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Central Texas Songwriter Tries To Understand A Tragedy
A Central Texas-born songwriter who survived a guerrilla bombing more than two decades ago has emerged as one of the most original artists in contemporary folk music.
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(May 24, 2008)—Central Texas native Sam Baker sings of a young German boy who died with his parents on a train in Peru in 1986.
The three had been sitting on facing seats and the bomb that killed them was in the luggage rack above their heads, set by Shining Path guerrillas.
The man in the fourth seat was Baker.
The lyrics include "Forget his face? Of course I don't,"
The song probes the psychological legacy for Baker, who was talking to the boy before the bomb went off.
Its title, "Broken Fingers," reveals part of the physical legacy, three twisted, unusable fingers that forced him to relearn to play the guitar left-handed.
Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Baker's story is that he’s making a name for himself as one of the most original new singer-songwriters in contemporary folk music.
Before the bombing, the Itasca native had been a whitewater river guide who enjoyed traveling, walking and climbing, but that all ended in a moment.
The blast left him with mangled fingers, partial deafness, balance problems, brain damage that sometimes leaves him struggling for the right word, and a constant ringing in his head.
That ringing is the thing he says that has been the hardest to deal with.
So becoming a singer-songwriter was not the obvious career choice for him, but he says creating music wasn't a choice for the Austin-based Baker--it was a compulsion.
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