The challenge for every vocalist is always whether to try and give a personal imprint on tried and true material, compose one’s own tunes, or look for some overlooked material. With an ability to mix ingredients like Bobby Flay, tenor toned David Thorne Scott successfully blends all three options on this recent album of songs that are either fresh, or freshly interpreted.
He mixes and matches with a flexible team including Kevin Barry/g-stg, Mark Shilansky/p-key, Marty Ballou/b, Austin McMahon/dr, Walter Smith II/ts, Jason Palmer/tp and Paula Cole-Peter Eldridge/voc. His own material features a Tom Waits-hip raconteur delivery with Barry on the bluesy Rhodes on “The Dark Side” while he gets Monkishly angular with Barry and McMahon as he veers around the horns on “Deciding Where To Land”. A trip down noir alley has him leaning against the lamp post with Smith II on “Grow” and he sophisticatedly waltzes to Barry’s steel guitar on “Fall Into You.”
Scott puts a fresh coat of Nashville paint as he sits by the campfire with some folksy harmonies on “One For My Baby” and sits in the last door of the saloon with Thadeus Hogarth’s harmonica during “You Are There.” Most clever is a reggae’d Tiki Room take with Palmer’s muted horn on “In The Still of the Night” and then putting on some uptown clothes to jazz up a ringer of John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” with a sneaky little riff created by Shilansky’s ivories, turning West Virginia into 52nd Street. Through the entire album, Scott sounds convincing, always in control of the mood, and comfortably assuring to your ears and heart. Accessible music for grown up ears; when’s he hitting So Cal?