Brace for beautiful musician; ALAN NICHOL has the latest happenings on the roots music scene.

Byline: ALAN NICHOL

TEXAS musician, Sam Baker, makes his third trip to the region this week to deliver the final instalment of his Mercy trilogy of albums.

Baker is at the Cluny 2 next Thursday for what is sure to be a full house. His first two albums - Mercy (2004) and Pretty World (2007) - bore the mark of a literate songsmith with a talent for conveying powerful images with real economy.

Word-painting may be a close description of what he does but he also has an emotional depth, which can only come from hard-won - in his case, nearfatal - experience.

Baker's latest album, Cotton, is like his previous work, in that people are essentially the central theme. Forgiveness, a particularly difficult subject, is also to the fore.

His near-death train journey in Peru, when he was targeted by terrorists, cost him dearly in terms of physical injuries but the emotional scars, articulated in several of his songs, are never likely to fade.

The album starts in the Deep South, with a Dixie intro, before Baker starts the narrative, which includes the lyric "Momma cleaned house for the white folk/but man, our house was a mess/We had food/ We had shoes/Had it better than most I guess".

His character in the song betrays no self-pity, just a succinct observation of the realities of a tough life. He succeeds in giving new songs a timeless quality and his half-spoken, half-sung delivery is given further impact by his unusual phrasing. As one critic said, "you feel the beauty while bracing for the pain."

Not surprisingly, all of Baker's albums have been the subject of glowing reviews but his live shows reflect a personable and witty performer who has been to the brink yet somehow, thankfully, made it back ! Also on the bill are the Canadian duo, Madison Violet. Formerly using the shorter name, Mad Violet, Brenley MacEachern and Lisa McIsaac play songs of self-written country-folk material and play a variety of guitars and fiddle, majoring in tight vocal harmony.

The Be Good Tanyas and Po' Girl would be good reference points for the Toronto-based duo, who have a new CD, No Fool For Trying, out now.

They had previously guested on other folks' records before releasing their debut, Worry The Jury, and then Caravan - both nominated for awards in Canada.