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Draft:Cary Baker

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  • Comment: The Pitchfork article is decent but all the rest are what he has written or based on what he says. Any reviews of his book by reputable publications? Pinging @JSFarman: who might be able to provide some additional advice. S0091 (talk) 17:47, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
Cary Baker
Born (1955-11-14) November 14, 1955 (age 68)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Occupation(s)music publicist, journalist
Years active1973–present

Cary Baker (or Cary S. Baker), born November 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American music publicist, author, journalist, and reissue record producer. He is the author of the book Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music (Jawbone Press, Nov. 2024)[1] and the in-progress authorized biography Elvin Bishop: Strut My Stuff.

Early life[edit]

Baker was born in Chicago, Illinois[2] and grew up in the suburb of Wilmette, Illinois, where his father was a doctor of psychiatry and his mother a violinist and writer.

By age 15 he had been appointed music director and public relations director of a radio station where he was hosting a blues show. While attending New Trier Township High School West (graduating in 1973) and later in the 1970s and into the 1980s he wrote for zines focusing on blues, rock and punk rock.[3][4][5]

Career[edit]

As a journalist[edit]

In 1973, Baker began his music journalism career by placing a feature about Maxwell Street blind street singer Blind Arvella Gray (“Blues Over a Tin Cup”) for the Chicago Reader on March 7, 1972.[6] While taking journalism classes at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, he wrote for other outlets including Billboard, Creem,[7] Mix,[8] Record, Illinois Entertainer, Bomp!,[9] Living Blues, Hit Parader, and Trouser Press. After graduating from Northern Illinois University in 1978[7] he got a part-time job at Billboard, then a full-time one as publicity director for the country record label Ovation Records.[3][7]

From the 1970s to the present day he has written frequently for publications including No Depression,[10] American Blues Scene,[11] Goldmine,[12] Trouser Press,[13] and Best Classic Bands.[14]

As a music executive, reissue producer, and publicist[edit]

In 1984, Baker left Chicago to work at the International Record Syndicate (I.R.S. Records) from 1984-88. As National Director of Publicity and then Vice President/Publicity, he helped artists such The Go-Go's[15] and R.E.M.[16] find audiences in their early days, and also worked with The Alarm, Timbuk3, Fine Young Cannibals, The dB's, General Public[17] and others.

In 1988[17] Baker became National Director of Media & Artist Relations at Capitol Records. Leaving Capitol in 1991, he worked in national publicity director roles at PLA Media, Enigma Records, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and Discovery Records, then a division of Warner Music Group.

He helped compile and annotate reissue collections from a number of record manufacturers, including Omnivore Records, where he represented hundreds of releases and co-produced the Blues Music Award-winning box set Bobby Rush: Chicken Heads: 50 Years of Bobby Rush[18] and wrote liner notes for reissues from The Numero Group, as well as for albums from Muddy Waters and Little Milton for Chess Records, Luther Allison, Little Milton, The NoBS, Jay Migliori[19] and others.

In 1998 he co-founded the Baker/Northrop Media Group,[16] whose clients included Cheap Trick, Robert Cray, Delbert McClinton, Yes, HBO’s Reverb series, and Susan Tedeschi.[17]

In 2004, Baker founded L.A.-based[20] Conqueroo,[3] a music publicity business that became a leader in roots music, Americana and blues.[21] Baker's clients in those years included Mitch Ryder,[22] Bobby Rush,[16][23] Pam Tillis, Los Lonely Boys, Willie Nile, [19] James McMurtry, Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Hillman, Rodney Crowell, Nils Lofgren, and many other artists and labels including BMG and Omnivore.[17] In 2006, Baker was named Blues Publicist of the Year at the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Awards.[24]

Baker retired from Conqueroo in March 2022.[16][17][16] His collected roots music-related archival papers from the 1970s through 1990s are at the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[24] His other papers are being archived at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

References[edit]

  1. ^ DOWN ON THE CORNER: ADVENTURES IN BUSKING & STREET MUSIC, Jawbone Press, retrieved 4 June 2024
  2. ^ Cary Baker, A Young Man and the Blues: The Photos of Cary Baker, Living Blues, retrieved 4 June 2024
  3. ^ a b c Bill Frater (17 June 2016), Conqueroo’s Cary Baker: From Cheap Trick to the Blues, No Depression, retrieved 4 June 2024
  4. ^ Cary Baker (31 May 2015) [01 January 1978], CHEAP TRICK: Interview [1978], FFanzeen, via Big Star fanzine, retrieved 7 June 2024
  5. ^ Cary Baker (5 June 2019) [01 January 1982], JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP: Hoosier Hysteria [1982], FFanzeen, retrieved 7 June 2024
  6. ^ Cary S. Baker (7 March 2022), Blind Arvella Gray, Chicago Reader, retrieved 6 June 2024
  7. ^ a b c Peter Margasak (5 May 2016), Chicago’s Disco Demoliton, Cheap Trick, and the Rise of House Music, Pitchfork, retrieved 7 June 2024
  8. ^ Cary Baker; George Peterson (1 November 1983), North Central Recording Update (PDF), Mix, retrieved 7 June 2024
  9. ^ Leo Galil (23 June 2020), Chicago punk was born queer, Chicago Reader, retrieved 7 June 2024
  10. ^ Cary Baker (5 June 2023), Desert Dust and Wanderlust Draw Musicians to California’s High Desert, No Depression, retrieved 7 June 2024
  11. ^ Cary Baker (30 August 2022), Willie Dixon: ‘Blues is the Facts of Life’, American Blues Scene, retrieved 7 June 2024
  12. ^ Cary Baker (12 August 2022), Archive: Rockabilly libertine Harry Glenn tells full story of Mar-Vel Records, Goldmine, retrieved 7 June 2024
  13. ^ Ira Robbins (3 May 2021), Music in a Word: 50 Years on a Rock and Roll Soapbox, Trouser Press, retrieved 7 June 2024
  14. ^ Cary Baker (26 November 2022), Lou Reed ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal’: Behind the Scenes, Best Classic Bands, retrieved 7 June 2024
  15. ^ Ed Condran (6 July 2021), ‘I knew the Go-Go’s had something’: Manager Miles Copeland looks back at future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, The Spokesman-Review, retrieved 4 June 2024
  16. ^ a b c d e Chris Willman (4 March 2022), Veteran Music Publicist Cary Baker to Retire After 42 Years (EXCLUSIVE), Variety, retrieved 4 June 2024
  17. ^ a b c d e Don Wilcock (19 March 2022), Cary Baker – An Artist’s Artist, American Blues Scene, retrieved 4 June 2024
  18. ^ Bobby Rush Celebrates 50 Years of ‘Chicken Heads’, American Blues Scene, 1 October 2021, retrieved 6 June 2024
  19. ^ a b Cary Baker at AllMusic
  20. ^ William Harris Graham (15 July 2014), Tommy Ramone Goes Gold, Austin Chronicle, retrieved 4 June 2024
  21. ^ Andy Hermann (14 January 2019), Independent Music Publicists Grapple With a Shrinking Media Landscape, Billboard, retrieved 7 June 2024
  22. ^ Susan Whitall (31 March 2017), Mitch Ryder to be inducted in R&B Hall of Fame, The Detroit News, retrieved 4 June 2024
  23. ^ Suzanne Cadgène (23 September 2016), High Voltage at the High Watt, Elmore Magazine, retrieved 4 June 2024
  24. ^ a b Collection Number: 70139 Collection Title: Cary Baker Collection, 1970s-1990s, Wilson Special Collections Library, retrieved 6 June 2024

External links[edit]

Official website: www.carybaker.com



Category:Living people Category:1955 births Category: Public relations people Category: Journalists Category: American journalists

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