Performing Artist Bio—Darrell Scott

From DarrellScott.com:

Born on a tobacco farm in the coal-mining center of London, Kentucky, Scott moved as a young child to East Gary, Indiana, a steel-mill town on Lake Michigan near Chicago. His father is a musician, and he grew up around music and creativity. By 16, he was playing roadhouses in Southern California. After some dues-paying years in Toronto and Boston, where he attended Tufts University, studying poetry and literature, Scott finally made the move south.

“Unless you come and start looking around, you could think Nashville is all country radio and Christian music,” he says. “Then you realize that Hank Williams, Kris Kristofferson, and Mickey Newbury wrote here.”

From his earliest days in Nashville, Scott the instrumentalist gravitated toward the best, with singers like John Cowan, pickers like Sam Bush, and songwriters like Guy Clark employing his utilitarian string-slinging skills.

“Playing with Sam or trying to sing with Cowan is a really cool thing to do,” Scott says. “And if you’re going to play to support a song, can it get better than supporting a Guy Clark song?” Darrell co-produced two Guy Clark albums Cold Dog Soup and The Dark. Also, Darrell is currently an active member of Steve Earle’s Bluegrass Dukes...

Darrell Scott is a powerful musical spirit. A Grammy-nominated artist, an award-winning songwriter, and a first-call session musician, living and working (literally and figuratively) on the fringes of Nashville’s Music Row, Scott occupies his own unique half-acre in this city’s crowded musical landscape. In a town that’s got pigeonholing down to an art, Darrell Scott stands out as a refreshingly mischievous artist.

“Why don’t we just go ahead and crown this man the King of Americana?” —Robert K. Oermann

Darrell’s tune “Hank Williams’ Ghost” won Song of the Year at the Sixth Annual Americana Honors and Awards. The song appears on his 2006 release The Invisible Man, on Full Light Records.

Darrell Scott - Hank Williams' Ghost


*AND THE RIVER IS ME Lyrics
(Words and Music by Darrell Scott)

I GUESS I’VE ALWAYS KNOWN
I WAS IN THIS FOR LIFE
IT’S COST ME SOME SLEEPLESS DAYS
IT’S COST ME A WIFE
MAYBE I’VE SPENT A LITTLE TOO MUCH TIME
LOOKING IN THE BATHROOM MIRROR
WAITING FOR THE STEAM TO DISAPPEAR
THINKING I WAS GETTING CLEARER AND CLEARER

MAYBE I COULD’VE BEEN A COOK
OR MAYBE TAUGHT HIGH SCHOOL MATH
MAYBE I COULD’VE BEEN THE MAN ON THE STREET
WITH A FUTURE AS UNCERTAIN AS MY PAST
BUT I’VE BEEN SINGING FOR A LIVING
BACK AND FORTH ACROSS AMERICA
SINGING ‘BOUT THINGS I SHOULD TALK TO MY SHRINK
AND TO MY SHRINK SINGING KUM-BY-YAH

WITH MY HEAD IN A SONG AND A SONG IN MY HEAD
JUST LET ME LIVE UNTIL I’M DEAD
THERE’S SO MANY BOOKS I WISH I’D READ
LIKE WAR AND PEACE
SO MANY FRIENDS I’VE WON AND LOST
SO MANY MASKS I’VE WORN AND TOSSED
INTO TROUBLED WATERS I COULD NOT CROSS
AND THE RIVER IS ME, AND THE RIVER IS ME

RIVER RUN TO THE OCEAN
RIVER ROLL TO THE SEA

THEY HAD THIS TEST BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL
AID I HAD A CAREER IN FORESTRY
HAD APTITUDE FOR ISOLATION
YEAH, I COULD LIVE WITHOUT TV
BUT ME, I TOOK THE LOW ROAD
LOOKING FOR ANOTHER LIGHT
I DON’T LIVE IN A TOWER ON SOME FIRE ROAD
BUT THE HUMAN VIEW IS OUT OF SIGHT

WITH MY HEAD IN A SONG AND A SONG IN MY HEAD
JUST LET ME LIVE UNTIL I’M DEAD
THERE’S SO MANY WORDS I WISH I’D SAID
LIKE I’M SORRY I AM SORRY
SO MANY FRIENDS I’VE WON AND LOST
SO MANY MASKS I’VE WORN AND TOSSED
INTO TROUBLED WATERS I COULD NOT CROSS
AND THE RIVER IS ME, AND THE RIVER IS ME

RIVER RUN TO THE OCEAN
RIVER ROLL TO THE SEA