InFOCUS | BLOOMS & BLOSSOMS

BY BRIAN K. ROBINS CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Ned Baker of Tamarian is a beloved rug raconteur with an entertainer’s charm. What you may not know is that Ned is also a gigging musician with music in his blood.

orn into a family of musicians, Ned grew up surrounded by instruments. His parents played folk music and “There were guitars everywhere,” Ned reminisced. “I’d just pick them up and strum them. As soon as my hands were strong enough, I was fooling around. I don’t have any memory of not trying to play music.”

Folk music may have been the soundtrack to his childhood, but Ned’s musical tastes evolved beyond that singular genre. One of his early guitar influences was fellow Delaware resident George Thorogood. Ned was captivated by the aggressive, blues-based rock.

“After George,” relayed Ned, “I was into Van Halen, eighties hair metal, then Frank Zappa. I didn’t know anybody who liked Zappa and I heard something off the album “Apostrophe.” It was weird and seemed forbidden. That informs my musical taste, and is probably why I like odd people.”

Ned met his future bandmates in the fifth grade. “We literally learned our instruments together. We played in the school jazz band. We formed our first group in 8th grade and played all through high school.”

While his young musical tastes were budding, Ned simultaneously fell into his first rug gig through friends of his parents.

Ned’s parents first connected with John and Ellen Kurtz when he was around ten years old, and when Ned was in high school, John hired him to wash rugs for his rug gallery. Ned mused, “Hand washing, a hose, a bar of ivory soap, and a squeegee on a broom handle—I spent summers washing and schlepping rugs around.”

Following high school, Ned studied Jazz at Ithaca College, and earned a teaching degree.

So how did a guitar playing teacher find his way back to the rug industry?

Right around the time Ned graduated from college, John Kurtz began producing Tibetan carpets in Nepal.

“It all weaves together!” exclaims Ned. “I was getting the band back together. I quit a perfectly good teaching job and immediately went broke. John Kurtz had started New Moon and gave me a job in the warehouse. The rest is rug history.”

W ith New Moon, Ned found a kindred spirit who encouraged his creative impulses and desire to riff until something great manifested.

“I was able to really hone that skill with John unfettered. He really embraced me just diving into learning it.”

Today, Ned’s band, Dickens & Ballsworth, has a monthly gig at the Garrett Hill Ale House in Villanova PA. Ned and his musical mates have been playing there regularly for 10 years. They have an impressive catalog, and they tailor each set to the crowd.

The following are a few of Ned’s favorite covers.

Time

Helplessly Hoping Dirty Love

“I love playing “Time” by Pink Floyd. I feel really good about playing that lead. I get to play delay and there’s something really satisfying about that song.”

“I never embraced myself as a singer, but I love singing with the band. We do, “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby Stills and Nash with one guitar and sing it in harmony.”

“Zappa’s “Dirty Love.” There’s improvisational moments. I’ll emote. Turn on the distortion and let it rip!”

Let it rip may be Ned’s life motto. One of his favorite aspects of music and the rug world is the opportunity for improvising.

“Improvisation has always been a speciality, or just something I was able to do sort of more naturally,” Ned explains. “Similarly professionally, instead of being afraid of those instincts, I’m starting to really trust them more, and actually that’s what I’m bringing to the table. And there’s real value in that.”

Ned approaches the rug business like learning a song.

“I use the music analogy all the time. How to do a client visit. It’s like a chart, the chords, the notes. You gotta know the song structure, but really you’ve got to listen. If you have an ear and you can get into that groove where you're really listening. Really aware, not trying to predeter mine listen, but really listen and react. Musically and professionally that’s where I find my place.”

Listening and reacting is a valuable and transferable skill between the business and music worlds.

“As the lead guitar player,” Ned says, “you’re out in front of the sound and the mix. So I have nowhere to hide. People are listening to you. You better do something good!”

Ned is now doing something good as a key account manager and marketing guru for Tamarian.

“When I met Ryan with Tamarian, music was a thing we had in common,” Ned said. “Music had a way of connecting people in the rug industry.”

Tamarian joined forces with Dickens & Ballsworth at a legendary after hours industry party in 2019, and Ned’s rug and musical lives collided in glorious fashion. The space was an ultra hip NY loft and the music rang out into the wee hours.

Asked about his role with Tamarian, Ned replies simply, “I’m a Swiss Army knife.”

A swiss army knife that plays one mean guitar.