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

Wistful Birthday

Ah, Birthdays...each year they come and go and give me a moment of reflection about my life, where I've been and where I'm going...dreams fulfilled, goals unmet, disappointments, etc.  Today is my birthday once again and as I was driving around this morning I couldn't help but think and be grateful that I'm still alive...I mean when I was 18, or 12 or 5...I had no idea that I'd still be alive now...I couldn't imagine how it would be to have lived 25, 29, 30, 33, (you get the idea) years...and especially being the melancholy sort of guy that I am...there were some dark days for sure that I couldn't imagine living through the month, let alone another year...you know?  So I'm glad I hung in there to see this year and to experience everything previous year's have brought my way - good, bad, joyful, ecstatic, melancholy, and holy...Life is a pretty amazing thing, and I never want to take it for granted.

I awoke to the sound of our phone ringing this morning and then not hearing the answering machine pick-up I thought, oh it's probably my parents singing me Happy Birthday again this year, but they're waiting for me to pick up the phone.  Because what was happening was, the phone kept ringing every few minutes until we finally picked up - it probably rang like 5 or 6 times, with a 4-5 ring cycle each of those times (does that make sense?).  After I saw it was 6:00 in the morning, I realized that whoever was calling this early was calling because of an emergency and that kinda scared me a  bit...Anyway, to not go into to much detail - it wasn't my parents and no one was dying (thankfully) but because of who was calling I had to get out of bed and do some early morning driving, which I'm thankful for, because it brought about my present thoughts.

It's amazing the things that shape our life and give our life meaning.  I realized this morning how much a good CD (go easy on me...it's not that I don't embrace the new technology - I just can't afford it...however that said...my CD was burned from files I downloaded from iTunes...) can just make things so much more vibrant, joyful, and reflective in my life.  The CD I was listening to in the car was Magnet's On Your Side.  Thanks to my friend Nathan who turned me onto this band (really it's just one guy)...I was able to really listen to the words this morning and his choice of production ideas and those things mixed with the raindrops and the hazy early morning mugginess just made me get all reflective and thankful and oh, I guess you could say, wistful...

Btw...some good things have happened on this day through-out history (brought to you by this):

• In 1967, Jerusalem was re-unified as Israel removed barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector.
• In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty, as it was being meted out, could constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." (The ruling prompted states to revise their capital punishment law
• In 1992, a divided Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion, but the justices also weakened the right as defined by the Roe v. Wade decision.
• Movie producer Robert Evans (if you haven't seen The Kid Stays in the Picture...well you should...it's a great documentary about moviemaking...)
• DJ Shadow
• Brandon Forbes (aka Big Cougar)
• Kara Kindall (Parrish)

And my closing thought - thanks again to the Washington Post for this quote:

"Thought for Today: "These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed ... Great necessities call out great virtues." _ Abigail Adams, American first lady (1744-1818)."

The Perfect Man Trailer

Okay, so it's definitely been confirmed that it IS my drumming you hear (as part of Sixpence's hit,
"Breathe Your Name") for a brief but glorious moment in the trailer for the movie The Perfect Man (starring Hillary Duff and Heather Locklear along with Dennis DeYoung - from Styx - playing a Dennis DeYoung impersonator). 

See and hear the trailer for yourself at your local movie theater or check out the movie website here.

I made the List (-o-rama)!

(I'm not sure why, but I feel a little like Steve Martin's character in "The Jerk" when he finds his name in the phone book and runs outside and yells, "I'm Somebody!, I'm Somebody...")

So in the July 2005 issue of CCM Magazine, in "Chris Well's Invincible CCM List-O-Rama" (whew!), you can find my blog listed among 4 others on page 37.  Yes, my blog is listed...the very one you are reading right now!  Can you believe it...out of millions of blogs they (specifically Chris Well) chose to feature my little 'ole blog...and I quote:

"Frankly Dale Baker offers one of the sharpest-looking blogs anywhere..."

Thanks Chris for the kind words and encouragement!  And thank you CCM readers for stumbling into and onto my little corner of the web I hope you like what you see and read.  Welcome!  Feel free to stay a while, browse all my links and leave a comment if you want, it's easy -  just click the "comment" link below...

And in case you were wondering, here are the other folks listed in the CCM feature:

1. The Crabb Family
2. Newsboys
3. Shaun Groves
4. Dale Baker (yes, that's me you're reading right now...)
5. Bethany Dillon

File Sharing etc...

Yes, once again I have Bob Lefsetz to thank for the hot tip...but still I thought I'd pass it along.

Hillary Rosen has some good thoughts to say about all this file sharing business...Check out her essay here...

War Cry Photos...

George came through for me and so I've posted his shots of War Cry (that relate to me and Mali)...go take a look!  By the way, you can get the shirt I'm wearing over at Threadless.  They are the coolest...

See the photos from War Cry here (my place) and here (george's place)...

For Sale: Vintage Gretsch (Round Badge) Snare Drum

note:  Sorry but this drum has already been sold (db)

I've got a Vintage Round Badge Champagne Sparkle 14 x 5.5 in Gretsch Snare Drum for sale. As far as I know, it has all original hardware on it, except for a Ludwig Snare Throwoff.  I bought the drum at Fork's Drum Closet soon after moving to Nashville because it matched the Gretsch kit I had recently bought (thanks to Mark Nash's wise advice) in Springfield, MO from Ed Bunge's Percussion Shop.  This all happened back in 1995-1996...

It's a nice drum and it' been a good companion, but I'm trying to thin out my collection of drums and thought I'd set this one free.  It's looking for a good home.

Item:
Vintage Gretsch Round Badge Snare Drum (14" x 5.5")
w/ Champagne Sparkle Finish

All original hardware, EXCEPT a Ludwig Throw-off

Price:
$150 plus shipping to be determined.

Sorry, but I have no pictures to post at this time of the drum.  If you are truly interested, send me an email or leave a comment below and I'll get you all the pictures you need to make your decision!  Thanks!

I have pictures.  Click here to see photos of the drum.

Now's the time....

If you been thinking of getting one of my hot apparel items...now's the time to do it!

Until July 14, 2005, you can get $3 off all apparel items over at my store with the Coupon Code:  LOLSAV 

Yes, you have to use the Coupon code to get the deal... so let me repeat myself:

Be sure to use Coupon code:  LOLSAV

Alright?  See you in the check out line...

the physics of meaning is getting close...

I just heard some of the almost completed tracks from The Physics of Meaning CD that I played on...it is sounding pretty cool.  Apparently the CD will be coming out this Fall, but they may be releasing an mp-3 or two over at their website...Theres this one song I played on  that's in 11 or something close to it...called Down at Columbia and Cameron which is pretty cool...There's also some great programming and sounds on the disc by Alex Lazara...he is a god...You can check out what's going on with The Physics of Meaning over here.  Oh btw, currently you can download the mp-3 of Columbia and Cameron (it's kinda hidden under the "Music" section on the left side of the page)...so check it out if you want!

WarCry

War Cry was a blast (sorry for the pun...)  I've not had that much fun playing in a while...

Each night (Tues through Fri) I'd show up for sound-check around 6:00pm and run through a few of the songs we (Mali) would be doing that evening.  We'd finish sound-check and then I'd start warming up my hands by playing on my practice pad.  Usually we'd go on after the evening event had started and play for 30 minutes or so and then the speaker for the evening would come out and give his "talk."  After the talk, we'd come out and play about 30-45 more minutes of music.  Each night was a unique experience, but the standout had to have been last night when about 100 students all came up on stage and started dancing, waving flags and generally just having a great time...I swear I played one groove for like a total of 20 minutes...it was like playing drums for a rave!  Most of the time, instead of following our regular set-list we would extend our songs or let them melt into the next song on the list, or even a completely different one.  Nathan (the lead singer of Mali) did a great job of signaling cues that allowed me to adjust my playing to the mood of the moment. 

George said he'd have some pics up over at his blog, so as soon as I check his site out I'll see if I can't put the link in here to re-direct you over there. 

Fayetteville was a fun town to hang out in...I checked out the new Batman movie which was terrific - I loved how Michael Caine said, "Never." and also got a chance to view some of the exhibits at the Special Forces museum...I can't wait to get back down there and spend more time at the museum...it was fascinating...

The heat was stifling, but we made the best of it and had a great time...The teens, adults and everyone else were splendid to be around and I look forward to hopefully doing it again next year!

I'll be in Fayetteville, NC (home of the Home of the Airborne and Special Operations Forces) this week, if you need me...

No, I won't be playing for our military but I hope to hang out with one of the guys I went to High School with who is a Green Beret or something like that... okay, I think that info is classified - sorry

Anyway...I'll be at the War Cry event being held by Grace Churches International. This event is a huge youth conference type event that brings in a ton of kids and adults for seminars, worship and generally a re-charging of batteries, so to speak.  I'll be down there playing with Mali from Tuesday until Saturday morning!  I think we're mainly scheduled for the night times and Saturday morning...but you never know with these things...sometimes the schedule can change at a moment's notice! 

I've never been to Fayetteville, so I'm looking forward to checking out the town...and doing some reading...I've got two books I'm trying to finish (one of which is this) and I've got to start preparing for my next youth camp (coming up in July) when I'll be one of the Artists-in-Residence at the Duke Youth Academy.

So I'm looking forward to a nice week of playing, studying and thinking...should be fun!  I'll let you know how it goes...

Videos...from "back in the day"

Just in case you had any doubts...along comes Yahoo and hosts some of the videos I appeared in with Sixpence:

At the following link (it doesn't work with FireFox so make sure you're using IE) you can view Angeltread (from Sixpence's album This Beautiful Mess) in which the band gets soaked with paint, Ben Pearsons daughter walks around Nashville (but it looks alot like post-WW 2 France), Firecrackers and chainsaws create un-mentionable havoc.  Subtitles are in French.

The other video you can see me on is There She Goes,  which oddly enough features Sixpence at an Art Gallery (in San Francisco - no less)  that gets blown to bits by the video's end.  Thankfully, there were no paint splatters this time (it had already dried by the time we got there) and they put in a hot-young Hollywood star (Adam Goldberg - he did a cameo on Friends...among many other things...) to take the attention off of the band, since we all looked pretty much like deer in the headlights...really, though I did my best to "ROCK OUT"...but maybe I was over-acting...you be the judge.

And the third video, Breathe Your Name, you can hear me drumming, but I make no appearances in the video as I had left the band before they started shooting (the video that is).  Anyway at least in this video you can't accuse me of overacting.

And just in case you missed it...here is the link to the Sixpence None the Richer videos over at Yahoo:

http://launch.yahoo.com/ar-264795-videos--Sixpence-None-The-Richer

(Brandon (not dickerson) you know who you are ...the hyperlinks are for you man...have a good day at work)

ah, summer...

Yes, summer is upon us here in North Carolina...the days have been hot and humid and then if we're lucky it rains later in the day to cool everything off.  I was thinking of what summer used to mean to me and thought I'd write down my thoughts for you...

When I was in college I used to come home every summer and work at Silver Dollar City a theme park close to my home that I grew up more or less obsessed with.  I thought it was such a wonderful job!  I played drums in their "Saloon" show and then later was paid to dress up in some comfortable hillbilly clothes and roam the streets of the "City" and chat people up, perform little skits (for lack of a better term) and once a day, I was able to fulfill my stuntman fantasies and get to fall off a building as part of one of the aforementioned skits.

After my time at Silver Dollar City, I was fortunate to spend two summers working at Disney World in Florida and was able to work with and meet alot of great players there...

Later on - post college -  I spent less time going back home and working over the summer.  There was one summer I went back and spent two weeks playing for Shoji Tabuchi, who (at the time) was becoming one of the big stars in my hometown of Branson.  I was fortunate to sub for my friend James Ingals who was going on a vacation and picked me to fill in (literally, I suppose) for him while he was gone.

After that I soon joined Sixpence None the Richer and spent many summers playing shows on the road and at the various festivals.  We played alot of amusement parks like Six Flags in Georgia, Stone Mountain (though not really an amusement park), Darien Lakes up in New York and even travelled to Greenbelt (just a big farm really) and then to Flevo Fest (which was held NEAR an amusement park...we could see one of the cool rollercoasters from the stage when we played).  Oh yeah, we played Cornerstone which (like Greenbelt) is more or less a big farm area...anyway, I'm sure I'm leaving out a whole bunch of places we played...but I always had fond memories of the summer touring season...[note:  I also have fond memories of our times travelling in a van and in rental cars to various radio stations during the early promotional (guerilla style, if you will) stages of the Sixpence record that featured "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes"...it was a fascinating time and exciting to see our work (and of course, the efforts of others) really pay off, so to speak.  I seem to remember alot of this promotional work occuring during the summer as well... ]

Other summer memories...it was summer that I played with Sixpence on the David Letterman Show which stands out as one of my favorite memories from my time with them.  It was summer when I recorded a song with Emmylou Harris and Sixpence None the Richer for the "Roaring Lambs" compilation record.  It was summer when I played a series of shows at some Indian Reservations with Sixpence and then later hung out with Rich Mullins.

All this to say, summer has always been something I've looked forward to.  I hope your summer is filled with some great memories and exciting moments...

This summer-I know this has nothing to do with drumming or really anything other than expressing my supreme geekiness-I'm looking forward to visiting with my family back in Branson and possibly spending some time again, roaming the streets of Silver Dollar City...rumour has it they have this awesome rollercoaster that is new this year, I'm trying to build up enough courage to actually ride it...I still have a couple months before my trip to psych myself up...

Festival Season is Upon Us!

I have some new designs over at my CafePress store.  I think they are diverse and all around generally cool, especially the one I did to signify that yes, (music) Festival season is upon us.  So how about celebrating the "season" and purchasing a limited edition, (probably one of a kind too!) Dale Baker official t-shirt?!

And remember when you use coupon code: GRDAD05,  you can get $10 off orders over $30. (Act quick though, because this offer is only good until June 14th.)

 

Okay, no more sales pitches today.  Have a great summer, remember to read the small print and be careful out there driving to all the shows!

Claire Holley Sit-in

My good friend Claire Holley came back to the area for a show the other night (Friday) at St. Philips Episcopal Church to benefit the Urban Ministries of Durham.  I was pretty exhausted from having spent the entire night before tweaking my shop over at CafePress, but there was no way I was going to miss the show (plus, the fact that I usually volunteer to help set up at these shows at St. Philips and I'd missed the last few shows...so I was feeling like I needed to help out if I could).  As it turned out, set-up was super quick and easy, my family and I were able to chat with Claire before the show, catch up on things, talk about LA (where she is now residing) and then rehearse some songs together...yes, I got to sit in with Claire!

Claire had called me a couple of days before the show and asked if I'd be willing and able to sit in on a few songs with her, and so we made a plan.  I brought my Djembe and some brushes and I played on about 4 songs in her first set, and then about 3 or so songs in her second set.  It was a blast.  Even though it's been two or so years since I last played with her (before she moved to LA), I remembered the arrangements and drum parts as if we'd never stopped playing together (too bad Rob couldn't be there, 'cause then it would've been just like old times!)

Claire's voice and playing sounded as good as ever and it seemed like she even played some new songs, so who know's?  Maybe there is a new album in the works?  I forgot to ask her...

Anyway, thanks Claire for letting me be a part of your time here in Durham!  And if you haven't heard Claire's music yet, do yourself a favor and pick up one of her CD's!

Dale Baker Merchandise!

I've re-opened my Cafe Press store and have updated the products there to hopefully be more like something you'd want to wear.  For now everything has the same design on the front (a modified swirly "B") in various sizes. 

If you see a shirt or design and you think it'd look better with a smaller "swirly B", let me know and I'll go in and make the changes on the product.  My hope is that I'll be adding more designs in the future.  (If you have any suggestions for a design or would like to design something yourself for my store, let me know by leaving a comment below or sending me an email.)

Btw, I've kept the prices as low as I can without giving the items away, and so I hope that you find the prices reasonable (and buy lots of t-shirts/ buttons/ magnets/ bookbags/ postcards/ baby shirts, etc.)

Oh and as an extra incentive until June 14th you can get $10 off orders over $30.  Make sure you use the following coupon code:

Coupon code: GRDAD05 

And with that said, let the purchasing frenzy begin!

Go check out my store by clicking here!