Ex-Arkansan Drexel Baker returns for White Water show

Singer-songwriter Drexel Baker is in New York but he's talking about Little Rock, specifically the fertile alternative rock scene here of the '90s and early 2000s.

Baker, who was born in Alexandria, La., and grew up in Sherwood, worked at Vino's, the pizza joint/watering hole/club where many area bands played the stage in the back room.

"I was working at Vino's up until 2000-2001, and I was hardcore into that scene," he says during an interview on Halloween afternoon from his home in New York, where he lives with his wife and their two young children. "It was a strong music scene, or at least it was when I was there. Those guys and girls were like my family."

Along with working at Vino's, Baker was the original drummer in Go Fast, the hard-rocking outfit that also included Scott Diffie, Kevin Kerby and Matt Floyd.

Baker returns to Little Rock for a special show Saturday at White Water Tavern, where he will perform between opening act Kerby and headliner Isaac Alexander. He's playing in support of Flashback City, a 12-track collection of Americana-laced power pop that was released last month with his band The Spirit, which includes former Ho-Hum drummer Colin Brooks.

Also helping with the album, which was recorded in New York, was keyboardist Franz Nicolay of Brooklyn heavyweights The Hold Steady.

"The guy that was supposed to play couldn't because he was on the road," Baker says. "I'd met Franz once, briefly, and I just got his contact info and reached out to him."

That was on a Friday. Baker sent him the Flashback City songs and a week later Nicolay showed up at the studio with each track charted out in a notebook.

"It's unreal how good that guy is," Baker says with obvious awe. "He played on every song but one, and he knocked them out in six hours. It was a really cool experience for me to have him play on the album."

For Saturday's show, The Spirit will be made up of Baker's Arkansas buddies.

"I'm not bringing my New York band. Those guys are all in other groups and they're busy, so I'll shoot down there by myself and I've got Little Rock guys playing with me," he says.

Among those set to play with Baker are Jeff Coleman on keyboards, drummer Geoff Curran, guitarist Dave Raymond and bassist Mike Nelson, with Floyd taking bass duties on a few songs.

"I'm probably going to play the album live from front to back," Baker says. "Amy Garland will hopefully sing backup on the last six songs. I really want to have a good show, you know, and make it kind of a hootenanny."

It will be his first gig in Little Rock since 2009 or 2010, he figures.

Baker, who moved to New York in 2004, released Flashback City on his own Tulsa Boy Records label. It's his fourth solo album, following his debut, The Bloody Transylvania Street Machine in 2005, 2008's Green Sky and Strange Mystery from 2013.

The album tackles the approaching of middle age and current events. One of the strongest tracks is "Highway of Life," written about his father, who passed away four years ago, and Tulsa.

"My parents are both from Oklahoma and my dad grew up in Tulsa during the time that The Outsiders is set," Baker says of the film and 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton. "That movie has always had a strong connection to me. It's my favorite movie of all time."

Opening track "This May Come as a Shock," which has a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers groove, offers up more than a little political commentary, but Baker wasn't going to include it at first.

"There was another song I had in place of that, and my band said 'you need to keep this song,'" he says. "The story I originally had in that song, I wasn't feeling it. I kept the song, but rewrote [the lyrics]. It's basically about today's political climate. There's a lot of tension out there."

Weekend on 12/13/2018

CORRECTION: The White Water Tavern concert featuring Isaac Alexander with opening acts Kevin Kerby and Drexel Baker & The Spirit is scheduled for 9 p.m. Saturday. An earlier version of this story had the incorrect date.