ETTA BAKER WITH TAJ MAHAL: Etta Baker with Taj Mahal

Etta Baker with Taj Mahal

Etta Baker with Taj Mahal

© 2005 Pinnacle Productions, LLC (601163000502)

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"From Bob Dylan to Taj Mahal, Etta has influenced the best of American music for 50 years" -Tim Duffy

notes

Recorded July, 1956. June 1995, February 1998,

It was a summer day in 1956, Mr. Boone Reid of Morganton, NC took his wife, four sons and five daughters on a family outing to nearby Cone Mansion. The brilliant folksinger, song-collector, folklorist Paul Clayton happened to be walking the grounds with a guitar slung over his back. Mrs. Etta Baker remembers, “My daddy introduced himself and asked Paul to let me play the guitar. I played a song I put together, ‘One-Dime Blues’ and Paul was amazed, he got directions to our home, and he was over the next day with his tape-recorder along with Liam Clancy and Diane Hamilton.” Clayton issued some of these recordings on an album he produced that became among the most influential recordings of the folk era, “Instrumental Music from the Southern Appalachians” on Diane Hamilton’s, Tradition Records.

Etta’s finger-style guitar playing on “One-Dime Blues” and “Railroad Bill” became standards during the height of the folk music revival in New England. Taj Mahal a student at UMASS in the early 60s first heard this LP in a college dorm at Bard. “I was immediately taken by Etta’s version of ‘Railroad Bill,’ she is the greatest influence in my guitar playing.” Etta had numerous offers to perform and told me that she did not go because, “My husband could play piano real well, I believe we could have made it, but as he did not want to leave home, there was nothing I could say.”

Paul Clayton remained in touch with the Baker family until this tragic death in 67. He owned a cabin outside of Charlottesville, VA and he would bring his musician friends down from the folk scene in NY to visit Etta. Paul an early influence and great friend of Bob Dylan brought Bob and Susie Rotolo to visit Etta in 1962 to celebrate Bob’s 21st birthday. Bob soon after rewrote Clayton’s song “Whose Going to Buy You Ribbons, When I’m Gone” into “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” in which you can clearly hear the influence of Etta’s guitar work. Her striking guitar style influenced all that picked up folk guitar for decades.

Etta’s early recordings have always been available. The Bakers never granted permission for them to be released and have yet to receive any payment. Etta reflects, “Back then we just did not know what to do about it.” 48 years later she has reclaimed ownership for her family’s music, and will finally earn the first nickel on her few songs that had such far-reaching effect.

Throughout his career Taj has always made homage to Mrs. Etta Baker in his concerts by performing her music. Taj explains, “That chord in ‘Railroad Bill’ is a very ancient deep root chord, that strikes straight through me, every time I hear it played.” Taj and Etta performed this music one afternoon in my studio in Pinnacle, NC. Etta’s long-time friends Algia Mae Hinton and Wayne Martin make guest appearances. We have included two recordings of her beloved father who started her out with her music. In June of 2004 I met with Etta and she played as good as I have ever heard her. That day she pronounced she had fully recovered from her heart condition, so I hope and pray that Etta remains a vibrant master musician for years to come, influencing generations of guitarist’s to be with the joy of her music from the hills of Caldwell County, NC.

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Etta Baker of Morganton, North Carolina was born in 1913 and has been playing guitar since the age of 3. She is the premier woman Piedmont blues guitar instrumentalist.. Etta maintains a beautiful yard and garden. She is constantly working on new arrangements as she plays the guitar everyday. At the age of 91 Etta is matriarch of 108 members in her immediate family.

Taj Mahal has been a major recording artist since his debut album in 1967. Over the past 35 years, Taj Mahal has been a tireless preacher of American roots music. Recording 36 albums, receiving six grammy nominations and a two-time Grammy-winner. His career has spanned acting in television and movies; scoring for television, plays, movies; and recording children's records. Much of his early work in the 70s set the groundwork for the present-day world music scene.

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