Too late to stop now
At fifty-five, Don Baker has no plans to stop playing Blues. Because it's hip, he tells Eoin Butler
Don Baker is explaining to me why he decided to donate the proceeds from his new single 'Sea of Heartbreak' to the Irish Tsunami Trust.
"Were you watching the telly last week? They're half-expecting another tsumami over there. But even without this stuff happening they're already in dire straits."
Forty minutes before this I was looking down a list of questions I'd prepared (boring... boring... too fawning... not fawning enough) and wondering which to open with. On a whim I opted for "So, whatcha been up to Don?"
"I don't trust charities really. A lot of the money goes on administration. But with these people there is no administration cost because they're all either from Sri Lanka or they're married to someone from there or whatever. So for instance they even pay for their own flights back and forth. The first thing they've done is they've bought 50 boats and brought them over and gave them to fishermen so they could resume their livelihood. Now they're trying to just raise as much as they can to help rebuild people's lives."
The short answer is that the blues legend has been up to quite a bit lately. He's just finished filming an episode of BBC1's 55 Degrees North in which he played the role of an Irish Traveller. (I ask if his accent was better than Brad Pitt's in Snatch. He reckons so. "Everyone raved about that, but I thought he was incoherent.")
Before that he was in Zanzibar making contacts and laying the groundwork for some recording sessions there next January. He previously undertook a similar unsuccessful mission to Kenya. ("To be honest with ya, they tried to screw me for money. So I basically told them to fuck off.") This trip was far more productive. In fact he was quite a hit over there. In a bar/restaurant called Freddie Mercury's the owner came out to welcome him.
"He says 'Here, would there be any chance you might play for us tonight, even just a couple a' songs?' So I says 'Look, I might and I mightn't.' But they're very cheeky. Before I left there was a big sign up outside saying 'APPEARING HERE TONIGHT – DON BAKER'. So while I was checking out this other gig he rang the guy I was with on his mobile saying the place is packed, they're waiting for me. So I went over and done about four numbers and it went down a storm."
Another project he has planned is a black and white DVD. "I dunno should I be telling you this, someone'll steal the idea. I'll have two Don Bakers playing, one Don Baker playing guitar and the other Don Baker playing harmonica, if you get my drift. I'm a pretty proficient guitarist – a lot of people don't know that. I'll wear clothes that'll make it ageless as well. It's not something that people will jump up and down about but I think it'll stand the test of time."
Timelessness and class are qualities important to Baker. "I hate that craic when there's something that's in vogue. I remember recording one of my albums and (Bruce Springsteen's) 'Dancing In The Dark' was out. It had that snare drum sound de-de-de-de, de-de-de-de and everyone's going 'Let's get that snare sound!' And you know, fuck that. Why copy someone else? Do your own thing. People like Robert Johnson and Skip James, they just went into the studio and recorded the whole album in eight hours. You can either play or you can't play, that's my contention.
"My own son is into Metallica. He's thirteen. But he's also into the blues. You'll always find kids who are clued in, as opposed to kids who are into Ronan Keating or Westlife. If I was a pop star there's no way I'd still be playing at 55. But most of the great bluesmen – Sonny Taylor, the harmonica player, played right up until a week before he died, same with John Lee Hooker. You don't have to be hip or young to play the blues. Although of course I think blues music is hip. Really hip."
?More Don Baker is playing The Spirit Store, Dundalk 9 April and The Burren College of Art, Co Clare 16 April