BIOGRAPHY
Soundly Music and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter and Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame nominee Darrell Scott are proud to announce the Friday, August 11 release of Old Cane Back Rocker, the roots music icon’s first full-length studio album since 2016’s Couchville Sessions created in conjunction with Darrell Scott String Band. A former ASCAP and NSAI Songwriter of the Year, Scott has garnered many accolades, including these rich words from environmentalist, writer and musician Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate, who wrote, “Darrell Scott mines and cultivates the everyday moment, taking the rote, menial, mundane, and allowing it to be surreal, ever poignant, and candidly honest.”
Leading the collection is “Kentucky Morning,” Old Cane Back Rocker’s first single that tells the story of many a southern family’s migration to the north, where factory work held promises of a good living. Written from the perspective of the one who stayed behind, “Kentucky Morning” is a decidedly southern song that oozes family – and Kentuckian – pride. "I am proud of this band, this recording and these stories of real people in this unreal time,” Scott says. “Love and hope and goodness and simplicity still exists, folks. We are still here.” Stream “Kentucky Morning” on YouTube HERE.
​
“SONGS + PLAYERS + BAND HOUSE + STUDIO + FOOD & DRINK = this album,” says the iconic Darrell Scott – “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive” and “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,” as seen performed by Chris Stapleton and Patty Loveless at last year’s CMA Awards HERE – of his brand new project titled Old Cane Back Rocker, a new showcase crafted by Darrell Scott String Band that features originals and fully reformed covers (“Southern Cross,” “Banjo In The Holler”), and serves as Scott’s first studio offering since 2016.
Old Cane Back Rocker was developed over two consecutive weekend gigs in Arkansas and Colorado. Rather than sending the entire band back home in between weekends, Scott kept everyone out the following weekdays in a band house in Louisville, CO – so they could walk to Moxie Bread Co. every morning – and drive to Boulder everyday to record. So for three days with only a playlist of the songs sent to each player and a call to Scott’s friend, Nick Forster at eTown Studio in Boulder, Darrell Scott String Band produced a set of tunes that pay homage to his cherished Kentucky upbringing along with showcasing the immense working relationship he maintains with the talented musicians who graced these songs.
“I am fortunate to play with amazing musicians,” Scott says, “I always have had my ear to the six winds to assess players and their strengths and the music we would make — electric or acoustic, two or five people, country, folk, blues, string players, grass, rocking, quiet or loud, whatever. The category does not matter as it is just a category. There has always been a group of great musicians near to help me get there, and yes, I am lucky.”
Led by the single “Kentucky Morning,” the song joins others in Scott’s catalog that gives a nod to his family’s musical traditions and heritage. “It’s literally my family’s story,” said Scott. “There’s a bit of fiction there because, at the end of the day, I’m a songwriter. I can make up stuff. But I start, in this case, from a factual view. It happened across the South – folks chasing work. There were car factories and steel mills near Chicago, and my dad worked in both. Two brothers were born in Dearborn, Michigan, and two in the Chicago area. So many people left, yet there was a part of my family that never did. That’s the thread that says, ‘Home is home. It’s not Chicago or Akron or anywhere else.’”