By Mike Baker
The Trip That Changed My Pace
Kellie and I went to St. Thomas and St. John to celebrate our 26th anniversary.
I thought we were going for rest. What I found was something deeper.
We rented a little dinghy from Dockside Dinghy out of Cruz Bay. Nothing fancy. Just a small boat, a cooler, and no schedule. Freedom looked like sunlight bouncing off turquoise water.
We spent our days chasing color. The sea shifted from green to blue to glass-clear. The nights felt timeless. Peace lived in every sound.
I played songs from my new album Human First on my phone. No speaker. Just music carried by wind and salt. The sound belonged there.
“Music leaves a trace wherever it’s played.”
That trip became the heartbeat of the record.
Not a story about escape, but about remembering how to come home.
The Heart Behind Human First
The quiet stayed with me when I got home.
Kindness is easy to find when life slows down. Strangers helped each other dock. People laughed across languages. Everyone shared space without tension.
That’s the world I want to live in.
I usually build several albums at once, but this project kept pulling me back. Every time I tried to move to something else, these songs asked for more attention.
The world feels heavy right now. Division grows louder every day. Outrage fills the room before empathy gets a chance to speak.
At home, things look different. Families keep showing up. Parents worry. Kids dream. People pay bills and try to hold things together. We share the same struggles even when we pretend we don’t.
That truth shaped every song on Human First.
We are all just people doing our best.
Stop Making Amy Cry
One song from the record came straight from the trip. Stop Making Amy Cry.
Amy is my sister-in-law and one of the kindest people I know. She and Kellie laugh in a way only sisters can. Their joy fills a space. You can feel it.
Amy feels everything. Every headline. Every story of cruelty. Every act of hate. She carries it all.
Each night she walked quietly through the villas to feed the stray cats. She didn’t tell anyone. She just went.
I’ve never been a cat guy, but one night this small black cat walked out of the dark like he’d been waiting for her. A boy, curious and calm. She crouched down, spoke softly, and he trusted her instantly.
I sat beside her and helped. Somehow I fell in love with that cat. All because of Amy.
Her empathy never turns off. If something needs care, she offers it. If someone loses faith, she gives them some of hers.
“We shouldn’t live in a world that makes people like Amy cry.”
That line became the song.
“She still believes we can be kind
In a world that’s lost its mind.”
Her belief in goodness breaks me in the best way.
She still believes in people even when people disappoint her.
And when I see her cry over the pain of the world, I know something is deeply wrong.
Stop Making Amy Cry became a prayer.
A hope for a gentler world.
A promise to protect the people who still feel deeply.
No more hate.
No more fear.
More compassion that reaches where words cannot.
That same spirit runs through Working Hands.
The song honors the people who hold everything together quietly.
“Working hands, they carry the load
Holding us steady as the world turns slow.”
Every day still works because someone cares enough to keep showing up.
That is the heartbeat of Human First.
Compassion that keeps the world upright.
Faith Without Noise
Faith shapes this record too. Not the kind that shouts. The kind that listens.
If Jesus Walked Today began with a question. Would we recognize love if it walked among us?
I wrote that song after watching too many stories filled with anger.
Videos of fear. Families torn apart. Kids zip-tied.
Scenes that made me stop and ask, Is this who we are?
We need laws and safety, but watching cruelty unfold in real time hurts something deeper. Even Joe Rogan called it out this week. When people that far apart start seeing the same problem, maybe it means we are waking up.
The Jesus I know would never lead through fear.
He would feed the hungry.
He would heal the broken.
He would hold the child who is scared.
He would see a person first.
Faith to me means presence. Kindness. Mercy. The choice to keep a soft heart in a hard world.
That is what Human First tries to express.
Grace that breathes. Faith that lives quietly. Love that costs something but gives more back.
Carry the Flame
The record ends with Carry the Flame.
That song celebrates courage that never makes headlines.
I think about people like Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Mandela.
They carried the light forward when the world wanted to go dark.
“Through every storm, through loss and shame
Carry the flame, carry the flame.”
Hope lives in those small acts of courage. Mercy must lead. Grace must last. Light belongs to everyone willing to share it.
Leadership, art, and love all ask for the same thing — keep believing in goodness when it would be easier to stop.
We all hold a torch. The world changes depending on how we use it.
Coming Home
Coming home after that trip felt different.
Nothing around me had changed, but I had.
Peace no longer feels distant. It feels like something you build every day.
Human First became a love letter to humanity.
A reminder that before we debate or divide, we belong to each other.
The songs Neighbors Not Enemies, We All Bleed Red, and Carry the Flame all point to that truth.
What connects us has more power than what divides us.
The goal is not to fix the whole world. The goal is to make your corner of it a little kinder, a little softer, a little more human.
“Still here. Still trying. Still human first.”
A Moment of Truth
I love this work.
The podcast, the art, the music — this is where my heart lives.
I believe in what I’m creating, but I need help reaching people.
Some days it feels like shouting into the wind. The algorithm rewards outrage, and quiet truth moves slower.
Another musician once said your friends and family rarely become your biggest fans. Not because they don’t love you, but because they already know you. Love doesn’t always amplify.
I need help reaching the people who haven’t heard this yet — the ones who might need a reminder that kindness still matters.
If you believe in what I’m doing, please help me share it.
Post about it.
Tag a friend.
Spread the message.
I don’t want fame. I want connection.
I want to reach the people who still want light but have forgotten where to find it.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for caring.
Thank you for helping me keep trying.
Still here.
Still trying.
Still human first.
Listen and Watch
🎧 Listen to Episode 17: “Human First” on Spotify
👉 https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tG4roOO5HybG8yR3aXO6y?si=dfe1abbdfc434580
📺 Watch on YouTube
👉 https://youtu.be/HCMXRUcqNoY
🎵 Listen to the album “Human First” on Spotify
👉 https://open.spotify.com/album/05xw7RTyZVOVZcVELpkFJ4?si=ieVRML3KQVqDUatiI2sWUg Human Connection power of human connection the human need for connection