From MOJO:
4 STARS- "Baker is a thinking man and a survivor (of terrorism), with a dusty voice and a feeling for beauty. This
is the final part of his trilogy contemplating life, death and getting by on the fine line between."
From Maverick Magazine:
4 STARS- "Relative to its predecessors, cotton proffers more of the same, nevertheless the characters portrayed
allied to their interaction once again totally engaged this listener."
From Folkwax.com:
"His new album Cotton has a lot more variety, more instrumentation and is more produced. Tim Lorsch, longtime
cohort of Texan Walt Wilkins, signed for the production and arranging and did play all of the beautiful string
sections. There's a lot of unexpected little gems like nice chorals and little symphonettas." - Evert Wilbrink
From San Antonio Express-News: (http://www.mysanantonio.
com/entertainment/Record_Review_Two_Tons_latest_is_no_lightweight.html)
"Baker has the uncanny ability to lay bare the gritty while celebrating the simple victories of a housemaid, a naive
Mennonite craftsman and the folks who fly signs at intersections. Life's messy. As Baker's words and music
affirm, it's worth living — even if it doesn't always rhyme." - Jim Beal, Jr.
From About.com: (http://folkmusic.about.com/od/cdreviews/fr/SamBakerCotton.htm)
"Baker's lyrics are provocative and memorable, referencing the relationship between love and mercy, the
commonalities among all people, and life's little struggles. They also reference other stories and songs common to
the American songbook." - Kim Ruehl
From Songs:Illinois: (http://www.songsillinois.net/2009/07/mp3-sam-baker-cotton-music-road-records-august-25/)
"Sam Baker’s songs have the most carefully chosen lyrics you will ever find. Because of the permanent brain
damage he incurred it’s tough for Sam to access the words he needs for his songs. As a result the songs on his
three records have fewer words than typical. But each word is a labor of love; worked on, shaped, and chosen
because it’s the perfect fit." - Craig Bonnell
From Americana Music Times: (http://www.americanamusictimes.com/americana-music-reviews.php)
"This album hits all the right notes, start to finish. Sam has never been in better voice. The songwriting is as poetic
and personal as ever, and, as usual, leaning toward the spiritual side. The production is flawless." - Steve Circeo
From For Folks Sake: (http://www.forfolkssake.com/articles/427)
"In describing Baker’s sound it’s impossible not to think of recent-era Lou Reed albums like 2000’s Ecstasy.
There’s the drawl that suggests intimacy with a variety of substances and only a casual acquaintance with
melody. There’s the stilted delivery which disrupts the rhythm of songs and keeps the listener on the edge of their
earphones. But most of all there is the voice of experience, which makes you feel as though Baker is talking
directly to you." - Paul Malloy
From Sounds Country: (http://soundscountry.com/blog/2009/08/20/sam-baker-cotton/)
"On Cotton, his observational style helps pull the threads together – the homeless and disenfranchised that dot our
landscape on Signs, the hazy night and “bourbon and ice” clinking on 'Moon' and his signature weave of traditional
songs – 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'Hard Times' from the last record, 'Dixie' and 'Meet Me in Saint Louis'
on this one all mesh in a way that makes perfect sense." - Jeff Giddens
From FAME: (http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p05744.htm)
"...it is his way with words that is the standout on this disc, both his way of putting them together to make the
song, and then the presentation of those words to us in the singing of the song." - David Pyles
From Music-News.com: (http://www.music-news.com/ShowReview.asp?H=Sam-Baker-Cotton-album-
review&nReviewID=4928&nType=1&)
5 STARS- "'Cotton’ stands alone as an album and 'Angel Hair’ stands as one of the finest love songs in any genre
released this year, but viewed as part of the trilogy it is even stronger and if you discover Sam Baker through this
album you will probably go back to the others. Simple but magnificent." - Andy Snipper
Radio:
“It’s simply brilliant.” - Joe Pareres, Third Coast, KSYM
“Baker’s songs evoke a wistfulness and melancholy that takes the listener to a place that might be uncomfortable
at times, but touches your heart at all times” - Bill Bowker, KRSH
“Cotton is a true masterpiece and went to record of the week when it arrived. A contender for album of the
year…beautiful, powerful and very very real.” - Barry Marshall Everitt, House of Mercy
“Sam Baker never ceases to amaze me. How someone can continually increase their genius from album to album
is quite extraordinary. The latest album Cotton is absolutely incredible. You will feel like you’ve been saved after
the first listen.” - Shayne Hollinger, Mandatory FM
4 STARS- "Baker is a thinking man and a survivor (of terrorism), with a dusty voice and a feeling for beauty. This
is the final part of his trilogy contemplating life, death and getting by on the fine line between."
From Maverick Magazine:
4 STARS- "Relative to its predecessors, cotton proffers more of the same, nevertheless the characters portrayed
allied to their interaction once again totally engaged this listener."
From Folkwax.com:
"His new album Cotton has a lot more variety, more instrumentation and is more produced. Tim Lorsch, longtime
cohort of Texan Walt Wilkins, signed for the production and arranging and did play all of the beautiful string
sections. There's a lot of unexpected little gems like nice chorals and little symphonettas." - Evert Wilbrink
From San Antonio Express-News: (http://www.mysanantonio.
com/entertainment/Record_Review_Two_Tons_latest_is_no_lightweight.html)
"Baker has the uncanny ability to lay bare the gritty while celebrating the simple victories of a housemaid, a naive
Mennonite craftsman and the folks who fly signs at intersections. Life's messy. As Baker's words and music
affirm, it's worth living — even if it doesn't always rhyme." - Jim Beal, Jr.
From About.com: (http://folkmusic.about.com/od/cdreviews/fr/SamBakerCotton.htm)
"Baker's lyrics are provocative and memorable, referencing the relationship between love and mercy, the
commonalities among all people, and life's little struggles. They also reference other stories and songs common to
the American songbook." - Kim Ruehl
From Songs:Illinois: (http://www.songsillinois.net/2009/07/mp3-sam-baker-cotton-music-road-records-august-25/)
"Sam Baker’s songs have the most carefully chosen lyrics you will ever find. Because of the permanent brain
damage he incurred it’s tough for Sam to access the words he needs for his songs. As a result the songs on his
three records have fewer words than typical. But each word is a labor of love; worked on, shaped, and chosen
because it’s the perfect fit." - Craig Bonnell
From Americana Music Times: (http://www.americanamusictimes.com/americana-music-reviews.php)
"This album hits all the right notes, start to finish. Sam has never been in better voice. The songwriting is as poetic
and personal as ever, and, as usual, leaning toward the spiritual side. The production is flawless." - Steve Circeo
From For Folks Sake: (http://www.forfolkssake.com/articles/427)
"In describing Baker’s sound it’s impossible not to think of recent-era Lou Reed albums like 2000’s Ecstasy.
There’s the drawl that suggests intimacy with a variety of substances and only a casual acquaintance with
melody. There’s the stilted delivery which disrupts the rhythm of songs and keeps the listener on the edge of their
earphones. But most of all there is the voice of experience, which makes you feel as though Baker is talking
directly to you." - Paul Malloy
From Sounds Country: (http://soundscountry.com/blog/2009/08/20/sam-baker-cotton/)
"On Cotton, his observational style helps pull the threads together – the homeless and disenfranchised that dot our
landscape on Signs, the hazy night and “bourbon and ice” clinking on 'Moon' and his signature weave of traditional
songs – 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'Hard Times' from the last record, 'Dixie' and 'Meet Me in Saint Louis'
on this one all mesh in a way that makes perfect sense." - Jeff Giddens
From FAME: (http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p05744.htm)
"...it is his way with words that is the standout on this disc, both his way of putting them together to make the
song, and then the presentation of those words to us in the singing of the song." - David Pyles
From Music-News.com: (http://www.music-news.com/ShowReview.asp?H=Sam-Baker-Cotton-album-
review&nReviewID=4928&nType=1&)
5 STARS- "'Cotton’ stands alone as an album and 'Angel Hair’ stands as one of the finest love songs in any genre
released this year, but viewed as part of the trilogy it is even stronger and if you discover Sam Baker through this
album you will probably go back to the others. Simple but magnificent." - Andy Snipper
Radio:
“It’s simply brilliant.” - Joe Pareres, Third Coast, KSYM
“Baker’s songs evoke a wistfulness and melancholy that takes the listener to a place that might be uncomfortable
at times, but touches your heart at all times” - Bill Bowker, KRSH
“Cotton is a true masterpiece and went to record of the week when it arrived. A contender for album of the
year…beautiful, powerful and very very real.” - Barry Marshall Everitt, House of Mercy
“Sam Baker never ceases to amaze me. How someone can continually increase their genius from album to album
is quite extraordinary. The latest album Cotton is absolutely incredible. You will feel like you’ve been saved after
the first listen.” - Shayne Hollinger, Mandatory FM
P r e s s
| Netrhythums by Mike Davies August 2009 Sam Baker - Cotton (Music Road) In summer 1986 Baker boarded a passenger train in the Peruvian city of Cuzco. Moments later a terrorist bomb exploded, killing seven and leaving Baker partly deaf, his hand and leg mangled and suffering brain damage affecting his speech and memory. Five years ago, he began his Pretty World trilogy of albums that would address the experience and, in the process, explore the lives of other characters that entered the songwriting process. The first album, Mercy, sought to address the blast and the random manner in which some died and others lived. In 2007, Pretty World offered meditations on gratitude, obligation and beauty. Now comes the final part, an exploration of the price of forgiveness and the cost of clinging to anger, told through songs that pivot around the homeless and helpless, and of love found, lost and held together with tape. On the bluesy title track we meet a field hand hoeing cotton "for the rest of my life" like the father that walked out on his family in despair, Mennonite tells of a religious kid from Mexico who, wearing his new ‘pearl snap shirt’, found love dressed in a "short short skirt’ in a bar room and left the Lord behind, while, Palestine II (and its prequel Palestine I) unfolds the tale of a marriage that began with teenage passion in a travelling preacher’s tent and has had to hold together through a tragic accident, hard times and history repeating itself with their daughter running away "with the boy selling bibles." Speaking more than singing his narratives, Baker’s dust and gravel voice variously recalls John Prine, Dylan, Steve Earle, Tom Waits and John Trudell, his sparsely arranged American songbook music hewing to southern backwoods folk (disarmingly beautiful on the two step fiddle call and response swayer Who’s Gonna Be Your Man) and Texan country in the vein of Van Zandt and Kristofferson. Opening with a brief snatch of Dixie, sung in the round by a female voice (its ‘look away’ refrain returning to bring bitter resonance to the dark night guilty secrets of Moon) and closing on the poignant Snow with its metaphor about being lost and emotionally frozen in a drift of your own making, it is both melancholic and life-affirming. It’s hard not to be touched by the snapshots of the disenfranchised and losers who populate Signs, by the Waits- like Angel Hair where, on Christmas Eve, the singer recalls a fatal traffic accident on black ice a decade earlier, or by the unwanted pregnancy of Not Another Mary and the girl who "could not say I love you too." Even the aching piano instrumental Say The Right Words can break your heart. But, at the end of the day, between the tears, Baker reminds you that, even if you’re only getting by, life is worth persevering with and far better than the alternative. http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviews.html#sambaker |
| c o t t o n Number One Euro Anericana Chart September 2009 |
| c o t t o n Number Twelve Top Fifty Albums of Two Thousand and Nine No Depression Readers Poll |
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