In 2010, he recorded and toured as part of Robert Plant's "Band of Joy" project.
Scott has also collaborated with Steve Earle, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris, John Cowan, Verlon Thompson, Guy Clark, Tim O'Brien, Kate Rusby, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and many others. His unique music has attracted a growing fanbase, and he tours regularly with his own band.
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
Career Highlights:
American Songwriter Top 25 Songs from the last 25 Years - #6: "It's A Great Day To Be Alive" - 2009
Americana Award for Song of the Year - "Hank William's Ghost" 2007
4th Annual Independent Music Award for Album of the Year - Theatre of the Unheard - Jan 2005
Indie Acoustic Best CD Lyrics - 2004
#3 2004 Country Music Songwriter of the Year - (ranked by over 100 music critics)
Grammy Nomination for Best Country Song – "Long Time Gone" Dixie Chicks 2003
Rolling Stone Magazine 2003 Critics Top Albums - Theatre of the Unheard
IBMA Song of the Year Nominee - 2002, 2003
Village Voice Pazz & Jopp Poll - 2000, 2003
Founded Full Light Records - Apr 2003
ASCAP Songwriter of the Year - 2002
Grammy Nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance – “The Second Mouse” 2001
NSAI Songwriter of the Year - 2001
Day After Day
Darrell Scott Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And once he found the power
He made up for his lost time
Go outside and catch a cricket, then unplug the phone
Said their singing kept him company
When we'd leave him alone
Those were days of feeling awkward,
Hoping I could find some comfort
In a deacon's daughter's touch
I'd spend time out in the desert
Feeling lonely with a friend
And we'd talk about leaving
But it was years before we did
Oh the time moves slow
And you can't go where you want to go
But, oh the time slips away
Day after day, day after day
Day after day
Well I found myself a genie
Said she's grant a wish for me
And all I had to do was love her
Endlessly
So I asked my dad about it and he said
Son, life's a game we play
So I closed my eyes, held her and said
Take me away
Let's live in a lighthouse on the Maritime shore
And we'll hang a wreath to loneliness
Upon our lighthouse door
But we never made the ocean, she never followed through
She said the day she left
You know, I really thought you knew
Well I went back home to see my dad
And I walked through the door
To his photographs of Hank and Johnny
Lying on the floor
Hank had a hole shot through his mouth
And Johnny in the head
There were crickets in hallway
And Dad awake in bed
He was sitting in the darkness
With just a cigarette light
Said he went a little crazy
Sometime in the night
I never asked him about the pictures
Though it was clear to me
He shot 'em for the life
And the man he wouldn't be
The song "Day After Day" by Darrell Scott is a complex, poetic narrative that delves into themes of family, love, and the passage of time. The lyrics follow the singer's journey as he reflects on his past, his relationships, and the events that have shaped him. The opening verse sets the stage by introducing the singer's father, who didn't start drinking until he was older but once he did, he made up for lost time. The singer describes catching crickets with his father and how his father would listen to their chirping as a way to feel less alone. The second verse is more personal, as the singer talks about feeling awkward and finding solace in a deacon's daughter's touch. He also mentions spending time in the desert with a friend, discussing leaving but not doing so for years.
The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "day after day" as a way of emphasizing how time moves slowly yet quickly at the same time. The singer then describes meeting a genie who promised to grant him one wish if he loved her endlessly. The singer's father advises him to play along with life, so he asks the genie to take him away. The third verse describes the singer's failed attempt to start a new life in a lighthouse with the genie. He returns home to find his father sitting in the dark with photographs of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash on the floor. The song ends with the revelation that the father had shot holes through the photographs because he wanted to be like them, but couldn't.
Overall, "Day After Day" is a poignant and powerful song that explores the complexities of family and the passing of time. It is a reflection on the choices we make in life and how they shape who we become. The lyrics are rich with detail and emotion, painting a vivid picture of the singer's life and his relationship with his father.
Line by Line Meaning
Dad never started drinking 'til he was thirty-five
My father didn't drink until he was thirty-five years old
And once he found the power
And once he started drinking, he felt like he had power
He made up for his lost time
He was trying to make up for lost time by drinking a lot
Go outside and catch a cricket, then unplug the phone
He wanted me to catch a cricket outside and turn off the phone because he enjoyed listening to their singing when he was alone.
Said their singing kept him company
He liked listening to the singing of the crickets because it made him feel less lonely
When we'd leave him alone
When I would leave him alone by himself, he wanted to have the crickets with him as company
Those were days of feeling awkward,
Those days were awkward for me
Being seventeen and such
I was only seventeen years old
Hoping I could find some comfort
I was hoping to find comfort
In a deacon's daughter's touch
From the touch of the daughter of the family's deacon
I'd spend time out in the desert
I would spend time in the desert
Feeling lonely with a friend
I would feel lonely when I was with a friend
And we'd talk about leaving
We talked about leaving
But it was years before we did
We didn't leave until years later
Oh the time moves slow
Time felt like it moved slowly
And you can't go where you want to go
I couldn't go where I wanted to go
But, oh the time slips away
But time passes quickly
Day after day, day after day
Day after day, time just kept passing by
Well I found myself a genie
I found a genie
Said she's grant a wish for me
The genie said she could grant me one wish
And all I had to do was love her
All I had to do was love her
Endlessly
Without end
So I asked my dad about it and he said
So I asked my dad about the genie
Son, life's a game we play
My dad told me that life is like a game
So I closed my eyes, held her and said
So I closed my eyes, held the genie, and made my wish
Take me away
I wished for her to take me away
Let's live in a lighthouse on the Maritime shore
I suggested we live in a lighthouse on the coast
And we'll hang a wreath to loneliness
And we could hang something up to symbolize our loneliness
Upon our lighthouse door
On the door of our lighthouse
But we never made the ocean, she never followed through
But we never made it to the ocean, and she didn't follow through on our plan
She said the day she left
She told me the day she left
You know, I really thought you knew
She thought I had known that she was going to leave
Well I went back home to see my dad
I went back home to see my dad
And I walked through the door
I walked through the door of my father's house
To his photographs of Hank and Johnny
I saw photographs of Hank and Johnny
Lying on the floor
The photographs were on the floor
Hank had a hole shot through his mouth
There was a hole in Hank's mouth from a bullet
And Johnny in the head
Johnny was shot in the head
There were crickets in hallway
There were crickets in the hallway
And Dad awake in bed
My dad was awake in his bed
He was sitting in the darkness
My dad was sitting in the dark
With just a cigarette light
He was only illuminated by the light of his cigarette
Said he went a little crazy
He admitted that he went a little crazy
Sometime in the night
Some time during the night
I never asked him about the pictures
I never asked him about the photographs of Hank and Johnny
Though it was clear to me
But it was clear to me
He shot 'em for the life
He shot the photographs as an expression of the lives they represented
And the man he wouldn't be
And the man he wished he wasn't
Contributed by Hudson T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.