EVENT: Scott opens for the Memphis Radio Kings at the Tractor Tavern on Thurs Aug 30. Scott's debut album is the first release for local label Airliner Records. He's awfully smart.
When did you start playing? What instrument and why? "My first instrument was a tennis racket. When I was about three or four, my mother used to settle me down by playing songs like 'Shall We Gather at the River' on a small organ she probably bought at the dime store, and I soon began to play them back to her. Around the age of eight I got a guitar for Christmas, which I banged around on for a while until it eventually found its way into the toy box. During a stretch of summer vacation boredom, I dragged it back out and began pecking out single-note melodies on whatever strings still remained."
Is that you playing harmonica on the record? Why do you like [playing] it? "Yes, it is me playing the harmonica. Aside from being a fan of its tone, I like having another instrument to stir the pot. The harmonica allows me a different attack on the melody, and I like the dynamics of being able to take a song in a different direction with something besides my voice."
How does your love of literature relate to your relationship with music? "I'm not too sure about literature's role in what I do musically. I grappled with it when I was in school and tried like hell to stretch my brain, as did everybody else. But at this point in my life I think I get more out of Roy Orbison's 'Ooby Dooby' than anything Ralph Waldo Emerson ever said."
But you must have an opinion who's the best of the Southern Gothics.... "As far as the Southern Gothics are concerned, I'd have to stand in Faulkner's corner. He can knock you out with one sentence like a Jack Dempsey punch. I'd kill for a speck of his talent."
