Darrell Scott performs Sunday, March 16, at Dyck Arboretum in Hesston.
The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter has amassed an impressive body of work under his own name via albums such as “Theatre of the Unheard” (2003), “A Crooked Road” and “Long Ride Home” (both 2010). He’s also gigged with such musical legends as Guy Clark and Robert Plant while his songs have been recorded by artists such as Travis Tritt, Patty Loveless, Brad Paisley and The Chicks.
Scott, a native of Kentucky, spoke with KMUW recently about his live shows and his versatility as a performer and writer.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you prepare for a tour?
I face each gig [separately]. I’ve never played the Arboretum in Hesston before. I’ve played in the general area, but I don’t have to consider what I have to do differently to not repeat myself. The other thing I have, which is a little weird perhaps, is that I don’t have a setlist, like ever. I’m making it up every time anyway. So, the chances of me making it up like I did a year ago or even the night before is not very strong. I truly make it up every night. The [show] in Hesston will be absolutely unique to that [show] in Hesston. It won’t be like the night before in Joplin, Missouri, or the night before in Hastings, Nebraska.
They’re all kind of different, and I face each one with those differences. I don’t fight those differences or do the same show everywhere and worry about, “Did they see this … last year?” I know 100 percent [that they didn’t]. I truly turn it toward the audience that I have in front of me right now. With the Arboretum, I’ll probably treat it like they haven’t heard me before, so I’ll probably lean into [songs of mine they’ve heard recorded by] other people. That might be a way to let them know, “I’m the guy who wrote that,” or “I produced this album.”
I’m feeling out the audience while I’m up on stage. That’s part of it. But what’s also part of it is, “What happened in the world today that I heard on the radio as I was driving to this gig?” That will inform some of my song selections. Or “How is my voice tonight? I blew it out last night in Hastings, so now I have to be a little more careful at Hesston because I don’t have the high notes that I had [the night before].” So, I might readjust the keys of the songs. I’ll take a different approach. That’s how each show is unique to itself: It’s because all of those things come into account.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for an audience is not be loud and directing the rocking or the dance. Sometimes you want to take them down a little bit and take their focus into paying attention to the lyric as opposed to just paying attention to the guitar riff or the lick. It’s a moving game all night long, to tell you the truth. It’s a place I’m comfortable with. I’m comfortable not knowing what’s going to happen next when it comes to music.
I’ve got a preparation of sorts that can kind of swing wherever I need to swing or where I think I’m supposed to swing at any given time. Not having a set is the center to that. I have no idea what I’m going to do in Hesston that day, but I’m also not worried about it. I’ll just face it as it comes. Honestly, I think the audience realizes, “That guy doesn’t know the next song, does he?” I don’t get detrimental marks for it. It’s more like, “Hey, he’s truly giving us something that only we’re going to get tonight.” I think we all see it as a unique experience as opposed to, “I’m phoning in last night’s setlist” today. That never happens.
It seems that you have access to most of your back catalogue. If I asked you to play a song from 1996 you could probably access it pretty quickly.
Yeah, I can.
How do you maintain that knowledge of the catalogue?
I almost don’t have an explanation. The closest thing I can come up to is I think I may have a musical photographic memory. Instead of the images per se it’s the songs, it’s the chord progressions, it’s the lyrics, it’s the intent of the character in the song. That I have. The other I can say in terms of that crazy kind of notion is [that] one line leads to the next. If I get that first line, which I have a really good chance of getting, I bet it leads to the second line and third line. I just have a brain that somehow categorizes this stuff in some way that I’m not even aware of. I can play a song from 1996. If I were [working as a sideman], I can play a song I’ve never even heard before because I’m listening extremely carefully.
The same is happening in the show. I’m listening extremely carefully to the PA system, to my ability of voice [that night], the audience, what happened in the world today as we all experienced it. In the audience, we might have all heard the same news, so that might [impact] some commentary or a song. It’s a moving target and for some reason I just have a library of not just my songs from 1996, but I may know a song from Bruce Springsteen or Johnny Cash from 1996, too. It's a weird thing but that’s some of what I’m using when I’m doing this stuff.
You have these different talents. You’re a great singer and a great guitar player. You mentioned that some nights you might have to make adjustments because of your voice. What about with your guitar playing?
I do lean on my guitar playing in shows because in most cases I’m the only sound up there. I don’t have a band at most of my gigs. That’s the good news and the bad news. I can do anything I want. I can extend solos, I can morph one song into the other, I can change the key on the stage and not have to tell anybody on the stage because there’s nobody to tell. I’m total free to do anything.
There is a consistency with the guitar playing. But guitar things can change nightly, too. The PA system of last night might have had a very good guitar sound and, tonight, for whatever reason, it has a less than great guitar sound, but the show must go on. It may make me play more fingerstyle than single note solos. If there’s a piano at the gig, I may put the guitar down and go over to the piano. I make those kinds of adjustments in real time. For whatever reason, I’m able to do that. What I don’t do is sort of repeat myself from night to night. Honestly, some of that is for my own sanity or entertainment. I truly find that the present moment on stage is the only moment that counts.
