Etta Baker's guest appearances

Etta Baker

Arts Across NC

Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina

Historias del Blues

Arvil Freeman

Lula Bolick

Gary Clark

Jody Williams

John Davis

Nina Simone

John Nemeth

Eric Bibb

Cyndi Lauper

Tommy Johnson

Joe Bonamassa

ROBERT CRAY

JIMMIE VAUGHAN

Ginger Baker

Wynton Marsalis

OwlTail

Durante más de 60 años esta guitarrista estuvo oculta para el mundo del blues. Solo a comienzos de este siglo el público tuvo la oportunidad de escuchar el trabajo de esta artista, que falleció en 2006.

Durante más de 60 años esta guitarrista estuvo oculta para el mundo del blues. Solo a comienzos de este siglo el público tuvo la oportunidad de escuchar el trabajo de esta artista, que falleció en 2006.

2011-42 ETTA BAKER: DE LA OSCURIDAD A LA LUZ

Etta Baker is one of North Carolina’s most famous Piedmont blues guitarist. Born in Caldwell County, she started learning guitar from her father when she was three. Her masterful, emotive pickin’ first appeared in 1956 on the album Instrumental Music from the Southern Appalachians, but it took 35 years before her next recording and first solo record One Dime Blues appeared. That album arose from many years of recording sessions produced by Wayne Martin, our host of “Director’s Cut.” “I felt like she was one of the most extraordinary expressive musicians who I had ever met,” says Wayne Martin. “I remember hearing her play John Henry with a slide and I can remember my thought: I’m in the presence of a musical genius.”  Etta Baker’s sound and style influenced the likes of Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal.  In this episode of Director's Cut, Wayne Martin shares "Broken Hearted Blues,” a rare recording that features Baker both playing guitar and singing. “Most of the time she would let the guitar do the talking for her,” says Wayne. “But just very occasionally she would sing.”  Director's Cut is a special music themed season of Arts Across NC, curated in celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music. In each episode NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency. Each song represents a different region of North Carolina. "These pieces that I've chosen are part of the fabric of who we are as a people," says Wayne. "They are pieces that tell the story of North Carolina. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council.

Etta Baker is one of North Carolina’s most famous Piedmont blues guitarist. Born in Caldwell County, she started learning guitar from her father when she was three. Her masterful, emotive pickin’ first appeared in 1956 on the album Instrumental Music from the Southern Appalachians, but it took 35 years before her next recording and first solo record One Dime Blues appeared. That album arose from many years of recording sessions produced by Wayne Martin, our host of “Director’s Cut.” “I felt like she was one of the most extraordinary expressive musicians who I had ever met,” says Wayne Martin. “I remember hearing her play John Henry with a slide and I can remember my thought: I’m in the presence of a musical genius.” Etta Baker’s sound and style influenced the likes of Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal. In this episode of Director's Cut, Wayne Martin shares "Broken Hearted Blues,” a rare recording that features Baker both playing guitar and singing. “Most of the time she would let the guitar do the talking for her,” says Wayne. “But just very occasionally she would sing.” Director's Cut is a special music themed season of Arts Across NC, curated in celebration of Come Hear North Carolina, a campaign for the 2019 North Carolina Year of Music. In each episode NC Arts Council Director Wayne Martin will unearth a field recording from the archive he built during his 30+ year tenure with our agency. Each song represents a different region of North Carolina. "These pieces that I've chosen are part of the fabric of who we are as a people," says Wayne. "They are pieces that tell the story of North Carolina. Arts Across NC is a podcast by and about the North Carolina Arts Council.

Director's Cut: Etta Baker

Etta Baker picked up her rag-time influenced style of fingerpicking at the age of 3 from her father. She became a master of the Piedmont Blues, influencing musicians like Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.  Etta practiced her two-finger picking style an hour every day in addition to raising nine children with her musician husband. After working 26 years at a Morganton textile mill, she quit at age 60 to become a professional musician, and at 78, she cut her first album. In 1991, she received the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship. Etta Baker died in 2006 at age of 93, but her legacy lives on with a statue at Morganton Municipal Auditorium.

Etta Baker Played the Piedmont Blues for 90 Years