‘I like to read the audience’
Music legend Don Baker brings impromptu show to Nenagh
'The greatest harmonica player in the world’ Don Baker will perform at Nenagh Arts Centre this month, and not even he knows what to expect.
After a career spanning 50 years and 17 albums, the rock and blues singer-songwriter is widely and rightly regarded as one of the finest exponents of his favoured genres. Don has a whole host of accolades to his credit and he has inspired generations of musicians with his inimitable voice and skill on the harmonica and guitar.
The above description was bestowed upon him by Bono. Don has shared stages with the likes of Tom Jones, Sinead O’Connor and Van Morrison.
He is also a renowned actor, most notably for his roles in ‘The Name of the Father’ and ‘Fair City’.
But the Dubliner has now reached the point in his life where he is no longer interested in the big-stage limelight of international tours and TV show interviews. He is quite content now to do a short run of small-scale, intimate gigs that he enjoys as much as his many fans.
“I've been to countries all over the world but I'm 73 now. I don't want to be travelling,” Don said. “Writing songs and doing the gigs - that's what really keeps me going.”
That said, he has just returned from a trip to Tanzania, where he played a clutch of gigs including a festival in Zanzibar. But Don has been visiting the African country for the last 20 years and regards the experience as a “retreat”. He has made lots of friends there and meets with musicians from all over the world, making collaborations that may lead to another album in the future.
SPIRITUAL HEALING
It is an experience that is somewhat reflective of where Don is in life at the moment. Aside from music, he has become very interested in esoteric concepts of spirituality, metaphysics and cosmology.
His early life of growing up in Dublin’s north inner city, engaging in petty crime and being sent to a reformatory school – where he suffered years of beatings and emotional abuse – is well-documented. He has often spoken about how he needed 15 years of therapy to come to terms with what happened to him, and now he is very mindful of the power of spiritual healing and finding ways of forgiving others and forgiving oneself.
“I very much understand the power of forgiveness,” said Don, who went on to outline how that his concept of God is very much at variance with the Catholic teaching. His thoughts on the matter are perhaps best summed up in a song he wrote called ‘God's Got No Religion’, a quote attributed Mahatma Gandhi.
PLAYING TO THE CROWD
Channelling his thoughts through his music, the song is quite likely to feature in Don’s Nenagh show, though he maintains that he doesn’t have a fixed setlist any night. He will play to the crowd, and the often-spontaneous nature of the modern-day Don Baker gig is something that will really appeal to his fans.
“I've got so many songs that sometimes I don't know what to sing. I could do four gigs a night and repeat myself,” he said.
“I like to read the audience. I'll go off to the stage without a list. I trust my gut feeling, and when I'm half-way through a song, I know what the next song is going to be. I don't have to look at a list. I'm able to read the audience, and that only comes with experience. I know if the next song should be fast or slow, or should be a solo, or should be a joke, or maybe a story.”
He told of one gig he did last year where people in the audience were shouting out song requests. He played what they asked for and then said: “Any more requests?”
“And then someone asked me a question. And then someone asked another question. And I answered them. It went on for I'd say 35 minutes - just standing there with the microphone and people shouting up things like: ‘How long are you off the drink?’ and ‘Did you ever take drugs’ - all these kinds of things.
“It gets very intimate and it's like you're human. The human element of it is great and people come to your concert and feel as if they're part of something. You don't feel strange in any way, shape or form. I'm very much what you see is what you get. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm a very honest man and I don't try to hide anything.”
Find out what Don Baker plays at his Nenagh Arts Centre show on Saturday, March 25, when he will be accompanied by a band consisting of a pianist, bassist and drummer. Doors open at 8pm. Tickets cost €26. Visit www.nenagharts.ie for more information.