 |
|
Much
of the commentary about Darrell Scott’s career has focused on the
songs he’s written that have been recorded by famous names and
voices – those known in music industry parlance as “artists.”
But then there’s the actual word artist, whose definition
has nothing to do with radio hits and red carpets. We refer of course
to those who create artifacts of aesthetic
and intellectual contemplation and wonder, built from experience,
skill, reflection and emotional intent. That’s an artist. And that,
at the end of the day, is Darrell Scott.
This is made
abundantly clear on A Crooked Road, Scott’s sixth solo
studio album. Recorded at home and entirely performed by Scott on a
variety of instruments, A Crooked Road falls somewhere between
a carefully crafted memoir and an arresting breach of privacy. From
the deepest containers of memory, it recounts the bruises and
blessings of 30 years of love relationships, stirring the heart with
its intimacy and with the enthralling warmth and strength of Scott’s
rare voice and musicianship. It is certainly the most introspective
and intense project of Scott’s career, spilling over from one CD
onto a second, and arranged as a journey with instrumental interludes
and a sense of purpose that invites the listener to follow Scott
along the crooked road of life, from romantic young man to drama king
to lone poet.
Why this album,
and why now? Scott says the proximate cause was the approach of his
50th birthday and a long process of adjusting
to being single for the first time since first getting married at age
20. The songs were not written with the album in mind specifically,
but upon looking at his output over a period of a few years, Scott
saw a strong theme emerging. A sequence of songs presented themselves
with the kind of clarity that rings an inner bell and signals ‘this
is an album.’ Indeed, Scott shelved several other projects
temporarily in order to focus on the recording of these 20 songs and
pieces.
That recording
took place in unusual isolation. Scott generally calls upon peers
from the top ranks of roots and Americana music for his projects, but
this seemed like the right time to realize a life-long aspiration of
making an album by himself. When Darrell was 16, his father, a
remarkable songwriter and singer in his own right, purchased a
four-track, reel-to-reel recorder. Darrell virtually adopted it,
spending many long nights in a shed, laying down parts and
harmonizing with himself on a variety of instruments. It was a vital
part of his musical schooling, as he figured out how instruments
sound together and how to layer parts with grace and taste. While he
did engage the help of his regular recording engineer Stephanie
Hudacek at a console one floor below his living room “studio,”
otherwise Scott worked alone. He would lay down a baseline
performance of a song with the right backing instrument, whether
guitar, piano or mandocello. Then he added parts, sometimes a single
line and in some cases all the parts of a fleshed out band. It is
perhaps no surprise that he dedicated the project to guitar pioneer
Les Paul, the father of multi-track recording, who died while the
album was being recorded at age 94.
As for the music
itself, longtime fans of Scott will find a lot that is familiar here:
that soul-saturated voice, somewhere between Lowell George and James
Taylor, the dazzling instrumental chops and the unfailing judgment
about what makes a song sturdy enough to stand up to the wind and
weather of time. The album opens with the title track, a simple tune
that throws back a bit to the folk-pop of the early 1970s. It lays
out the geography of the album to come. “I will sing a lonesome
song to anyone who’ll listen,” he says, invoking the muse and
inviting the kind of active attention the album merits.
Highlight songs
include “Long Wide Open Road,” wherein Darrell recounts his first
love with wistful hindsight. “For Suzanne” burrows into the
complex cocktail of guilt and anger that remain in the wake of a
crashed relationship. “Colorado” finds Scott in lone
contemplation on a spiritual road trip. And the passion and humor of
a forest-fire romance are described in the rocking “Snow Queen and
Drama Llama.” The last stage of the journey achieves new plateaus
of insight and peace in songs like the lush and grand “This Time
‘Round” and the spare benediction of “This Beggar’s Heart.”
It’s a special
album from a special time in the life of a special recording artist.
Its hand-crafted feeling evokes the integrity and permanence of a
well-made instrument or
an expertly done painting. It may be more somber and vulnerable than
Scott’s previous releases, but for that reason it has that much
more emotional directness and power. It is truly a self-portrait of
the artist as an older and wiser man.
Craig
Havighurst
Nashville
2010
| | 
 |
|
|
|
|
