If you’re more familiar with Darrell Scott from his collaborations with bluegrass maverick Tim O’Brien, then Scott’s Live in NC will open your eyes to the breadth of styles and songwriting which Scott can coax from thin air. The album captures the intimate club atmosphere of Ziggy’s (Winston-Salem) and Cat’s Cradle (Carrboro), much like James McMurtry’s Live in Aught-Three. Scott steps on stage with Danny Thompson on double bass and Kenny Malone on drums. From the first notes, the lights go down—wherever you are—as you are immersed in the jazz and blues tones which are brought to Scott’s folk, mountain songs.
“It’s the Whiskey That Eases the Pain” is a blues folk song in the style of Greg Brown. “With a Memory Like Mine” pulls the tarp off of some country blues like that now found on NorthernBlues Music artists like David Jacobs-Strain. “River Take Me” is a mountain and valley story hooked up to some electric blues. Again the mountain is there on “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” but Cliff Eberhardt’s folk style comes up the rise too.
Lyrically, Scott tells tales like McMurtry, engrossing your imagination and heart in the ups and down of strangers who end up in your prayers. With inflection like Peter Mayer, Scott sings “Helen of Troy, PA,” which has this incredible blues bass and acoustic guitar on a Graduate/“Mrs. Robinson”-like tale. The song is full of specific detail further developing the picture until it comes the poetic verse about having sex.
The warmth of the music comes from Scott, of course, as a singer and guitarist, but the jazz/blues of Thompson and Malone is like a shot of whiskey from the St. Bernard rescue dog. The warmth goes coursing through your veins as Thompson bounces the bass line and Malone syncopates and swings the rhythm.
“Miracle of Living” starts with an Allman Brothers-like guitar but is undergirded by the jazz lines heard on the Harper Brothers or Joshua Redman or the bass of Christian McBride. It’s good to see Scott’s combo bring that unabashed joy to the folk/country blues/rock.
The lyric points to that same unabashed joy. Following the travels of a man looking for something besides a lonesome world, he discovers “he felt a power from inside/He found a miracle of living/In having nothing left to hide.” A perfect lyric for the joy of knowing we don’t need to hide our sins from God because of His forgiveness. Scott’s music is Gospel in tune. That warmth and joy makes Live in NC resonate in many directions from the speakers.
Thanks to Darrell Scott, Danny Thompson, and EchoMusic for the review copy.
