Not many Texan singer-songwriters quote Irish modernist poets. But then, as the saying goes, Sam Baker isn’t most singer-songwriters. Riffing off of William Butler Yeats’ “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,” Baker turns Yeats’ rumination on the apocalypse (the original poem aptly called “The Second Coming”) into a cavalier acquiescence to immorality. Baker wonders “what rough beast” has come, while acknowledging the less-than-virtuous going-ons around him. The title “feast” becomes something of an hypnotic refrain, perhaps to the beast or perhaps to Baker’s peers, as he only offers “close thine eyes / on that rough beast” as advice.
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For all its jazzy-meanderings, “feast” borders on spoken-word. But the duality of Baker’s growl and the accompanying piano is just as nostalgic as the Yeats reference, evoking a kind of post-war coffeehouse meets cabaret feel with the right kind of sinful indifference.
“I always loved The Second Coming, Yeats’ great piece on fear and foreboding,” says Baker. “The next to the last line is: and what rough beast, it’s hour come round at last…
“We first recorded ‘feast’ in Nashville with Steve Conn on piano and Mickey Grimm on drums. It dialed when I told Steve, ‘The feel we need is dirty cabaret.’ He looked up and said, ‘Oh, I know that.’
‘Feast’ is an offset beat 1930’s tango cabaret with a change up melody on the outro. It was a one take on the piano/drums foundation with Mickey hitting all kinds of things. Gurf Morlix added guitar and bass in Austin. His guitar is the voice of the beast first appearing when the woman in the song says ‘wake up Deacon it’s our wedding night.’ His guitar is the last thing we hear — not ending but surfing and then submerging. I did vocals in Austin and Radoslav Lorkovic added accordion on the outro. Britt Savage and Roxie Dean sing the dream bridge.”
Baker will release his newest album Say Grace on August 27.
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