CD: The Great Divide

After a decades-long professional career as a highly respected sideman, harmonica icon Steve Baker released his first solo album as a singer, songwriter and frontman in 2018. "Perfect Getaway" received excellent reviews and showed a whole new side to the man in his mid-sixties. Since then, he has played over 50 concerts with his band The LiveWires, developing an instantly recognizable sound over the course of the past two years that now regularly generates excitement among live audiences

At the heart of the band is the interplay between Jan Mohr's exciting guitar sounds, the rock-solid bass of Brit Jeff Walker, and the elastic grooves of young drummer Henri Jerratsch, who joined in early 2019. Together, they provide the foundation for Baker's expressive vocals and ripping harp arrangements. They are joined by beautiful backing vocals from Steve's daughter Gina. The wiry, sparsely arranged sound with gripping choral vocals provides the perfect medium to showcase Baker's idiosyncratic songs to their best advantage

In July 2019, Steve and the band nestled into Maffay producer Peter Keller's Chefrock Studio in Hamburg for a week to record new material with sound engineer Tillmann Ilse

The result, "The Great Divide," features 11 new originals as well as a captivating cover of Dylan's "This Wheel's On Fire." The album shows that Baker has now shifted up a gear and impressively demonstrates how much he has also grown as a singer and songwriter over the past two years. Unlike its predecessor, "The Great Divide" is clearly recognizable as a band album. Although the songs are very different, the sparse instrumentation and consistent lineup gives them a definite band identity, a sound that has grown together and clearly comes from a single mold

All basic tracks including vocals were recorded live at Chefrock Studio, the few overdubs and corrections were then done at fmi Tonstudio Hamburg and Eject Studio in Handeloh. As with "Perfect Getaway", Steve mixed the production at the Mill of Friendship with Marcus Praed, who was also responsible for mastering

The songs are altogether rockier than on the first album, spanning a wide stylistic range from pulsating British beat to funky New Orleans groove, from songwriter to gritty new-age blues. Baker's feel for timeless pop music comes through as well as his penchant for catchy rock songs of the heavier variety, and his signature harp playing - always in service of the song at hand - is the icing on the cake. His songs tell of life, love and the pursuit of happiness in an age of lies. They shine with attitude and strike a deeply personal note that relentlessly reflects our turbulent times