Steve Baskin

Power-pop aficionados looking for some new stuff from the deep underground, try out Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Baskin's new effort. All the touchstones are in place: grabby tunes, stacked (but not heavy) guitars, shiny vocal harmonies. (www.stevebaskin.com) --ES - Creative Loafing

If its textured Americana alt/pop-rock that you're into, then you'll dig Naked, by Atlanta-based, Steve Baskin. Surrounded by a stellar band, they create soundscapes that accurately articulate each song and Baskin's vocals.

Album opener, Catch Me If You Can, is overly poppy, and lends itself to all listeners. It comes across like a blend of Counting Crows and Blue October. Later track, A Day in My Shoes seductively explodes with a great, soaring lead guitar riff. The melodies aren't quite as singable, but the hooks come at you one after another.

Something Smells Fishy belongs main stage at Bonnaroo. Its jammy and catchy all the same. Clearly, these guys know their way inside a studio. Their sounds are solid, and they all complement each other song after song. - Awaken Music

You gotta admit that anyone who has the courage to tackle two No. 1 pop songs on the Billboard charts, one by The Beatles and one by the Partridge Family, has got to be either lame or way cool.

Steve Baskin is one fearless rocker who plays mostly original tunes, yet he pulls off playing tunes by The Partridge Family and The Beatles with aplomb and originality. While he rocks “I Think I Love You,” he flips The Beatles’ celebratory “A Hard Days Night” upside down. When Baskin plays it, he takes you floating down a slow river of hardships that only love can heal. Although the tune barely resembles the original, his arrangement sounds just as valid and authentic.

Baskin, a recording artist influenced by music from the ‘60s and ‘70s, R&B and country, will be playing mainly original tunes with his three-piece band at the Red Light Café Friday, April 9.

If you go, be prepared to sing along and shove your table out of the way and dance. Baskin’s country tune “Float on Down” rocks so much it could catapult you into a Texas Two-step or an Irish stepdance. “Catch Me If You Can,” a catchy pop tune released last year on his CD “Naked,” is so infectious it is getting air-play around the country. This summer it was one of the Top 10 most added songs to playlists, according to FMQB, a radio industry organization that tracks tunes.

Baskin, who hid himself in the business world for the past 20 years, began playing music as a kid. By 17, he was playing on the professional circuit as a sideman with The Shirelles, Archie Bell & the Drells, and Samuel David Moore (of Sam and Dave). More recently he has played with Cindy Wilson of the B-52s. - Susan Asher

“It’s all good” for Steve Baskin.

The Valdosta native’s new album, “Naked,” is out. Released in mid-May, the CD’s set of 10 songs sizzles. The album is receiving good early reviews and audience response.

“Naked” features Baskin’s band, which has been busy playing live gigs in the Atlanta area, attracting the attention of a music publishing company.

In his spare time, Baskin has been founding a global sponsorship business ... seriously.

“I love making things up out of thin air,” Baskin says in a recent phone interview. He loves making songs, music, CDs, a business, all powered by the same harmonious energy that gives “Naked” its bounce.

“Naked” is a reflection of a busy year.

Two-and-a-half years ago, when we last checked in with Baskin, he was balancing his music with a thriving career as a marketing executive with Ing, one of the world’s largest financial corporations.

In February 2008, he left Ing, just before the stock market collapse. The global sponsorship company came about “over a bunch of beers.” He began working on the concept the next day. Baskin has since been flying around the country developing the company.

His band formed as Baskin worked on songs as a follow-up to his debut album, “I Sometimes Think.” On “I Sometimes Think,” Baskin wrote, sang and played everything. He has come to appreciate a band.

The Valdosta Daily Times’ 2007 article described “I Sometimes Think” as “a poppy blend of groove and soul with a nice slice of edge.”

“Naked” is both more raw in its emotional impact while more refined in its musicianship and production. This second CD maintains a pop quality fueled with a charging rock attitude.

Baskin wrote the majority of the songs on “Naked.” A notable exception is the fun Partridge Family cover of “I Think I Love You.” Baskin co-wrote other songs on the album.

One co-writing credit is with Rich Herring, a fellow former Valdostan. Herring and Baskin once performed together in a previous incarnation of The Blues Factor. Herring also performed regularly in South Georgia, often at the former Remerton pub, The Mill House.

Baskin had an idea for a song and visited Herring in Nashville, where he works as a session player, songwriter and reportedly as lead guitar with the Little River Band since leaving Valdosta more than a decade ago. They worked on the song together and it became “My Empty House” on the album.

Baskin also performs with another Valdosta native, Richard “Zoot” Blasingame, a renaissance man of a musician playing keyboards, organ, “Grandma’s accordion,” bari sax, as well as back-up vocals.

These Valdosta roots are important given Baskin’s Valdosta-Lowndes County roots.

Baskin is the son of Jean Baskin and the grandson of Vanelle Baskin, both of Valdosta. He’s a 1982 graduate of Lowndes High School and attended Valdosta State, before moving in 1987 to Atlanta. He played several years with the now-defunct Reunion Blue Band, a group that also featured Al Turner, a local attorney who has been Valdosta band Skannyardle’s drummer for many years.

Baskin hopes to play a Valdosta gig sometime in the near future. It likely wouldn’t be with the full band but an acoustic set with himself and maybe a bandmate or two. Other band members include Brian Hudson, drums; bass player Joe Randolph, Collective Soul’s original bass and guitar player; Alex Slinin, electric and lead guitar; with Baskin on lead vocals, back-up acoustic and electric guitars.

Baskin describes “Naked” as a CD about “love, love gone bad, running, the stress of the office, the Zen of the river, runaways, prostitution, and death.”

And it’s just some unvarnished great music. - Valdosta Daily Times

BY DEAN POLING

Interview most musicians about their latest CD, they will talk about long hours spent in the recording studio laying down tracks, singing and playing the same song, repeatedly, for what makes a very long day or an even longer night.

Steve Baskin may have spent just as many hours preparing the tracks for his debut album, "I Sometimes Think," in the digital recording studio in his home. But, as one old friend (Keith Bennett of the Cindy Wilson Band) noted, "It's pretty amazing since it was done in 15-minute increments."

Baskin's schedule wouldn't allow him time to spend long hours at a stretch in the studio. Is there any executive with an international corporation who has such time?

Steve Baskin's day job is a sweet gig as a marketing executive with ING, one of the world's largest financial corporations. In truth, most folks are more familiar with Baskin's work from his day job than they are with his music.

Remember the television commercials with what appears to be most of a word blocked by a mime or someone or something else with the exception of an "ing," clear and readable, at the end of the bench? Usually, a person in the commercial as well as viewers were curious enough to wonder what the entire word was to learn that the entire word was "ING," and then left everyone curious enough to ask, What is ING?

Baskin was the man behind developing those commercials.

For many South Georgians, though, Steve Baskin's name and face are familiar because Valdosta-Lowndes County is where he grew up before moving off to Atlanta to become a corporate executive, a solo musician, and a musician who has played with groups like the B-52's Cindy Wilson's side band, HugoAgogo, and the Hippycrickets.

Meanwhile, since his CD's release this past summer, Baskin and "I Sometimes Think" have been receiving positive mentions in various music publications, including Paste Magazine which included one of the album's songs in its November issue's CD sampler.

"I Sometimes Think" is a poppy blend of groove and soul with a nice slice of edge. Some listeners may hear a Beatles influence in Baskin's song "Better (I Can't Sleep)" especially followed by his hard-hitting, slowed cover of The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," but "Better," Baskin laughs, owes more to a riff from the Atlanta Rhythm Section than it does John, Paul George or Ringo. While others may cry "Heresy" for daring record a Beatles cover, Baskin brings a fresh voice to a familiar tune, finding new power in something so subconsciously well known, similar to Beatles producer George Martin's current reworkings of the Fab Four's songs on the CD "Love".

The majority of "I Sometimes Think's" songs are by Baskin, with co-songwriting credits also going to Trey Hollingsworth; Mary Dean on "Trip Begin"; Tracy Fagan on "Bad Idea."

After his series of 15-minute recording sessions, Baskin had his CD mixed by Glenn Matullo, who has worked with the Indigo Girls and John Mayer. Tom Durack produced a couple of the songs at ElevenFifteen in New York. Alex Lowe of Red Tuxedo mastered the entire album.

He met many of these individuals while playing music with various bands. He was lead guitar on the Hippycrickets' debut CD, "Inconceivable."

In 2003, Baskin joined the Cindy Wilson Band, which he describes as "an album project featuring Cindy Wilson of the B-52s," as a vocalist and guitarist. With this band, he was part of numerous concerts and even played on Turner South cable TV's "Live from Music Midtown," sharing the stage with Wilson and several other well-known musicians like Don "American Pie" McLean and the late June Carter Cash. He considers joining Cash for a rendition of "May the Circle Be Unbroken" to be a highlight of his musical career.

Which brings one to a curious realization: Given Baskin's credentials, why not hew to the dream of so many musicians and delete the day job for a full-time career in music?

Simple enough answer: "I like what I do," he says.

Yet, with all of his music experiences, the album is leading down new paths.

Despite years of playing with various bands in hundreds of shows for audiences of thousands, Baskin played his first solo show in 25 years this past December. Playing songs from the CD, he performed at the prestigious songwriter's showcase, Eddie's Attic, Atlanta.

"I was terrified," Baskin admits in a phone interview, "but it was a satisfying terror."

One he will return to soon, with a back-up band, featuring as one of the musicians, another former Valdostan, keyboardist Richard Blasingame.

With more gigs and attention coming his way, though, surely, Steve Baskin must be just a little tempted to give up the day job.

Baskin is just getting started. "There's still plenty of time," he laughs, "to become famous as a musician." - Valdosta Daily Times

BY JAMIE ALLEN
Published 11.08.06

Steve Baskin just might be the only ING executive to have Angie Aparo, John Mayer, Edwin McCain and Shawn Mullins listed as friends on his MySpace page. But then, he's also probably the only ING exec whose moonlighting career as a guitarist and vocalist includes a live national television performance with June Carter Cash & Family, as well as a stint working with Cindy Wilson.

Baskin is the antithesis of your favorite character from "The Office"; he's found harmony between office success and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. By day, Steve is VP of Brand Standards and Strategic Sponsorships for the world's 13th-largest company, overseeing branding at events such as the ING New York City Marathon. By night, Baskin jams and sings, with a résumé that includes the Cindy Wilson Band and the Hippycrickets (not to mention that moment with Cash and co.).

Now, Baskin's independently releasing his first solo album, I Sometimes Think. Co-written with Trey Hollingsworth (Mary Dean, Tracy Fagan), it's "a pretty pop-ish, love-song-driven thing," Baskin says. "I realized that with horror when I put it together."

Decatur-based Paste Magazine likes it. The editors have chosen Baskin's tune "How I Feel" for inclusion in the November issue's CD sampler.

But what do his fellow ING execs say about his new release? Baskin recalls a recent moment when his boss's boss spotted him in corporate halls. "He put his finger in my chest and said, 'I just heard your album.' (He thought it was great.) "They're just happy that it doesn't stink," Baskin laughs. "They're like, 'Oh my God, I'm so glad it's good.'
- Creative Loafing (Atlanta)