Dave Baker

Background

About Dave Baker

Hailing from a musical family, Cleveland native Dave Baker is the grandson of Ruth Baker, who played guitar and sang backup for Roy Rogers. Inheriting her talents, Dave began playing guitar at age eight, and went on to study music composition and theory at Cleveland’s Modern Music School under the tutelage of highly acclaimed composer, arranger (Stan Kenton), and educator, Phil Rizzo. By age 16, his reputation soon earned him two Berklee College of Music scholarships, where he studied under jazz great Garrison Fuel, as well as Larry Bione, Bruce Saunders and Bruce Bartlett. He also became an honors graduate of Cleveland State University, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing. Baker further distinguished himself in the professional music community when he composed and produced commercial music for the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, WKYC-TV, Sports Time Ohio, KSDK (St. Louis), KPNX-TV (Phoenix) and Clear Channel Communications. He could also be heard playing guitar on many commercial jingles for McDonald’s, Mr. Hero, Pearl Vision, Sterling Jewelers, Matco Tools, Ohio Lottery and Cleveland State University. In 2005, Baker wrote and produced the national jingle for the dating website commercial, Farmersonly dot com. His work in Cleveland culminated in 2010 with an Emmy® nomination for musical composition and arrangement. Since moving to Nashville in 2010, Baker played guitar alongside such notable country artists as The Line, Ashley Gearing, The McClymonts, Eric Paslay, Phil Vassar, Big and Rich and, since early 2012, with country music recording star, Kellie Pickler. In 2014 Dave recorded and self-released his debut CD, 71 South, an eclectic album that brings the listener a collection of diverse instrumentals that encompass musical cleverness, humor and virtuosity while humbly reflecting Baker's character. In 2015, Baker was cast onto three seasons of CMT reality show,"I Love Kellie Picker". He also wrote and produced the music for the show. Recently, Baker released new music,"Slowpoke" available on most streaming platforms. Baker also continues to compose/produce music for commercial works and independent artists.