STEVE BARKER: ONE PAGE HISTORY
Steve Barker has been called the "Rock-a-Billy Cowboy Crooner",
probably because you'll never see anyone able to perform a wider variety of
songs. All done with his own style and with seamless ease.
Steve was born in San Francisco, California, and grew up
across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. At the young age of 12 he started
performing at a local restaurant in the lounge accompanied by the legendary
organist Larry Vannucci. Steve wasn’t old enough to be in the lounge, but the
owners and patrons didn’t seem to mind once they heard him sing.
Steve is able to draw on an impressive repertoire of songs which at last count,
is well over 700 songs.
Many of the great entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole,
Wayne Newton, Bobby Darin and of course, Elvis, have helped molded Steve’s stage
persona. But don’t stop there. Add Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Robbins, Hank Williams,
Tom Jones,
Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, as well as R&B legends such as Otis Redding, Sam
Cooke, and Ray Charles. It’s all there in the Steve Barker show. Country,
Western, Rock & Roll, R&B, Gospel, Jazz, even a few impressions of these legends
pop up in the show from time to time.
In the 1980’S Steve was part of the Los Angeles music scene, and
was
performing in clubs throughout southern California. Once while appearing
at the world famous Palomino Club in North Hollywood, the M.C. for the show that
night was Country Music legend, and Hall of Fame member Cliffie Stone. After
hearing Steve, Cliffie exclaimed to a packed house, “That’s the best singing
I’ve ever heard in here”. Considering all the legends that have appeared there
over the years, and all the artists Cliffie produced in his career that’s pretty
high praise!
Next it was on to Nashville and performances through-out the
southern United States. Steve appeared regularly at Opryland USA, and made
many appearances on the world famous Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree radio
program on W.S.M. Radio in Nashville. Steve has had the great privilege of
sharing stages with some of entertainments greatest performers through the
years, such as: Johnny Cash, Eddie Rabbitt, Tanya Tucker, The Grateful Dead,
Huey Lewis and the News, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Carl
Perkins, just to name a few.
For the last 13 years Steve has appeared regularly at Rawhide
Wild West Town in Scottsdale, Arizona, now at Wild Horse Pass, and performing
some 200 dates a year there. People from all over the world come there year
round. Steve’s CD collections of classic country and western songs have been
steady sellers to tourists and locals alike that have visited Rawhide over the
last decade. Steve has fans in Canada, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Germany, England,
France, Italy, Australia, & New Zealand just to name a few, and has plans to
tour many of these places in the near future. “It’s a great feeling to perform
for a group of people and have them come up to you afterwards and want to take
your CD home with them. It’s the best praise you can get from an audience. It
says they like you and they want more.”
Whether you see The Steve Barker Show in Las Vegas, at state
fairs, a private party, or at Rawhide’s famous Sundown Cookout, just watch and
listen and you’ll see what thousands of people around the world have discovered.
This guy is great!