Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

Fun in KC

Had a great time in Kansas City today and yesterday. Tomorrow I fly out early.

As it turned out, the two gigs yesterday were cancelled, so we ended up rehearsing in one of the empty "overflow" rooms. It felt good to play with Mali, since it'd been awhile from our last rehearsal. After rehearsal last night we went down to the Plaza area and found a wonderful Irish Pub to hang out in for a bit. Earlier yesterday I wandered around WestPort with my sister, drank some coffee, went to a great greek restaurant and visited Spivey's Books, where I picked up a Somerset Maugham book and thumbed through some vintage texts on coin magic. I also looked at a book about the history of the Ozarks and considered buying that, but in the end I decided against it.

Today's show was a blast. (As a side note - I realized that the first concert I ever attended was most likely in the place we played today.) We played for about an hour and by the end of the show everyone was on their feet jumping up and down. It was exciting and inspiring. Justin's dad took some photos, so I'll try to post some of those in the coming weeks.

After the show I hung in the green room for a bit and munched on some snacks and then I met up again with my sister and my longtime friend Chris Talbert and we went over to Crown Center and caught an early movie. After that we headed off to dinner at Lucky's (a burger and more place near Mission, KS).

We eventually returned to my sister's house.

Playing today felt good and the energy we felt from the crowd was great. I'm not sure the final quote on the attendence, but a rough guess puts the number of audience members at around 4000 or so. Tomorrow it's back to Nashville, to finish my holiday break and get ready to photograph my cousin in-laws' wedding scheduled for New Years Day. I'll be returning to North Carolina next Monday - or at least that's my hope for now...

Biography

Note:  This bio is current as of 2/11/05, for the most recent bio, click the link labeled Biography (pdf) under the heading, "Credentials" in the column to your left.

Dale Baker

Biography

After growing up and playing in the burgeoning country music scene of Branson, Missouri, Dale went to Texas to more thoroughly pursue his musical interests, attending college at University of North Texas and eventually moving to Dallas to play with a variety of acts ranging from singer/songwriters to contemporary gospel to reggae.           

In the fall of 1993 Dale began performing and recording with Sixpence None The Richer, a group from Austin, Texas and in December of 1996 moved to Nashville with the band. Sixpence was named "#1 Breakthrough Artist" for 1999 in the CHR/ POP, Hot AC and AC radio formats by Radio & Records (R&R) magazine. Their self-titled album was RIAA certified Platinum and was twice nominated for a GRAMMY in 1998 and again in 1999. Their song "Kiss Me" was the #1 most played song in over 11 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and Israel, among others and topped VH 1’s “Video Countdown.” The song was also nominated for a GRAMMY, appeared on sitcoms and soaps and most notably was played for over 200 million viewers at Prince Edward’s 1999 wedding. In addition, "Kiss Me" was the #1 movie soundtrack single for 1999, according to Billboard magazine.

Dale's drumming can also be heard on Sixpence's follow-up single, "There She Goes," which became the #28 most played song of 2000 on the combined Billboard Modern AC and Adult Top 40 chart and the #39 most played song of 2000 on Billboard's AC chart. In 2002 his playing with Sixpence was heard on the WB network shows Birds of Prey and the season finale of Felicity.

In 2003 Sixpence released Divine Discontent, and Dale's playing is featured prominently on that recording as well, including the Top 20 hit, “Breathe Your Name.” Another song from Divine Discontent - "I've Been Waiting" (with Dale on drums)- was featured in the Gwyneth Paltrow/ Miramax comedy "A View from the Top" as well as on the soundtrack released by Curb Records. Dale's drumming can also be heard in the Paramount movie and on the Virgin soundtrack "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," starrring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

In the past ten years, Dale has been privileged to lend his distinct drumming and percussion skills to an ever growing, diverse range of artists and songwriters, including Stewart Copeland (She’s All That movie soundtrack), Natalie Imbruglia (Demos), Jars of Clay (Demo), Michael W. Smith (Exodus compilation), Emmylou Harris (Roaring Lambs compilation), and The Rolling Creek Dippers (comprised of Buddy and Julie Miller, Mark Olsen, Victoria Williams, and Jim Lauderdale) for the compilation, Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons. He has recorded for labels such as Mammoth, Virgin, Almo Sounds, Elektra, Epic, Sony, RCA and played on jingles and commercial projects for Southwest Airlines, Pepsi, and Scholastic Books. He's also performed on numerous television and radio shows in the United States, Europe and Japan, including Late Show with David Letterman (CBS), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC), Late Night with Conan O' Brien (NBC), and Top of the Pops (BBC).

Dale continues to lend his talent to many emerging and established regional singer/ songwriters such as Judd and Maggie (Maryland), Dave Potts (Southern Alabama), Steven Jackson (Middle Tennesee), Karl Ruch, Sam Hensley, Spencer-Acuff (North Carolina), Drew Kennedy (South Texas), Kim Taylor (Ohio/ Northern Kentucky) and The Basics (Northern California and North Carolina).

Currently you can hear Dale playing on new releases by Sixpence ("The Early Years," and "The Best of..."), on television commercials (Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo), television series such as 7^th Heaven (on the WB), touring with modern worship band Mali, recording with The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers and Daniel Hart’s (The Polyphonic Spree, Go Machine) new project, The Physics of Meaning. Additionally, Dale is continuing to produce and write songs for his own project, The Maudlin Fee.

//

Mali gig this week

I'll be playing with Mali this Wednesday and Thursday in Kansas City.

What:  One Thing Conference

Where: 
Kansas City Convention Center-Downtown
Municipal Auditorium
301 W 13th St
Kansas City , MO 64105

When:
Wednesday 7:00pm
Thursday 2:00pm
(schedule subject to change)

Hope to see you there!

The 12th Day of Drumming, whew!

Well, if you've been following along this long...thanks for being a part of the journey!  If anything you should have a clearer picture of my "mad drummin skillz" and hopefully are savoring the great artists and songs you've just heard.

Speaking of great artists, Steve Taylor recorded today's song for the compilation CD Roaring Lambs.  It's entitled Shortstop and is one of my favorites from that album.  Steve's lyrics are wonderful.  We had fun recording the drums as well.  I think in the end, we did about 43 tracks of drums to get that nice drum corp sound...

Here's the blurb from my old demo:

This was another overdub fest. Steve dictated what parts he wanted to hear and when it was over I had created a whole marching drum section with woodblock, triangle and tambourine touches thrown in for good measure. Steve is such a great songwriter and it was an honor to be hand picked (so to speak) to play on this tribute of his to Bob Briner. John Painter is playing guitar and bass, and I think Steve is playing piano as well. Russ Long engineered this and we did the drum tracking at Oceanway Nashville.

Download 12_steve_taylor_shortstop.mp3

Enjoy, and thanks for taking part in my 12 days of Christmas drumming!

To purchase the Roaring Lambs CD, go here.

Two more to go!

This song is real special to me.  I always enjoy collaborating with my good friend Wade Baynham and I thought we worked together real well on this track.  Today's track features Jason Harrod (a severly underrated and underappreciated artist if their ever was one) singing Brian Wilson's "In My Room."  We kept the arrangement fairly close to the original, though we might have taken a few liberties here and there.  You'll hear me playing a whole Chevy Pickup Load of stuff ranging from Timpani to Chimes to beatbox and a regular 'ole drum kit.  Can you dig it?

Download 11_jason_harrod_in_my_room.mp3

For more info on Jason, click here.

To purchase Jason's cd's click here.

To purchase the compilation CD that features the track listed above, click here.

Don't forget...

Download 10_sixpence_none_the_richer_we_have_forgotten.mp3 .

and may all your Christmas' be bright (or something to that effect).

Today's song is from the self-titled Sixpence None the Richer album.  We Have Forgotten opened up the album and is one of my favorite Sixpence songs I recorded.

To learn more about Sixpence None the Richer visit this place.

To purchase the album this song appears on, look at my list to the right of this blog, and there should be a link.  Otherwise, check your local music store or my good friends at Amazon.com.

On the 9th day of drumming...

my blogger gave to me:

Saving Daylight by Steven Jackson off of his album, Home from the Fight.

This is another Rob Seals production of which I was thrilled to be a part.

Download 9_steven_jackson_saving_daylight.mp3

To learn more about Steven Jackson go to his website,  http://www.stevenjackson.net/music.html
and to purchase his music go to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jacksons3.

And on another note I wish you a blessed and peaceful Christmas Eve.  Thanks for reading and visiting my blog.

dale

Track #8

We're closing in on the last of the tunes.  I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard so far, we've got 5 more tracks to go.  So right to it:

Drew Kennedy's "I Do,"  (whoops...sorry it's a different track, I named the file wrong...the actual track is "Livin and Dyin") from the album Hillbilly Pilgrim.

Download 8_drew_kennedy_i_do.mp3

Drew is a rising Country artist from Texas.  I really enjoyed playing on his stuff and loved the rich tone of his voice.  This is one of the more "down-tempo" tracks I played on.  Actually this song has a more traditional country feel to it...you can hear more of his songs (including I Do) by visiting the CD Baby link below.

For more about Drew Kennedy, visit his website.

To purchase "Hillbilly Pilgrim" go to CD Baby.

Here it is, track # 7 for those of you keeping score at home...

On the 7th day of Christmas drumming....

This is one of my favorite Sixpence tracks that I played on:

"You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch"  was recorded in Nashville at Russ Long's Carport Studio with Derri Daugherty engineering and helping us get the sounds.  Phil Madeira played mellotron on this track.

I overdubbed "soft-shoe" wood block and a few other things...

Excerpt from my old demo page: 
"Lots of vintage sounding stuff on this one. We even worked in some soft-shoe stuff. And I thought I'd never use my old wood block. I also got to use my vintage hats (they sound like pie plates) and used a tambourine as my snare drum. Phil Madeira played some great Mellotron and Derri Daugherty engineered this stylistic tour de force."

Download 7_sixpence_none_the_richer_youre_a_mean_one_mr_grinch.mp3

For more info on Sixpence None the Richer, go to their website:  www.sixpence-ntr.com

To purchase Sixpence CD's you can click on the links located on the front page of my Blog (and if you're reading this on Dec. 22nd, you'll see those located to the left of this post.)

On the 6th day of drumming...

Alrighty, here is track 6 (and sorry for the glitches...I guess there was a problem when I converted the  track to an mp-3...ugh - the glitches are pretty annoying...)):

Neil Young's "Helpless" as performed live with Over the Rhine at one of their annual Christmas Shows a few years back.  I think the guest vocalists are Erin McKeown and Buddy and Julie Miller.  This track also appears on the OTR CD, "The Cutting Room Floor."

And yes, that's me playing drums.

Download over_the_rhine_helpless_live.mp3

To purchase "The Cutting Room Floor" and other Over the Rhine CD's visit Paste Music.

To visit the Over the Rhine website go here.

5th day of drumming

Today's track comes to you via Bryan Field's  CD "Way."

Rob Seals produced this and I think you'll enjoy it.

Download bryan_field_whats_been_given.mp3

To Purchase Bryan Field's Way  visit CD Baby.

Bryan's website is here.

4th day of drumming

Today's track come's from Spencer Acuff's Moment Golden cd.

I recorded that album with them a couple of years ago over at Overdub Lane, here in Durham, NC.

The album was mixed by John Plymale.

Download between_the_lines_by_spencer_acuff.mp3

For more on Spencer Acuff click here.

To purchase their CD, Moment Golden, click here.

3rd day of drumming

Alright now, we're in day 3 of our 12 days of drumming.

Here's a track from Kim Taylor's debut So Black So Bright.

It's name is "Down" and we recorded it in an old decommissioned Catholic Church up in Cinncinati. Jack Henderson produced the record.  If you haven't heard the CD, you're missing out.  Kim's got a great voice and the CD is beautiful.

Download Down_by_Kim_Taylor.mp3

For more on Kim Taylor go here.

To Purchase So Black So Bright, go to CD Baby, plus you can listen to more clips from the album there.

2nd day of drumming

Okay a blast from the past.  I recorded this song with Honey, "back in the day."  I can't remember what year, but it was the late 90's.  Dan and Steve (if I remember correctly) from Jars of Clay produced this track and another track I played on.  Anyway, hope you like it.

Download lost_on_you_by_honey.mp3

For more info on Honey, check out their label:  Northern Records
and their blog.

12 days of drumming

So here it is, the first day of drumming:

This track is called Underneath and it's from the album "Grow" by The Basics.  This features my drumming.  Hope you like it. 

Download underneath_the_basics.mp3

Purchase the record at CD Baby