All the great riot folkers - Bobby Dylan, Billy Bragg, Phil Ochs, Robb Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Joe Hill, Leon Rosselon et al, Pogues, Christy Moore and Johnny Cash. I'm also heavily influenced (in attitude if not music) by the Legends of the Clash and Joe Strummer, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs, Dead Pets and all other balls to the walls punk music. All my friends in the DIY community, some of whom I've met, some I haven't, the Riot Folk Collective, Defiance Ohio, Erik Petersen and Mischief Brew, Russ Substance, James Black, David Rovics, Atilla The Stockbroker...and the not so DIY community of The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, Against Me! And of course all my real life friends, family, lovers, communities, towns and beliefs.
Sounds Like
Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Billy Bragg, Tom Paxton, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Christy Moore, Richard Thompson, Pogues, Riot Folk, Defiance, Ohio, Atilla the Stockbroker, Mischief Brew, Erik Petersen, Dan Bern, David Rovics, Robb Johnson, Bruce Cockburn, Clash, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs
"Radical folk singer extroadinaire...a good showman" - ListenTo Manchester
"Sensational songs about present issues...Baker's views are as daring and diverse as a St. Trinian's trip to Tynemouth...should be in the top ten of everyone's ipod" - Sandman Magazine
"Accomplished, gripping and in this day and age, entirely refreshing" - Manchester Music
"Al Baker is...possessed with urgency and a righteous anger, but manages to distil it into a collection of upbeat and spiky originals...vibrant, intense and most welcome" - Rock 'n' Reel Magazine
"Baker is an intelligent lyricist, marrying the poetic honesty of Bob Dylan with the social conscience of Joe Strummer." - Rock Out With Your Wallet Out Zine
"There’s a smile to the sound, just as wide as the fist to the stomach is hard." - Chris Long, BBC Manchester
"Hard hitting lyrics so well penned they would make TV Smith proud with a wry humour that even the most jaded revolutionary can’t help but smile at...despite the reminders that this world’s pretty much fucked you can’t help but feel uplifted as you listen" - That's Not Skanking Magazine
My latest CD is available now!
Al Baker & The Dole Queue: On The Use of Jack Boots
The tracks are all available to download from my Soundclick site. Click Here.
Or you can order the CD now for £4 from Four Dogs Music - the music wing of the Ethical Wares online store.
If you want to get a reduced price one drop me a line or pick a CD up from me at a gig.
With my head still reeling from the abject failure of several much loved music projects, the wrench of an uncertain academic future and the gut feeling that there's been something very wrong going on in the world for a long time I took six months off university from January 2006 and armed with a notebook and a 12-string guitar started writing songs again.
Two years or so along from that now and I've toured the UK, Europe and the States, met tonnes of wonderful people on the way, got myself a band (The Dole Queue), bought a new guitar, lost it, made a handful of records, lost loads of money and had loads of fun!
I can now be found between lectures drinking coffee, between tours busking on the streets of Manchester; writing songs, playing shows in a porch or a pub near you and making trouble up and down the country.
hey man, was gutted to miss the brighton show...was on holls. HOpe ya had a gdun. Ill try make it to the london show, whoooooop. HOpe ur havin a gd summer mate x
How..s life treating you Al...i been dreaming about playing in Europe next year, probably will never happen...hope things are well with you, I still spin your songs on the radio once in a while, keep cool, love joey
I feel it my civic duty to inform you that the world famous* Radio Foreplay returns this month to the Fuel Cafe in Withington, Manchester, to bring you simply the best in alter-tainment that the UK can bring. Coming up on Saturday, 14th June...
- - Ben Childs (Sonic Boom Six)
The SB6 Guitarist goes billy no-mates for Radio Foreplay!
- - Clayton Blizzard
Mellow, west country acoustic hip-hop
- - Tom Yates
Everyone's favourite wiganite shows us what he can do
Featuring 'Magic' Mark Haworth, spreading confusion and illusion like a mental pesticide & host Al Baker providing drinking and dancing tunes from his record collection. All this for a mere £3 minimum donation.
My new single 'Come North' is out now on Leftarm Records, and is taken from the album 'Book of Days' produced by Fran Ashcroft (Gorillaz/Dandy Warhols). Check it out!
