Sam Baker - I Believe In You

Another smoking singer from the vaults of John Richbourg's Sound Stage Seven label. JR clearly had some superior taste in singers!

"He was born in Jackson, MS on 14 June 1941, and unlike many of his contemporaries in the music business went straight to professional secular singing rather than graduating from a gospel group. His influences were bluesmen as well as gospel singers, and he did early gigs with people like Jimmy Reed and Clyde McPhatter which must have been an education in itself.

Apart from Joe Simon, Baker had more 45s issued by John Richbourg on his SS7 label than any other artist – a tribute to both to his talent and Richbourg’s enduring good taste. His second 45, the outstanding Sometimes You Have To Cry, may just be his best ever release. Cut at Stax with the house band in superlative form, Baker is simply unstoppable on his first pure soul effort. The Nashville recorded beat ballad “You Can’t See The Blood” was a good follow-up, but the deep “Let Me Come On Home” and the excellent “Just A Glance Away” were superior. Even better still was the Memphis session that produced That’s All I Want From You and “I Believe In You” with the AGP band doing their usual high quality job in the background.

After a artistic dip, Baker returned to scratch with the lovely, well crafted slowie “I Love You” in 1969, and his best uptempo song for Richbourg “It’s All Over” later the same year. Throughout his stay with SS7 Baker reportedly had many personal problems and Richbourg and he parted company before the last 45 was issued." From Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven