Darrell Scott

The old country music of cheating, drinking, working, longing- pre-Garth, pre-video, pre-urban-cowboy country music - the voice of working people- people of the land - it is their poetry...country music and king james - the country music cuts the deepest.

My people came from kentucky- poor tobacco farmers of first half 20th century and harlan county coal miners decades ahead of that - descendants of scots & irish - they brought their music with them.

From silver haired daddy to momma's hungry eyes i was baptized in country music - our first vacation (after my dad working in Gary, Indiana steel mills for 6 years) was to Nashville, TN. & the Grand ole opry we'd been listening to on radio - i got my first instrument at a pawn shop on broadway (1965) the following year, my mom dressed her kentucky best and marched into the four big labels in nashville (RCA, Capitol, Columbia, Decca) and got as far as the desk receptionist to leave a 45 of Wayne Scott & The 3 Ds (my brothers and i were the 3Ds) - I was 7 then - country music was the background music of my childhood.

This is a country recording- 16 songs that travel as far back as 30 years- 2 songs (The Country Boy and You're Everything I Wanted Love To Be) written at 16, with my dad, Wayne Scott, when he rented a cabin in big bear lake, california just for us to write (we each finished the others' song) - there is a duet with Guy Clark (Out In The Parking Lot) on a song Guy & i wrote together - there are guest vocals from Rodney Crowell (Hopkinsville), Tim Obrien & John Cowan (No Love In Arkansas & Too Close Too Comfort), and Patty Griffin (You'll Be With Me All The Way).

I recorded the album at home where we sat up around the grand piano where THE pianist of country music, Hargus "pig" Robbins, presided (pig started recording in Nashville in 1957 - the first hit he played on: George Jones' 'White Lightnin') - on drums, my kayak/bicycling friend, Kenny Malone, a studio legend since 1975 (his 1st hit was Dobie Gray's 'Drift Away') - on upright bass: Dennis Crouch (we'd played together in Steve Earle's Bluegrass Dukes & Dennis has played on virtually all T Bone Burnett's recordings for the last 10 years & toured with Elvis Costello, Elton John, Robert Plant & Alisson Krauss) - we 4 were the tracking band - then i stayed with legends: Lloyd Green on pedal steel (Don Williams, Charlie Pride), on harmonicas: Charlie McCoy (everyone from Dylan to Cash) & Mickey Raphael (Willie) - then singers, Marcus Hummon, Jonell Mosser & Kathy Chiavola (from Dixie Chicks to Emmylou Harris) and mixed & mastered by Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Malcolm Holcomb).

It is country music how I remember it - with some of the players that made the very music that was both lifting & breaking my heart as a kid - what I find is the country music industry has changed, but country & working people have not changed so much- they still love country music when they hear it - I hope they get to hear this.

A long ride home.

-Darrell Scott