There once was an invisible man from Itasca, Texas. He was probably no more invisible than you or me, because most of us go through life without really being 'noticed' by too many people. Itasca is a small rural town in Hill County, East Texas on the 35W about 10 miles north of Hillsborough and about 40 miles south of Fort Worth, laid out like a pretty chequerboard on the slightly arid landscape with exotic street names (to us) like Wampas Cat Drive (perhaps, named after the old Cherokee Indian legend). 

This invisible man was a musician and played in covers-bands way back when and wrote songs of his own, which by his own admission were in a very small box, nothing short of mediocre. But he had the wanderlust and in the mid '80s found himself in Peru with some friends. They travelled around the country and discovered that the natives of Peru were extremely hospitable. At that particular time the country had trouble with communist agitators, Sendero Luminoso more commonly known as Shining Path. 

Our invisible man and his friends found themselves in Cuzco one day and decided to visit Machu Pichu, the ancient Inca city high up in the Andes. Access to this site was by way the narrow gauge railway that transports tourists up the mountains. The small carriages that this railway uses could only seat four people in each section and our man found himself sitting directly opposite a tourist German family. The atmosphere on this train must have been buzzing with the prospect of breathtaking scenery they were about to experience. Suddenly the atmoshphere was torn apart and the journey terminated by a bomb, planted by Sendero Luminoso. It exploded in the luggage rack diagonally opposite from where our man was sitting, directly above the head of the mother of the German family. Our man was almost mortally injured by the shapnel from this bomb which left him with a severely mangled hand, severing of the femoral artery and veins, a subdural haematoma and severe damage to both ears, amongst other injuries. The German family, two parents and a child were killed instantly. 

Without the foresight and compassionate attention of someone administering first aid to our man he would doubtless have died on the spot. Later, after 17 reconstructive operations this man has made it back to life and with all the trials, tribulations, pain and strange experiences, his return journey must have had a carthartic effect on him, giving him a different point of perspective on life and when sufficiently recovered and when he was able, he felt the need to tell his story with insightful vignettes of his experiences of life. 

His dedication to his music and the incident he experienced has forced him learn to play left-handed guitar, which is quite an achievement in itself considering he doesn't have the full use of his damaged right hand. He wrote numerous observational songs which were put onto CDs. But the CDs did not sell very well at all, because few people responded, perhaps it was like the street busker in Joni Mitchell's song 'For Free' in which the street busker was not appreciated fully by passers-by because, as the song goes "He had never been on their TV screens, so they passed his music by. But that one-man band by the quick lunch stand was playing real good for free". 

This period of inactivity continued until an artist, producer and friend of our man sent his first CD to Bob Harris in the UK. Bob played the first CD called 'Mercy, which he fell in love with and played it incessantly on his BBC2 radio show. What a good nose Bob has for gems, and as he has done for so many artists he provided the tipping-point and requests for our man's CDs grew and grew until they had problems supplying the demand. 

Because of the demand our man discovered that he had become extremely visible and so out of the mists of obscurity and into the light of appreciation and recognition, walked Sam Baker who played for us tonight. 

What makes an artist popular? What is the definition of greatness? What attracts music lovers to particular kinds of music? The answer is difficult to define and is ultimately a subjective matter for the individual. But Sam Baker ticks all these boxes and having heard all about him, we were longing to meet him. His voice is not particularly strong, neither is his guitar playing, but that's hardly surprising because of continuing suffering he has to put up with. Apart from his difficulty with his hand, he has been left profoundly deaf in one ear and the other ear suffers from loud tinitus, which would interfere with anyones's ability to produce good music. But somehow, Sam overcomes all of these problems and delivers songs with a beauty that stirs emotions. He has an uncanny ability to paint pictures in his songs with succinct clarity. 

I have been present at the sound-checks of most of the Acoustic Sussex performers and I have never seen anybody sound-check so rapidly as Sam, perhaps because he is a very limited in the way that he can't hear all the tones and nuances of the sound, like we are fortunate to be able to do. But it is quite remarkable that without too much time spent preparing the sound he hits the spot perfectly anyway. 

As for the lyrics, to paraphrase Sam, as he said to Jody Denberg in last October's KGSR interview he has no room for words that don't carry the load and that each word is viewed as having a metaphoric backpack in order to do its job and carry that message and that he views the way he hones his lyrics as if using his songwriting ability as a sharp implement and his intention is to reach "Maximum Blade Sharpness" to create meaningful lyrics. Well, he sure has attained that "Maximum Blade Sharpness" The songs he has written so far are so sharp, they will make your ears bleed with delectation. Listen to two hauntingly beautiful albums 'Mercy' and 'Pretty World' - not to mention if you are fortunate to catch him live and you will know what I mean. 

Don't pass this music by, give Sam your dosh! It'll be an investment you won't regret. Sam is a good friend of Anais Mitchell and says she's "The Real Deal" and any friend of Anais' is a friend of mine. Doesn't he have impeccable taste? 

The entertainment had begun earlier by a very attractive young French woman singer/songwriter called Adeline. Just straightforward amplified acoustic guitar and a wonderful pure voice. The songs, sung mainly in English but the few that were sung in French seemed to carry that extra bit of quality as they sound so much more sexy. Adeline told me that she is living in Hastings. Funny I thought. French people, Hastings. These two words go together. I wonder if she is part of the advance party for a repeat of 1066 or a survivor of the last major French booze cruise. Whatever reason she came by here is fine by me because she executes her craft with such ease and power when she turns it on. Some people have likened her to Alanis Morrisette, I can't see the likeness personally, but that's not to take anything away from this young lady's talent. She's her own person. Take a listen to her album 'Promesses'. She did quite a few songs from this album at The Ravenswood and as well as her latent talent which she displayed to us, the album has the additional dynamics of a band performance. Check it out. Another well put together evening by Martin!...Again. 

Maximum Bob