A CONVERSATION WITH DARRELL SCOTT  (continued)

PM: So, it's interesting that, all these years later, you're going back and re-recording some of the tunes that were on the big budget debut album that never got released.

DS: Well, see, it never left me. I hate to harp on it, man. But everyone I've talked to...I have a lot of friends who have the same story in this town, and we all get over it. But on some other level, there's something that's just not right about it. We're never quite square with it.

PM: When...

DS: When we get f____d. When you never get your chance. I mean, I made the real deal record. It was big budget, the works. We had the Memphis Horns. Leland Sklar on bass, Russ Kunkel on drums, Michael Otley on keyboards. We had a song that needed a fiddle. [Producer] Norbert Putnam said, "Who do you want?" and I said, "Sam Bush" -- after all, he was an idol of mine, from Newgrass Revival. So I got to meet Sam. We struck up a friendship then, before I ever moved down here. Years later, I toured with him for two years in his band.

Like I said, I have other friends who share the same story. And it's my sense that, although we may go on to do plenty of good work, that this issue often lingers, unresolved.

PM: Well, I like your approach toward the issue. You got the dough, cut it again.

DS: I've had years to think about this, and I've looked at it from every possible angle. I still maintain that those are really good songs, and they deserve to be out. More than that, I'll even put them out as they were cut back then.

PM: I ran into somebody at the video store the other night who told me they had a copy of that. I said, "No bullshit, man, you gotta bump me a copy of that, I need that." [Darrell laughs]

DS: I break it out once every couple of years. I hear a lot of flaws. I've had the good fortune of spending a lot of the last ten years in the studio with really good players, so I've learned a lot. I'm still learning.

PM: All the good guys are.

DS: Even aside from live performance, I'm fascinated by the process of recording. It's got me. Yes, I've got my own home studio, and talented buddies who come and play for less than they deserve.

PM: And ask you to do the same.

DS: Yeah. So I'm really into finding veterans with masterful chops who play with the wonder and the excitement of children. Kenny is like that, and I made the same kind of connection with Danny Thompson, the English bassist who worked with us on the Irish gigs.

PM: I'll ask you something I asked Tim O'Brien. One thing that distinguishes you from your talented peers is that you've experienced publishing success through big recording acts covering your songs. How has that changed your life?

DS: Well, it's confirmed to me that I should do what I want to do, what's in me to do. It's literally good fortune, it's a gift. It tells me to keep following my instincts.

PM: In any of the instances that involved the four big cuts [Travis Tritt, Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Sara Evans], were you writing to get cut, or just trying to write a good song?

DS: In the Sara Evans song, "Born to Fly," it was a three way between myself, Sara, and Marcus Hummon. That was led by Marcus, I'd have to say.

PM: And, with all due respect to his fine work, he knows how to write to get cut.

DS: He does. But when he goes to that table, he brings all the goods with him. He brings the poetry, he brings the composition, it is not a lesser thing. I love him, and he may be the most creative person I've ever met.

PM: I know he's got his show Francis of Guernica rockin right now, and just did the one about Jim Thorpe, with Mark Luna starring.

DS: He's got his plays going, he's written a book of haiku. He's written five plays. He paints, and he's very involved in the community, and his church. His wife is a priest. He produces records. I'm in awe of the guy, and I love his songs. I've played on dozens and dozens of his songs, I see them all. I see the ones that are Grammy nominations, I see the ones that are in his plays, and the ones that are as artistic as anybody. I'll tell you, he's incredible. I get it. And when I sat down with Marcus and Sara Evans that day, we ended up writing a song for her, about her. Extracting some of her essence, so that she could get up in front of huge crowds of people and give something of herself to them. Yeah, I'm truly in awe of the guy.

PM: So, although that trio that day might have been conscious that they were writing a single...

DS: No, we were just trying to write the best song we could. But, it was, I believe, Marcus trying to give words to the artist that were their words, so that it's their story. In interviews, that's what Sara says, that that's her autobiography, that's her song. So I think that's a very successful song, on those merits. I was glad to be a part of that circle that day.

In the cases of the other three songs you mentioned, those were definitely songs I wrote. I had to write them. "When There's No One Around" was the second song that Tim O'Brien and I ever wrote together. The first one was a song that he put on an album of his at the time, it's called "Daddy's On the Roof Again." With Tim -- and this is how we play and sing as well -- there's an immediate breaking down of self protection, it's very vulnerable. When you can, why would you not? And I remember the day we wrote "When There's No One Around," over at his publishing company. I remember I was taking a break, and went down to get some coffee. I ran into Barry Tashian, and he said, "How's it going up there?" I remember saying, "I've never been so vulnerable with another guy." You know what I mean? There's a place we go in our creative process that's about breaking down all preconceptions. I think we write that way, too. It's one of those things we don't push at all, either. The same is true with Marcus. We don't want to push those things. I want magic, and you can't push that. As much time as Tim and I spend together on the road, it's surprising how little we write. It's a very small fraction of the time. But when we do, it's always a special thing. continue

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