Chuck Baker

STAYNER - Stayner musician Chuck Baker has released two new albums.

Every Flat Earth contains 11 songs that he started working on after his last album – A Little Piece of Quiet – was released in 2006.

The new offering is a shift from the acoustic, folk sound of his last CD.

“I’ve had people call it the loud, bang, crash album,” Baker said, laughing. “My producer (Craig Smith), convinced me when I play a live show with a band that I bring a lot more energy. There’s a lot of power in the chords. So he said I should write some songs that are a bit heavier.”

Baker, 40, said the album sounds like “more recent offerings of Elvis Costello, Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire – it’s just a full assault kind of thing rather than just one guitar. In fact the guitar I laid down for these songs kind of gets buried in the mix but in a good way.”

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He noted several talented musicians play with him on the album, including Romney Getty, Whitey Somers and Sarah Lichti, as well as his producer, Craig Smith.

Baker, a high school art teacher at Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School in Angus, said his favourite song on the album is Leaden Heart.

“I’ve been a teacher for just over a decade now and sometimes you get the opportunity to have students tell you their stories. And this is a story about a student of mine who was beat by her father. It’s quite dark,” he explained.

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His other new album, recorded with singer Sarah Lichti from Shakespeare, Ont., is In a Room. It contains 10 songs and shares common ground with A Little Piece of Quiet in that it has that folksy, acoustic sound that Baker does so well.

“The album has a pure, honest, directly, straightforward sound and feel to it,” he said. “And while it’s folky, it has an edge to it.”

The CD contains a mix of songs that Baker has written, including versions of songs on Every Flat Earth. He notes one song, Could You, was written by Lichti.

Baker said the album came together quite quickly in June. He said people at several venues heard him and Lichti perform together and suggested they record an album.

His favourite song is one he wrote with local horror author Tony Burgess, called Go Below.

“I really love it. It’s about everything that’s happening in society and that something is going to happen and we should all take cover,” Baker said.

Locals can hear the album live at a special event on July 28, starting at 7 p.m., at The Door on King Street North in Stayner.

The event is a fundraiser for the local youth drop-in centre, which Baker has volunteered with off and on over the years.

He said while there is no admission price it would be nice if individuals could each donate at least $10.

“But even if you can’t afford to give something, please come out,” Baker said.

For more information about the upcoming fundraiser at The Door, call the organization’s executive director Jen Gerrior at 705-428-3733.

So what’s next for Baker.

“Well I’m working on another album with Tony Burgess. He’s doing the lyrics. So it should be weird and crazy. It’s going to be really good,” he said. - Simcoe.com

Lucy Jinx, muse for auto song writing
By Trina Berlo Posted February 23, 2024 In Events
Who is Lucy Jinx?

I am Lucy Jinx.

Lucy Jinx is a cult but you have to be in the band in order to be a member.

Yes, Lucy Jinx is a band.

But it’s so much more.

I will try to explain.

During a recent show at TNT in Collingwood, Chuck Baker and Tony Burgess along with their Lucy Jinx bandmates demonstrated in front of a live audience their synergistic creative process of automatic songwriting. Baker launches in on the guitar and Burgess croons without any pre-planning and somehow it works. It just works.

Automatic writing is a process in which the writer channels an unknown entity while giving themselves over to the creative force.

Lucy Jinx is that entity.

While sharing the very first Lucy Jinx Flamethrower pizza from Creemore Pizza Co’s Stayner pizzeria, where Burgess works part time, he and Baker explain that Lucy Jinx is the titular character in a trilogy written by Pablo D’Stair. They met D’Stair when he travelled from Pennsylvania to film a show by an earlier iteration of the band.

“He thought it was an underground sensation,” says Burgess with a raised eyebrow.

Named after a Bob Dylan lyric: “Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake; I’m not that eager to make a mistake,” they now use D’Stair’s novel as a spell book of sorts from which they draw inspiration but neither has read.

“And we don’t think we should,” says Burgess.

Lucy Jinx is a character in the book and in the music. The band often refers to ‘she’ or ‘her’ when talking about the creative entity.

Most of the band’s songs are created in Baker’s home studio in Stayner, named The Pit, where they meet weekly. They hit record and invent original music fully formed out of thin air without any advanced planning. When one of them isn’t feeling it anymore they tap out, solidifying the song in perpetuity, Baker explains. Once they tap out that song is not altered. It can be enhanced but, with few exceptions, it will never be changed.

Baker said he will then listen to the recordings while walking his dog and look for the gems, which they teach to the rest of the band at weekly rehearsals.

With a new band of talented musicians who are very supportive of their unique process, Lucy Jinx has a new album, When They Win, which also features Keith Elliot, John Hall, Kyle Dreany and Skip Wamsteeker.

The first track Flamethrower is the inspiration for the pizza. Having impressed promoters at the TNT show, they are also on the bill for the Four Winds Music Festival in Durham July 12-14, with headliners Bahamas, Joel Plaskett and Great Lake Swimmers.

Baker, a high school teacher by day, is well known in the area for his many musical endeavours including his solo work. Burgess is an award winning author and screenwriter known for Pontypool Changes Everything, Idaho Winter, and People Live Still In Cashtown Corners.

Baker was cast in one of Burgess’ most recent films, Cult Hero, for which they were nominated for a 2023 Canadian Screen Awards for Achievement in Music for original song, and by coincidence features a flamethrower.

He and Burgess have been collaborating like this for years, since meeting when their children were in daycare together. Burgess recalls being at an event where the daycare children were being entertained by a man in a full bunny suit when he began to realize that the bunny was very talented. He called out a request and the bunny launched into The Clash without missing a beat. Before long, they were sitting around making up songs in the

backyard, and the neighbours would come by to listen. As they hone their craft, their song catalogue’s keep/ toss ratio is getting up around 50/50. Because the songs tend to be short they are able to play many per set, and once got close to 100 songs in a single performance. “It’s exciting,” says Baker, “Because I write songs excruciatingly slow.”

They describe Lucy Jinx songs as “glam rot, crunched epics and scratched anthems in a hot pop maze. Lucy Jinx plays songs that you remember but have never heard.”

Both visual artists as well, Burgess and Baker are able to give themselves over to the creative process.

Baker says to impose restrictions on the process can fuel creativity, just by trusting and relying on the agreed upon structure.

“Now we can anticipate each other,” said Baker. “If you do something enough your body takes over and it becomes… automatic.”

“You end up making things that you wouldn’t normally make,” says Burgess.

While sharing the pizza with lots of spicy toppings, Baker and Burgess volley reasons why the process wouldn’t work without the other.

“I couldn’t do it without Charlie,” says Burgess.

“Tony is a natural melody writer,” says Baker, adding that he has in the past sought out lyrics from Burgess.

Lucy Jinx hopes to be back on the TNT stage this spring.

Stay tuned @lucyjinxband.

Glenn Hubbers photo - Creemore Echo

Local musical duo performing at Mariposa

By Michael Gennings Stayner Sun
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Local musicians performing at Mariposa
Chuck Baker and Sarah Lichti will perform at the Mariposa Folk Festival in July.

Stayner musician Chuck Baker and his singing partner Sarah Lichti from Shakespeare, Ont., will perform at one of the country’s most prestigious folk festivals this summer.

The two will be on stage at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia from July 5-7.

“It’s fantastic that we’re going to be able to do this,” said Baker, who performed solo at the festival in 2006. “It’s the grand dame of folk festivals. It’s really a cool environment to be in as a musician.”

Lichti, who has never played at Mariposa, echoed Baker.

“It seems a little unreal still,” she said. “It’s an honor for sure.”

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The two asked festival organizers earlier this year if they could perform and learned in early March they were approved.

“I was just so excited when we got that e-mail,” Baker said. “Because you work so hard for something. And sometimes it’s hard to gauge if you’re on the right path or not – this is kind of like that feather you need to say you’re not crazy.”

The two will join a variety of big names at the festival, including Arlo Guthrie and Randy Bachman.

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Lichti said she expects to come away from the experience with a real sense of accomplishment.

The two met 13 years ago when they were attending teachers college at the University of Western Ontario in London.

They met through a mutual friend and soon discovered each had a love for singing.

At the time both lived in Waterloo and would carpool to Western each day.

“So we sang in the car all the time and got to know each other,” Baker said.

Today, Baker runs the art department at Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School in Angus and Lichti teaches Kindergarten near where she lives.

The first album they worked on together was in 2006 when they wrote and recorded A Little Piece of Quiet.

Last year Baker, who sings and plays guitar, released an album called Every Flat Earth. Lichti and other musicians helped him record the offering.

Also last year, Baker and Lichti put out In a Room.

The duo is now working on another album. Baker said they hope to hit the recording studio this fall and have the CD ready for the Christmas season.

“It’ll probably consist of nine or 10 songs,” he said.

Baker said he loves working with Lichti.

“She’s someone to bounce ideas off. And her voice, in my opinion, is unparalleled. She’s got an amazing voice. Her tone is something that I think really matches with mine. We sing together really, really well. And she pushes me to be the best with my voice.”

Lichti said it’s exciting to perform with Baker.

“He’s just great with a crowd,” she said. “I’m not as outspoken so I rely on him a lot. And performing with him is very much about the moment.”

Baker said from early on in their friendship he knew he wanted to record with Lichti.

“The first or second day in the cafeteria…she said she was working with a band in Waterloo and she gave me a disc to listen to. I had a listen and came back and said we have to make an album together. Hard to believe but that was 13 years ago.”

For more on Mariposa, visit www.mariposafolk.com.

If you can’t catch the two at the festival, they will also be playing in Collingwood on July 3, at Sheffer Court on Hurontario Street, starting at noon. - Stayner Sun