Roadhouse Ranch and Saloon by Bryan Baker

Always experimenting with a vast array of styles and genres my music ranges from electro-acoustic to pop to punk.

I’ve been playing shows in Second Life for some time now, it’s great getting in front of people again - even if they are many miles away at the time.

Some questions recently asked of me for a bio-card:

1. Do you write your own lyrics. Example songs?

Yes, on pretty much anything I am not doing as a cover. A couple exceptions are collaborations and songs I've written for theatre where the lyrics are already in the script. I try to convey as much as I can about the subject of the song, whether it's meant to be funny like "Furry Lolita of Gor" or "Cyber Me" or political like "Bush" or "Over and Done" or tender like "Closing Time at the Roadhouse".

2. Do you write your own songs and arrangements. Example songs?

Yes, in fact I sometimes need to arrange them in very different ways for different situations. Most of the time I do the arrangements as I write and record them . I often use my recording software as a workspace, to play with lyric combinations or arrangement ideas. Sometimes I just pick up a guitar or sit at a piano and get up with a song without having recorded it.

Having done this for over 25 years, I've had songs just about write themselves and I've had them take years to come together right. "The Road" practically wrote itself but I've recorded it numerous times - I think the latest recorded version is the best. "Bombs on the Underground" started as a very ska arrangement, and is recorded that way, but when I play it live, by myself on an Acoustic it has a much more folk, protest, "Ritchie Havens" feel to it. Big Bad world is a very "creepy rock" arrangement (think Oingo Boingo) in the recorded version, but the live acoustic version is quite different.

3. What style of music do you play?

I try not to close myself off too much to anything. I guess that comes partly from having a background of doing music for theatre - in that case it's not about my personal needs, it's about the show. There are idioms I feel more comfortable writing in than others, for instance, I'm not a rapper. But I have material in many genres. I tend to play the stuff I can do with voice and an acoustic guitar these days.

4. What do you feel makes your music special?

What makes your kids, or dog, or lover special? They're yours. :) I feel that way about my music. Each one is kinda like one of my kids. I feel like they all have something to communicate.

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