DURHAM - Dale Baker sits cross-legged on the floor. His right hand bounces from the center to the edge of his miniature djembe, making the drum's sound alternate between fuller and crisper. At the same time, he taps the fingers of his left hand in a quick roll, creating a steady calypso beat.

"Tinga LAAAAY-oh, come, little donkey, come!" he sings, leading a chorus of preschoolers at the Montessori Children's House of Durham.

"Me donkey eat, me donkey sleep, me donkey kicks with his two hind feet!" Baker sings, leaning on his right hip and kicking his legs out behind him. "Me donkey dance, me donkey sing, me donkey wearin' a diamond ring!"

Six years ago this Montessori teacher, who is playing for two dozen preschoolers, was a rock star. The original drummer for the Christian crossover band Sixpence None the Richer, he performed the song "Kiss Me" on Leno and Letterman, toured with 10,000 Maniacs and recorded with Emmylou Harris.

Baker left the band in 2001 over a financial rift, and three years later, the group folded. In the aftermath of the commercial comedown, Baker has discovered a measure of freedom, and even joy, living in Durham, where he moved in 2000 so his wife could attend Duke Divinity School.

"Durham's just really funky and really creative," he says. "The drag is that I haven't been able to make my career from playing drums, but the flip side to that is I've probably done more creative things or more fun things. I feel like I've grown more as like an artist or as a creative person."

As for teaching preschoolers, he says, "I really love it. The kids are really, really fun."

Baker joined Sixpence in 1993 after graduating from the University of North Texas. The band was built around pixie-voiced Leigh Nash singing songs by guitarist and cellist Matt Slocum.

After two albums, "The Fatherless and the Widow" and the Dove Award-winning "This Beautiful Mess," Sixpence's record label went under. It took two years for the group's 1997 self-titled disc, which included "Kiss Me," to see the light of day.

When given the opportunity that year, Baker declined to take a one-third ownership in Sixpence. He had just gotten married and wanted a regular salary rather than betting his income on the fate of the band, which was already in a financial hole.

After "Kiss Me" landed on the soundtrack to the Freddie Prinze Jr. movie "She's All That" and the WB series "Dawson's Creek," the songwriting royalties started rolling in. Slocum wanted to take a break from touring in early 2001, and the band's management laid off Baker, a guitarist and a bassist. Baker had renegotiated a large enough salary to stay afloat until they went back out on tour. The guitarist, though, had to go back to his old landscaping job.

Baker was still angry about this when he got a call to go back to Nashville for publicity photos to help promote the summer tour. He fired off a sarcastic e-mail saying that as an independent contractor, he expected to be paid as a professional model -- to the tune of $1,500 a day. He was trying to make a point about the business strategy and its effect on him and the other musicians. Instead, the band's management took his e-mail at face value and told him to take a hike.

"I think I was right, but that's not how the game's played," he says. "You just suck it up, and you go get drunk with your buddies, and everybody talks about how lame their deals are. But you're a musician for a living, so how wonderful is that?

"At the end of the day, you're just a drummer. There's a gazillion drummers. You have no talent whatsoever. You're just a guy, and you're lucky to have a gig. So don't question the authority, man. Just suck it up and do your gig. You're lucky. There's a thousand guys out there looking for a gig, and you're saying your gig's not good enough, that you don't have a sweet enough deal. It's like, yeah, I guess I was saying that."

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