These Valdosta roots are important given Baskin’s Valdosta-Lowndes County roots.

Baskin is the son of Jean Baskin and the grandson of Vanelle Baskin, both of Valdosta. He’s a 1982 graduate of Lowndes High School and attended Valdosta State, before moving in 1987 to Atlanta. He played several years with the now-defunct Reunion Blue Band, a group that also featured Al Turner, a local attorney who has been Valdosta band Skannyardle’s drummer for many years.

Baskin hopes to play a Valdosta gig sometime in the near future. It likely wouldn’t be with the full band but an acoustic set with himself and maybe a bandmate or two. Other band members include Brian Hudson, drums; bass player Joe Randolph, Collective Soul’s original bass and guitar player; Alex Slinin, electric and lead guitar; with Baskin on lead vocals, back-up acoustic and electric guitars.

Baskin describes “Naked” as a CD about “love, love gone bad, running, the stress of the office, the Zen of the river, runaways, prostitution, and death.”

And it’s just some unvarnished great music.

To find Steve Baskin’s “Naked,” visit www.stevebaskin.com