Sam Baker is a man of few words. They are however, always beautifully chosen, and fully wrought. He places them as one would place the plants and objects in a Zen Garden, for maximum consideration. He is complicated. His website, which you must explore, is stark: black, white, and shades of gray. Baker is a man who has had to turn inward, to relearn the use of his body and brain after a Peruvian train bombing that almost killed him in 1986. It took years to heal, to reconnect. The road back was impossible, arduous, but it opened up new vistas for Sam in art, poetry, music. He put his first CD Mercy out in 2004, the first in a trilogy of compelling song paintings with sparse instrumentation and poetic delivery. It was followed by Pretty World in 2007, and Cotton in 2009. All three albums are subtitled, in order of release: "Everyone is at the mercy of another one's dreams," "How Beautiful are these days," and "Talk about forgiveness."

Sam Baker approaches life with an amazingly positive attitude considering what he has been through. From his website, "Everything is a gift at this point," he declares. "I went through the anger and the bitterness—deeply. But that energy didn’t get me anywhere. It’s toxic. And ultimately, I did come to a point where these days are beautiful. Because they are so short and so quick to pass. And that’s all we’ve got—no matter what we hold in our hands, drive around in, put in the bank, or shower ourselves with. All we’ve got is this one breath," he concludes. "And then, if we’re lucky, we have the next breath." We are lucky to have had Sam Baker on the Music Fog bus at Cherokee Creek Music Festival.

- Jessie Scott