West Des Moines-based musician Bryan Baker still lives a double life , but has pulled more from his real-life experiences for his latest album, 2009’s “Mr. Lincoln.” We visited with Baker almost a year ago about his musical performances on Second Life (SL), a free gaming platform that allows players to create an avatar and explore a virtual world. Users can interact with others in that world in a multitude of ways, including through music. Baker has been gigging on SL for years as “Kaklick Martin,” playing to users across the world from the comfort of an office chair in his home-studio.

Baker’s latest release is somewhat of a musical shift for him. His previous releases, “Big Bad World” and “Roadhouse Ranch and Saloon,” have had at least some tracks inspired by SL culture: users crashing, avatars loading slowly, odd character designs and cyber sex. But Baker decided to stick to RL (real life) themes on the 11 cuts this time around.

Baker displays his wide musical range on “Mr. Lincoln,” from politically-inspired songs like the title track to romantic ballad “Say Anything” and traditional tune “Pretty Polly.” The whole spectrum of work on the album is good, but Baker is at his best with playful endeavors like “I Want to be a Canadian” and “The Art of Being a Ninja.”

On “Canadian” Baker sings, “Won’t you fit me into your great big land / I can learn to love bacon that tastes like ham / I like my ladies bare naked but I’m not in any rush / I’ll point my dog to the North, bundle up and cry ‘mush.’” The influence of the light-hearted and humorous Barenaked Ladies is apparent in a lot of Baker’s work, and he does a great job striking a balance between playful lyrics and serious musicianship on many of the tracks.

Except for a little help with backing vocals, all the credits go to Baker on the album. He wrote and performed all the lyrics and music and did all the recording and production work in his home-studio. Although the drum arrangements sometimes come off sounding a little electronic, the overall quality of the recording is a marvel and really shows what a technically savvy artist like Baker (an I.T. consultant) can pull off these days.

Baker is definitely worth checking out, whether on CD, through his live performances locally or on SL every Friday streaming at http://tinyurl.com/circes1 .

For more info on Baker and a calendar of his performances, check out http://ka-klick.com . For samples of his music try http://cdbaby.com/cd/bryanbaker3 .