Talking Blues

I DON T give a fuck, a diminutive and dapper Don Baker proclaims between mouthfuls of tea and ham sandwich. I don t try and impress anybody. I m not worried about the harmonica players liking it or not liking it. I know I bring a lot of joy to audiences when I play, and that s the pay-off.
We re sitting in the bar of Bloom s hotel, talking blues. Don s here to pick twelve definitive harmonica performances for Hot Press, and he s emphatic about his criteria for excellence.
Blues is an expression of emotion, he maintains. It s nothing to do with intellect or being clever. I know a millionaire who s a great blues player because he feels the emotion of the music. Somebody could sing an unaccompanied song, and if they have the feel, the spark, I ll get a shiver up my back.
It s not only an emotional thing, it s a spiritual thing. The gift to be able to express yourself that way, to trigger that energy and channel it through an instrument or the human voice, to touch people, that has to be the grace of God. But you need enthusiasm as well, you need to love what you do to put that across. I m 28 years down the road, and I don t think the music business owes me anything. I owe a lot to it, it s given me a great life so far.
That life is one which reads like the biography of any gnarled bluesmaster. Born into a dysfunctional family (his father was an alcoholic) in Whitehall, Dublin in 1950, Baker was hospitalised with tuberculosis at the age of seven. It was after hearing one of his fellow patients playing the harmonica in Blanchardstown hospital that he first fell under the spell of the instrument.
Throughout his childhood, Baker was frequently involved in petty crime, spending a month in a remand home at the age of 11. He was in and out of prison until the age of 19. While living in the Corporation buildings the inner-city, Don met Richard Uzell, who introduced him to the music of Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Charlie McCoy (whom the Dubliner would later befriend).
At the age of 22 Baker hit the road, busking and playing jazz and blues clubs all across Europe. Over the next ten years he became regarded as one of the greatest acoustic harmonica players in the world, writing several books on the subject, as well as producing five instruction videos. Baker still adjudicates bi-annually at the world harmonica championships.
Since 1990 he has toured relentlessly and recorded five albums, the latest of which, Just Don Baker, will be released this April. The new album represents something of a departure, being essentially a solo effort, stripped back to acoustic guitar, voice, and of course harmonica.
This album was really great for me, because I didn t realise how I was hiding behind musicians, Don reflects. The first couple of days in the studio I felt totally exposed, the low-self-esteem kicked in, couldn t get the first track done. I was trying to get over the voice in the head saying, You can t do this. When I d see the tape rolling and the red light came on, a different Don came out, a frightened, scared Don. On reflection, it brought up a lot of insecurity that I had, so I found I had to get over that hump. But everything for growth, everything for learning and everything for improvement. Something like that can teach you, it may sound simple, but to me it was a big thing, because I got a good look at myself.
THE FABULOUS BAKER BOY
Not content with his vocation as a master of the blues harp, Don Baker embarked on an acting career in 1994, landing the role of IRA prisoner Joe McAndrew in Jim Sheridan s In The Name Of The Father. His performance garnered rave reviews, and since that time Baker has appeared in a number of TV and film projects, including Soft Sands And Blue Seas for Channel 4, Amongst Women (a BBC adaptation of Irish author John McGahern s novel), and Mia, an eight-hour TV drama series. It constitutes a pretty impressive portfolio for a man who also holds down a dayjob as a working musician. Did Don harbour any ambitions to act before In the Name Of The Father?
None whatsoever, he readily admits. It was a shock to me. But I have to say, I got into it very quickly. The energy took over, I was buzzing all throughout that period. When I got that role I had twenty minutes before the first scene. I got a call at the house from Jim Sheridan at half-nine at night, and he said he was shooting over at Fitzwilliam s Square and how soon could I be there. They had auditioned me for the role first, but Gabriel Byrne was the producer and he wanted to play the role, so they felt obliged to give it to Gabriel. Then something happened between Gabriel and Jim. I got the call, jumped in the Volvo and charged over. I was so green about filming and all that, I realised I had a tracksuit on, and I started freakin , saying, Look at me, I ve no clothes! And he laughed at me and said, Go down to the caravan, we have gear for you to wear. That was it.
And then, going out to the Oscars in Hollywood, that was great crack. I mean, if I never did it again in me life it wouldn t bother me, but just to say I was there. I went up that red carpet, I had on the dickie bow, the whole business. For someone who had never acted in their life, and had no aspirations to act, to end up playing this role with one of the world s greatest actors, Daniel Day-Lewis, was absolute fairytale stuff. And when Barry Norman said I was brilliant, I sat back and laughed me head off. I was recognised everywhere.
As Don sees it, however, newfound celebrity can sometimes be a double-barrelled shotgun.
The first time I went to Los Angeles, I was walking across a car park and a guy came running at me with a camera, he recalls, and true as God, I thought it was a gun. A friend of mine had been held up a while before by a guy with a shotgun, and that went through my head when I saw this guy running for me. I said, Fuck, I don t believe this, I m gonna get shot! And he says, Can I have a photograph and your autograph? Boy, was I relieved. I felt like kissing the guy, y know?
Did he bring his own prison experiences to bear on the part of Joe McAndrew?
Yeah, there were a lot of things I knew about prison life that I didn t have to be coached on, Don admits. I knew exactly where to put the spoon, in the top pocket, no-one had to tell me things like that, y know? The walk I had in the film, all of that persona, that macho-ism, the don t fuck with me vibe, that was something I had done in real life, I suppose.
Don was recently up for a role on the other side of the bars, playing John Gage, head jailer at the Tower of London in Richard Attenborough s biopic of Elizabeth I.
What happened there was the casting agent had cast me to play the role, he relates. I signed a contract, and I was to do three days work on the film playing the part of John Gage. When I got over, I got into costume and the whole bit, but the director decided he wanted somebody bigger.
Apparently, he never bothered to look at photographs, he just went on the word of the casting agent. I had a chat with him, very nice guy, but he explained, Don, this guy s torturing people in the Tower Of London. I want a big fella with a boxer s nose. You re too pretty!
But I got to have a chat with Richard Attenborough. I did a reading all around this big boardroom table, which I found frightening. I was in London for one day, and I won t tell you what I got paid, it was fuckin ridiculous!
There s also a film coming out called Sunset Heights, about corrupt politicians in Derry. I m the assistant Lord Mayor who is trying to get the Lord Mayor s gig, and of course I bend all the rules and manipulate people, eventually getting the job. Not a huge role but a good one just the same. And there s also a thing that scooped all the ratings in Italy before Christmas, Mia. I played the part of a fisherman called Sean Ryan. It was a real meaty role, the most interesting one I ve done Since In The Name Of The Father. There s one scene where my wife dies, and I m crying while I m drunk. I didn t love her, so I m feeling full of remorse and guilt, I feel like I ve wasted her life. That all has to come out in your face and come across on the screen.
When I read the script and saw that, I had instant anxiety, it was the one scene I dreaded, but I pulled it out of the bag. I thought about my mother dying, I brought up the tears, didn t have to use the tear-stick, it was great. In fact I couldn t stop crying after I got it goin , I cried for the day. But it s great to be in touch with yourself for acting. If I m acting a scene and I can feel the emotion that s needed, then it will definitely be believable.
Don was also scheduled to play a role in Brendan O Carroll s forthcoming, (and much-troubled) production The Sparrow s Trap, but, as he sheepishly admits, it never happened.
I had a gig the night before the shoot, he says, ruefully. I was supposed to get up at five o clock in the morning, there were 2,000 people waiting in the National Stadium, all Spaniards, for this fight Brendan is going to have with this Spanish guy. So I went and did the gig the night before, but after I do concerts the adrenalin is still pumping through me. And because I don t believe in dabbling in the oul drugs, I d usually read a book or watch TV and come down naturally. But it s a nightmare if you ve to travel the next day or work on a film.
So I raced home after the gig with the adrenalin flying, got home by half-twelve, said lovely, I ll get four or five hours sleep. Couldn t sleep. It got to three o clock in the morning. I had to drive to a gig in Sligo when I finished on the film the next day, so I took a sleeping tablet and didn t wake up until half-ten. They went around the neighbourhood setting off all the house alarms trying to wake me up. They threw rocks at the window, they kicked the door down. Not a stir out of Don. I had taken the phone off the hook out of habit, and the mobile phone was being recharged.
When I woke up and looked at the clock I let out a scream. They had to cast someone else for the role. If you re gonna print this, I really do apologise to Brendan because I feel like I let him down. I shoulda never done a gig the night before. I tried to phone him to apologise, but I couldn t get a hold of him.
Such unfortunate false starts aside, does Don feel as much at home around actors as he does around musicians now?
Oh, I do, he nods. These people are ordinary Joe Soaps. It s the media that makes them special. But I m not starstruck, I d never be in awe of anybody. I reserve awe for God.
Just Don Baker will be released on Round Tower Records on Friday, April 17th, preceded by the single Never Let You Down .