COUNTRY MUSIC
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
 
KENTUCKY
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
 
BAPTIZED
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 4 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
 
LONG RIDE HOME
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)
 
THE PLAYERS
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 1st 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