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Cary Baker is an American music publicist, author, journalist, and reissue record producer. He is the author of the 2024 book Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music.

His work is archived at the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Baker was born in Chicago on November 14, 1955, and grew up in the suburb of Wilmette, Illinois. He started writing about blues, rock and punk rock music while in high school. As a teenager, he wrote a feature on Blind Arvella Gray for the Chicago Reader, and in 1972 convinced the owner of the Wilmette-based Birch Records to finance and release Gray's only album, The Singing Drifter.

Baker attended Northern Illinois University. While a student, he wrote for publications including Billboard, Creem, and Trouser Press. He graduated in 1978.

Career

1979-1997: Ovation Records, I.R.S. Records, Capitol Records

Following his graduation, Baker worked part time at Billboard. His first full time job was as publicity director for the country label Ovation Records. He continued to write frequently about music.

In 1984, he moved to Los Angeles to work for I.R.S. Records. As the director of national publicity, he helped artists including The Go-Go's and R.E.M. find audiences in their early days. He also worked with The Alarm, Timbuk3, Fine Young Cannibals, The dB's, and General Public among others. He was promoted to vice president of publicity at IRS before he left the label in 1988 to accept a job as national director of media and artist relations at Capitol Records. After leaving Capitol, he was national publicity director at labels including Enigma Records, Morgan Creek, and Discovery Records.

1998-2022: Baker/Northrop, Conqueroo, reissues and compilations

In 1998 Baker co-founded the Baker/Northrop Media Group, whose clients included Cheap Trick, Robert Cray, Delbert McClinton, Yes, HBO’s Reverb series, and Susan Tedeschi. He founded Conqueroo, a music publicity company that specialized in roots music, Americana and blues, in 2004. Conqueroo's clients inluded Mitch Ryder, Bobby Rush, Pam Tillis, Los Lonely Boys, Willie Nile, James McMurtry, Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Hillman, Rodney Crowell, and Nils Lofgren. In 2006, he was named Blues Publicist of the Year at the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Awards.

In addition to his work in public relations, Baker helped compile and annotate reissue collections from a number of record manufacturers over the course of his career. He co-produced the Blues Music Award-winning box set Bobby Rush: Chicken Heads: 50 Years of Bobby Rush 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 and others.

2022-present: Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music

Baker retired from Conqueroo in March 2022. In November 2024, his book Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking and Street Music was published by Jawbone Press. An NPR "Book of the Day" in December, it includes Baker's interviews with Lucinda Williams, Violent Femmes, Billy Bragg, Old Crow Medicine Show, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Madeleine Peyroux, among others. In a Chicago Tribune story published just after its release, Rick Kogan descibed Down on the Corner as "an mportant book that explores a sadly overlooked form of music...soaring in its ability to provide a panoramic view of busking from the East Coast to the South, California and Europe."

References

1. A Martinez (13 November 2024), A new book explores a hundred years of busking history, NPR, retrieved 19 November 2024
2. ^ Rick Kogan (6 November 2024), Column: 'Down on the Corner' is a book about how busking and street music became the soundtrack of our cities, Chicago Tribune, retrieved 6 November 2024
3. ^ Collection Number: 70139 Collection Title: Cary Baker Collection, 1970s-1990s, Wilson Special Collections Library, retrieved 6 June 2024
4. Cary Baker Papers, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives, retrieved 6 August 2024
5. ^ Bill Frater (17 June 2016), Conqueroo's Cary Baker: From Cheap Trick to the Blues, No Depression, retrieved 4 June 2024
6. ^ Blueskye, Brian. "Retired Palm Desert music publicist pens new book celebrating street musicians". The Desert Sun. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
7. Ankeny, Jason. "Blind Arvella Gray". AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
8. ^ Peter Margasak (5 May 2016), Chicago's Disco Demoliton, Cheap Trick, and the Rise of House Music, Pitchfork, retrieved 7 June 2024
9. Billboard, Jan 20, 1979
10. 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
11. ^ Chris Willman (4 March 2022), Veteran Music Publicist Cary Baker to Retire After 42 Years (EXCLUSIVE), Variety, retrieved 4 June 2024
12. ^ Don Wilcock (19 March 2022), Cary Baker – An Artist's Artist, American Blues Scene, retrieved 4 June 2024
13. Graff, Gary (2024). 501 Essential Albums of The '90s: The Music Fan's Definitive Guide (1st ed.). Minneapolis: Quarto Publishing Group USA. ISBN 978-0-7603-8904-1.
14. William Harris Graham (15 July 2014), Tommy Ramone Goes Gold, Austin Chronicle, retrieved 4 June 2024
15. Andy Hermann (14 January 2019), Independent Music Publicists Grapple With a Shrinking Media Landscape, Billboard, retrieved 7 June 2024
16. Susan Whitall (31 March 2017), Mitch Ryder to be inducted in R&B Hall of Fame, The Detroit News, retrieved 4 June 2024
17. Suzanne Cadgène (23 September 2016), High Voltage at the High Watt, Elmore Magazine, retrieved 4 June 2024
18. ^ Cary Baker at AllMusic
19. Bobby Rush Celebrates 50 Years of 'Chicken Heads', American Blues Scene, 1 October 2021, retrieved 6 June 2024
20. Cary Baker (26 September 2024), Fantastic Negrito: Power in Not Caring – Exclusive Book Excerpt, American Blues Scene, retrieved 30 September 2024
21. 2 new nonfiction books explore the impact of cultural forces in the world of music, NPR, 6 December 2024, retrieved 6 December 2024
22. Milano, Brett (2024-11-26). "Cary Baker: Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music (Jawbone Press)". OffBeat Magazine. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
23. Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking & Street Music, Publishers Weekly, retrieved 25 October 2024

External links

• Official website: www.carybaker.com

• Living people
• 1955 births
• Public relations people
• American journalists