The Orphan 40 is the solo project of attorney Ian Bauer, who played in and around the greater Seattle area in his earlier years, both solo and in bands. 

Ian was raised in Olympia, Washington, in a household filled with music.  After more than a decade of playing the piano, Ian picked up his mom’s acoustic guitar and began to teach himself to play. Decades may have passed, but that 1970s-era Guild six-string is still Ian’s primary and favorite guitar.

The Orphan 40 began when, taking a break from preparing for a significant trial, Ian did something he hadn’t done for years — hit the record button.

The result?

The 1424 Sessions, a collection of 2 dozen (and counting) originals and hand-picked covers. Songs stripped down to their bare essentials — solo guitar and vocals, played in the same tempo rubato Ian has always embraced, “as felt” in a given moment. Collectively, these tracks reflect the core of Ian’s musical instincts — to capture and convey the raw emotion of discrete moments in time, from the highs to the lows and everywhere in between.

“The Orphan 40” moniker is itself a reference to the ranch in eastern Oregon where Ian’s dad grew up.  Specifically, it refers to a remote, 40-acre parcel that was largely disconnected from the rest of the ranch — a parcel the family would refer to as “the orphan 40.”