Though he’s been at it since the 1960s, the musician remains for the most part an enigma – not much has been publicly offered about his early life, and with his long, grey beard and old-timey wardrobe, Baby Gramps looks like he could have just stepped off a spectral train straight out of the Depression -or any number of classic Americana songs. That hobo persona, one of riding the rails from yesteryear and learning songs over the course of a lifetime could seem to be simply part of a mystique that he’s cultivated – but according to the man himself, it’s based at least in part in fact.
“One of my early ramblings was in a boxcar in Seattle – my friend closed the door and the car went back and forth on the track. I was hoping to go to California, but ended up in Spokane. I’m an Hobohemian from Bumhemia,” says Baby Gramps via email.
Over the years of his many travels, he says has met and been inspired by a host of luminaries in the music world, including Sun House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Joe