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
Full Light
Darrell Scott Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Shake the dust off of his bones
Tonight we'll have confession
Of all that we've done wrong
Let's hear every crime you've thought of
But never committed
Tonight the demons fly
And I'll introduce myself to you
We've been playing in the shadows
With a face that's not our own
And we keep changing our expectations
'Cause we don't want to wake up alone
And we say all the things that we like to hear
Under the cover of a cold, dark night
And we choke on the words we really feel
In full light,in full light
But tonight the light stays on
And the words like rain will fall
And if we find that love is gone
Then we'll probably find that
It wasn't love after all, after all
So let's blow out the candle
And turn the fluorescents on
And let's sit down at the kitchen table
Talk, talk, talking 'til the dawn
Then we go downstairs and hit the streets
And we're walking side by side
Two naked people washing in the river
In full light, in full light
The lyrics of Darrell Scott's song "Full Light" speak to the idea of living in the shadows, hiding behind a false self, and keeping secrets from ourselves and others. The opening lines call for an honest confession of all the wrongdoings and sins that we keep hidden away in the closet. The idea is to bring all the skeletons out into the open, to face them directly and to accept responsibility for them.
The second part of the verse talks about how we often play a role that is not our own, changing our expectations to fit the narrative we wish to create for ourselves. Under the cover of the night, we say all the things we like to hear, even though we may not believe them truly. The chorus brings in the titular phrase "full light", which signifies the idea of facing our reality head-on, without any mask or disguise. Tonight, the light stays on, and we are forced to confront our true selves.
The last verse speaks of blowing out the candle and turning on the fluorescents, and sitting down at the kitchen table to talk. This act represents the beginning of an honest and open conversation that goes on until the wee hours of the morning. When the conversation ends, we head out to the street with the person we have been talking to, and we walk side by side, naked to the world. This image represents the idea of being stripped down to our true selves, with nothing to hide or protect us. And we do it all in the full light of day.
Line by Line Meaning
Take the skeleton from the closet
Let's confront the hidden secrets and sins we've been keeping from others and ourselves
Shake the dust off of his bones
Let's bring these secrets to light and examine them closely
Tonight we'll have confession
We'll open up about everything that we've done wrong and ask for forgiveness
Of all that we've done wrong
We'll address and accept responsibility for all of our past mistakes and transgressions
Let's hear every crime you've thought of
Let's be fully honest and reveal the darkest thoughts we've ever had
But never committed
But have never acted on for fear of judgment or consequences
Tonight the demons fly
The inner demons that have been tormenting us will finally be released and confronted in full view
And I'll introduce myself to you
We'll be fully open and honest with each other, revealing our true selves
In full light, in full light
We'll be open and honest with each other without hiding in the shadows
We've been playing in the shadows
We've been hiding behind a facade of deception to avoid judgment and reality
With a face that's not our own
We've been pretending to be someone we're not to protect ourselves and avoid confrontation
And we keep changing our expectations
We've been setting different expectations for ourselves and finding ways to justify our actions or feelings
'Cause we don't want to wake up alone
Our fear of being alone has caused us to act in ways that don't truly align with our core values or beliefs
And we say all the things that we like to hear
We tell ourselves and others what we want to believe, rather than facing reality
Under the cover of a cold, dark night
We hide our true selves in the darkness, avoiding the light that would expose us
And we choke on the words we really feel
We struggle to express our true feelings and desires, feeling suffocated by our own lies
But tonight the light stays on
We'll face our inner truths and confront them head-on without hiding in the shadows
And the words like rain will fall
The truth will pour out of us like rain, cleansing us of our past sins and mistakes
And if we find that love is gone
If we realize that what we thought was love was actually something else entirely
Then we'll probably find that
We will most likely learn and accept the truth about ourselves and our relationships
It wasn't love after all, after all
We'll come to the realization that what we thought was love was actually something else entirely
So let's blow out the candle
Let's extinguish the limited light that has kept us in the shadows and embrace the full light of day
And turn the fluorescents on
Let's fully expose ourselves and be fully honest with each other
And let's sit down at the kitchen table
Let's talk and listen to each other without judgment and with full communication
Talk, talk, talking 'til the dawn
Let's communicate fully and continue talking until we have fully expressed ourselves to each other
Then we go downstairs and hit the streets
We'll leave the safety of our home and confront the world with our newfound honesty and openness
And we're walking side by side
We'll do this together, as partners, united by our newfound honesty and mutual understanding
Two naked people washing in the river
We'll cleanse ourselves fully and be fully reborn, experiencing life in full light without any pretenses
In full light, in full light
We'll be fully open and honest with each other, without hiding in the shadows
Contributed by Adrian K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.