Maurice Baker Singer-Songwriter
Maurice began playing in folk clubs around London and the South East during the Sixties. As a schoolteacher in the Seventies, he also wrote and produced music for various educational projects. Leaving teaching in the Eighties he formed Sunshine Express, a band performing in schools and theatres, etc. He also directed music workshops for children with special needs at the Polka Theatre, Wimbledon.
Returning to teaching in the Nineties as a Music Co-ordinator he worked on many musical and drama productions and other creative events. In the Noughties he worked in Special Education whilst also playing in folk clubs, winning several song writing competitions including the Woody Guthrie Festival in 2011, travelling to Oklahoma, USA, to perform. In 2012 he published a semi-autobiographical novel, The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand, which included an audio CD along with tales of many musicians’ lives and experiences. He continues to appear in venues around the North East and beyond as well as recording original music for both adults and children.
Maurice’s published works include several song/activity books for children, all including an audio CD, six novels for young people, two collections of short stories and a novel for adults. Most are available as paperbacks and e-books on Amazon or from:
For more information: www.mauricebakermusic.co.uk or www.sunnysongs.co.uk
Published Works
The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand – novel & music album (A)
The Key to a Happy Life – collected writings & music album (A)
Miracles & Misdeeds – collection of short stories & ballads (YA/A)
Beastly Ballads – collection of animal-themed stories, songs and verse (YA/A)
Look to the Far Horizon – poem-based songbook
Novels for young people
Abe: Amy Dancer and the Alien Big Cat (MG)
Daizy and the Weeds Rap it Up (YA)
Plum Crazy – Lord of the Prunes (MG)
Snoopervision – Two Boys v The World (YA)
Wormwold – Alfie’s Big Adventure (MG/YA)
The Green Witch Brigade Go Krabb Hunting (YA)
Song and Activity Book/CD packs for children
The Clumsy Giant
Busy Bees
Crazy Creatures
Animal Olympics
Smile Like a Dolphin
Drums Over Africa
Little Monsters
Sing and Dance
Book Reviews
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Book and album review by Tim Carroll – Folk WordsEven a cursory listen to ‘The Singer Songwriter’s Last Stand’ album by Maurice Baker reinforces the overriding essence of his work – sharp, witty, perceptive lyrics delivered with a distinctive voice that holds just the right tone of aggrieved angst. But you won’t stop at a ‘quick listen’ – once you hear ‘The Singer Songwriter’s Last Stand’ you will play it again and again. And were the album not sufficient, Maurice has also employed his mean turn of phrase to produce a compelling book that sits alongside the album.
The songs are unrefined and natural and that’s exactly how they’re meant to be. Their unadulterated edge pulls you into their alluring, questing narratives and holds your attention. They span the influences of rootless social iconoclasts such as Woody Guthrie and Seasick Steve and antagonistic life-observers such as Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. And it’s true to say that Maurice the singer-songwriter is perfectly at home in that company – and in case you’re curious that’s the praise it’s meant to be.
The book ‘The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand’ is fact-based but fictional, and focuses on Maurice’s travels through his musical landscape. It’s also filled with insightful, poignant and droll observations, and not a little irony. A song from the album inspires each chapter in the book – although as Maurice is at pains to point out, the connection isn’t necessarily literal. The story concerns Alwyn Stevens (Maurice’s alter-ego) and Arthur Grimsby (a ghostly musician) who, meeting one Newcastle morning, engage in a road-trip of discovery.
There are some remarkable songs on the album. ‘Risk of Explosion’ is one that immediately hits the spot – lyrics, vocals, melody – all catch the ear and make you think ‘I’ve been there’. And for many of us the same will apply to ‘My Old Friend’ with its powerful emotive delivery and the sorrowful ‘Knocking Down Kingston Bridge’. There’s a reflective almost anthemic feel to ‘Down By The Station’ and ‘Hard Travelling Man’ with their inspired melody hooks and agonizing stories. While an infectious intense blues grandeur holds ‘The Gambler’; there’s the deliciously satirical narrative of the eponymous anecdote ‘The Singer-Songwriter’s Song’ – these are all songs to savour.
On the album The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand’ Maurice sings and plays guitar banjo and bouzouki. He’s also aided by Dan and Sam Burt who between them handle electric guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion and backing vocals. The book ‘The Singer-Songwriter’s Last Stand’ and the album are available online at Maurice’s web site www.mauricebakermusic.co.uk; – so go there and get them. You will not be disappointed.
A collection of original short stories (about 64 thousand words) written mostly in 2019-20. The ballads were composed over a longer period to be performed by the author in pubs and clubs.
Teenager Alfie Pike discovers Wormwold, a secret underground civilisation, after breaking into a derelict house. He finds himself in an ancient landscape and is soon fighting for his life against a wild boar but is then saved and captured by a warrior tribe. Escaping with another boy, Brenan, he meets the sorceress Vervain who encourages Alfie on his quest to help find a cure for his little sister who has been poisoned by a criminal gang. The antidote can only be found in a special pond deep beneath the frozen Alaskan tundra which requires a long arduous journey. Alfie meets several other characters, all with interesting life stories, who help him on his way. 
Sixteen-year-old Jacob Lee Manning seems like a hopeless case to home tutor Andy Fish. Excluded from school for drug dealing, attacks on staff and pupils, vandalism, etc, Jacob is also dyslexic and suffering from ADHD. However, Andy discovers the boy has a rare gift for technology but is alarmed by his ability to levitate objects among other subversive talents. 
Black teenager, Nina, and her family of New Age travellers escape their fire-bombed bus late one night and are offered accommodation by a mysterious benefactor. Far-right activists harass the family, but they are protected by their new friend who offers to support them in exchange for musical performances. Nina becomes a successful rap artist but discovers a racist group has been exploiting the band by inserting subliminal messages into their sound system at performances. Nina’s absent father, we later discover, along with the far-right activists behind the conspiracy, served in the army together and were involved in the massacre of a rebel group in Somalia. The crime is kept secret, but Nina uncovers it and her father’s innocence.
Two teenage boys from opposing backgrounds – one the Prime Minister’s son and the other from a poor single-parent family – are thrown together and, after some initial rivalry, join forces to fight the criminals threatening world peace. The twist is that the boys were swapped at birth – by the poorer boy’s young mother – and, though this helps drive the plot, is kept a secret till the end. Snoopervision is the name given by the gangster to his televised attacks.
