways to sequence them, and Sherman Baker does a fine job arranging them his own way.
I found myself engaged in his song “ Highway Prayer “ with its arpeggiated acoustic guitar moving at a rapid pace against an ethereal sea of guitar-effect pads in the far background. It is soothing but not to the point of becoming a new-age meditation track by any means. The words of the poem are beautiful but sung softly so as to not be in your face unless you chose for them to be. Then I start getting into Baker’s head and his thought process as a producer; why he chose this, why that was left out – and realize the sheer artistry of the man.
There are several tracks on this CD that I really like for different reasons but most of all I favor the consistency that has Sherman Baker’s own brand in every melody, poem, arrangement and production. If I were to pick a personal favorite it would have to be We Grow Old because this song is sparse and quirky with it’s up-stoke rhythm and just a single voice setting the stage and slowly building the story. It then blooms like a sunflower of brightness and color with the drums and other instruments, criss-cross harmonies cascading and of course, that killer little slightly de-tuned upright piano that gives it a little Abbey Road charm. I don’t know that Mr. Baker is consciously channeling some Mr. Lennon or not, but it’s a very pleasant, touching and subliminal tribute to the man, or at least a style that the Fab One brought to the world so long ago with his Liverpool mates. So whatever the reason or motivation this is a great song!
Sherman Baker has proved in this self-titled release that he is a songwriter of substance and a very capable musician that I don’t always find combined in the music of today. See, I kind of think there are singers, songwriters, singer-songwriters and then a few of us other weirdo’s who not only want to paint the picture, we want to go to the store and mix the paint ourselves, maybe even make the canvas so that when the song is completed it’s our baby. There’s no one else to consult or to blame. When a record turns out this good though, we deserve to take a longer bow !
SHERMAN BAKER WEBSITE
http://www.damngoodtunes.com/Artist_Of_The_Month.html
