Two of Hearts dares audience to stump the band

Two of Hearts dares audience to stump the band
Lillian couple plays at Gulf Shores American Legion every Sat.

By Fran Thompson
Frank Baker’s love of music stretches all the way back to a childhood spent backing up the choir on guitar while he was still in elementary school up near the music hotbed of Muscle Shoals.
After a career in the Navy, Frank took a civil service job with the NAS Schools Command, giving him 45 years of military tenure in one capacity or another. At that point – about 10 years ago – it was time for Frank to chase the music that had been his passion since childhood.
“All along, I would play in bands on the weekends,’’ he said. “But after retiring, I decided it was my time, and I was going to do what I wanted to do.’’
About that same time, Frank’s wife Vicky, also a musician, retired from the state attorney’s office in Milton, and the Two of Hearts do was hatched. The couple has been playing music together ever since, including a Saturday evening 7-11 p.m. residency at Gulf Shores American Legion Post 44.
A stellar player on any string instrument, including pedal steel guitar (He often plays that instrument with Southern Star), Frank is also comfortable around percussion and keyboards. He uses that musical melange to merge his recorded arrangements with live riffs from a variety of instruments to give Two of Hearts its unique sound.
“That merging of electronic and live creates a hybrid,’’ Frank said. “Not too many people in this area do it. We build a basic skeleton of a song and hang other tracks on as needed. We end up being able to do with two or three people what would usually take six, and it sounds good.’’
In addition to Saturday evenings in Gulf Shores, the Bakers plays regularly at the Pensacola Beach Elks Club, the Nix Center in Fairhope, and American Legion Post 99 in Foley.
“There aren’t too many places around here that we haven’t played,’’ Frank said.
Frank says at one point during every Post 44 show, he challenges the audience to a game of stump the band. “We say ‘you guys tell us any song that comes to mind, and we’ll do it.’ You just about can’t stump us, as long as it’s an older crowd out there. People enjoy the heck out of it.’’
The Post 99 flyer advertising Two of Hearts states that you can expect to hear “country, blues, oldies & rock ‘n roll hits’’ when they play. And to that you can add big band and Latin riffs.
“We have such a varied play list that the audience is not going to get bored,’’ Frank said. “And I don’t like just playing one kind of music anyway. We try to read the audience. Lately, we’ve takaen a little side turn by getting into ball room and Latin stuff. I spend days on the computer making arrangements and learning that stuff. My wife says I must be married to the computer, but she gets into learning the parts, too.’’
Frank added that when he plays pedal steel with Southern Star, he expects to play mainly old-time country. With Two of Hearts, he and Vicky don’t play “mainly’’ any style of music.
“I call them death derge songs,’’ he said. “We play a few of them. But if we played too many, we would lose the audience. Those old country songs are mostly based on cheating, lying, drinking or dying.’’
For more information about activities at the Gulf Shores American Legion, visit americanlegionpost44gulfshoresal.org