"My Personal Top 10" - Kurt Baker

 This weeks featured artist sharing his "Personal Top 10" is a talented singer, songwriter, musician and a truly great guy who's set to release his new solo effort entitled "Rockin' For A Living" on October 25th. Here he is, Portland, Maine's #1 son, Mr. Kurt Baker!

#10 Nature Walks

Boy do I get a kick outta nature. I love being outside. I also love walking! I used to swim 5 days a week when I was younger. Then I got busy with all this music stuff and beer drinking and I realized that I really need to try and take my life in a somewhat healthy direction, so I started walking ALL the time. I don’t even have a car right now...I just walk! Good thing my bandmates don’t mind carting my sorry ass around town or to the next show! But honestly...I feel like when I’m out walking around town or on a nice little path through the woods, my mind really gets a chance to clear itself. I often get a bunch of ideas for songs when I’m steppin’ out too. It’s a nice activity for me!

#9 Art By Shag

I used to draw all the time before I picked up a guitar. Even though I was always a fan of music, it was harder to get a guitar, amp and skills to do it correctly when I was younger. I always would draw to pass the time and I got pretty good at it...then I bought a bass and that was it. No more arts and crafts for me! This may have been a good decision because I’ve met a bunch of chicks that go to art school and if they aren’t straight up witches they’ve got something else brewin’ in their Cauldron. I digress! Shag is a bad ass painter...I love his style. I own a book of his that I look at all the time...he’s got a great retro 60’s tiki vibe to his work. If I ever make enough money to buy art someday, I’ll try and buy one of his prints to hang up in my 1 room gutted out apartment.

#8 Phil Lynott/ Thin Lizzy

I’m just going to go right out there and say it. I’m not a fan of Bruce Springsteen...add Van Morrison on that list too (I dig his work in the 60’s tho!). OKAY, so now that you completely think i’m a close minded dip shit, I’ll now explain to you that I absolutely LOVE Phil Lynott and his group Thin Lizzy. To me, Phil was a Punk Rock street poet and for that reason I’ve always loosely associated him with guys like Bruce and Van. The thing is, when all my peers were getting heavily into those guys, I found myself more drawn to the hard rockin’ edge of Thin Lizzy’s music and Lynott’s swaggering vocal delivery. He is now more so than ever a huge influence on me musically, and I’ve really looked at his way of words as a way to better myself with lyrical content. Jailbreak mother flippa’s!


#7 Weekend at Bernie’s

Super hot 80’s babes in funky looking swimsuits, a dead dude, mobsters, partying and uh.. well, what else more can you ask for? This movie is HILARIOUS. I could watch it over and over and over again...that and the movie “Tom Jones”...no not the singer...IMDB it. The actor that played Bernie does an incredible job...I wish I saw this in the theaters when it came out!

#6 Cheap Trick “Cheap Trick”

I’ve always had a thing for Midwestern Power Pop, and Rockford IL’s Cheap Trick in my opinion may have put out the quintessential 70’s rock n’ roll record, in my mind. The production is gnarly and dirty. The songwriting is spot on. For a Pop genre record with no songs about girls, it’s pretty impressive. This record is about real life.. and it’s a listening experience. Cheap Trick never ever made another record like this one...it’s an absolute monster of a record. I’ll never take this record off my turntable/ iPod.

#5 Collecting Records

I can thank the high priest of vinyl for my addictiveness to wax rather than hard street drugs or crime. I honestly don’t know where I’d be or what I’d be doing if it weren’t for the record shops down the street from me!

#4 Beer (all kinds)

Beer, is great. I don’t care if it’s expensive or if it’s cheap. I usually end up going with Schlitz. Something about those old Midwestern beers, I just dig em’. Old Style, Blatz, Old Milwaukee, Schafer, Stag...it’s blue collar rock n’ roll beer. The Kurt Baker Band loves drinking beers at practices and shows. I’m a fan of nice tasting India Pale Ale’s too. If I’m not in the mood for beers, sometimes I like a nice whiskey on ice, or a Spanish red wine. If this isn’t screaming “RAGING ALCOHOLIC” then I’ll be damned! I guess I’ll just blame it on my everlasting need for empty calories.

#3 Fish Tacos

Boy do I love Tacos...but my absolute favorite kind of taco is the fish taco! For the longest time it was impossible to find a decent fish taco in my home state of Maine. Our Mexican cuisine is absolute shit, except for the amazing Fajita Grille in Westbrook (yet, even they don’t have fish tacos!). It’s pretty insane considering the fact that one of Maine’s biggest industries is FISHING...but oh well, I’m not going to complain. Recently we’ve gotten a few new late night taco joints in town, and I often guzzle down a couple 12 packs of beer and go to town, literally and figuratively on Fish Tacos! P.S One of my favorite parts of going on tour in the Southwest, California and Texas are all the one man fish taco parties I have with myself.

#2 The Beatles “Rubber Soul”

This record got me into music. Although it’s not the Beatles ‘most rockin’ record...every song is perfect rock n’ roll pop perfection. I got this record when I was 5 years old, and it will always be one of my old time favorites. I’ve been influenced in and out, sideways and upside down by almost every second the Beatles put to tape for this record. I also kinda dig the fact that they were stoned off their gourd while producing this record gives chumps like me some hope for future endeavors.

#1 Wisconsin
Great bands, great cheeses, awesome friends, close family and cold beer! How can this not be #1???