Rob Baker (guitarist)

Last updated

Rob Baker
CM
Robbaker.jpg
Rob Baker performing with Stripper's Union, 2006
Background information
Also known asBobby Baker
Born (1962-04-12) April 12, 1962 (age 62)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
GenresRock
OccupationsMusician, songwriter
InstrumentsGuitar
Years active1983–present

Rob Baker CM (born April 12, 1962) is a Canadian guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. [1] He has also released an album with the side project Stripper's Union in 2005.

Contents

Life and career

Baker was born in Kingston, Ontario. He is the son of the late Judge P.E.D. Baker. Baker is a former student of Queen's University where he studied visual art. Until the Tragically Hip's fifth release, Day for Night , he was credited in the liner notes as Bobby Baker. Baker designed many of the Hip's T-shirts and album art.

He was inducted—as a member of the Tragically Hip—to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in April 2005 at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was also one of the winners of a 1999 Juno Award for Best Album Design, for The Tragically Hip release Phantom Power . On June 15, 2017, it was announced that Baker, along with the other members of The Tragically Hip, would be appointed to the Order of Canada for "their contribution to Canadian music and for their support of various social and environmental causes." [2] [3]

In one of his first musical projects since the end of the Tragically Hip, he played guitar on much of singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge's 2019 album Passages . [4]

His son Boris Baker is a member of the rock band Kasador. [5]

In 2023, Baker endorsed and co-chaired the campaign of his local MPP Ted Hsu in the Ontario Liberal Leadership race. [6]

Gear

Up until the mid-1990s, he used a 1970s burnt umber Fender Stratocaster, a thirteenth-birthday gift from his father, along with Mesa Boogie amplification and more recently Hamilton amplifiers. He now uses a variety of guitars such as Paul Reed Smith, Ernie Ball Music Man and Ovation Guitars, as well as a cream-coloured Fender Telecaster, and Garrison acoustics.

Baker uses these specific guitar models on stage:

His amplifier and effects are:

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References

  1. Wilson, MacKenzie. "Biography: The Tragically Hip". AMG . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  2. "Hip's Gord Downie, activist Sylvia Maracle to be honoured with Indigenous leaders Monday". CBC News. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  3. "Order of Canada Appointments". Office of the Governor General of Canada. June 15, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  4. "Justin Rutledge is alt-country with a little help from his friends". Hamilton Spectator , March 8, 2019.
  5. Hendra, Peter (December 24, 2016). "Strombo pays tribute to The Tragically Hip". Kingston Whig-Standard . Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  6. "Ontario Liberal leadership candidate unveils high-profile campaign chairs | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved January 7, 2025.