This is my first review so please forgive the grammar….
This past Sunday night Feb 12 my wife and I had a chance to see Darrell Scott perform at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge Ma. I must say this is probably one of the best places to see an act such as Darrell Scott. The club is small and intimate with such a conducive atmosphere for folk music. Darell performed a 5:00 PM and a 7:00 PM show. We attended the 5:00 PM performance.
We showed up a few minutes early and as we waited at the check in desk I could hear Darrell warming up and it sounded good. I also had the pleasure of overhearing his female travel companion (maybe it was his wife, somebody feel free to correct me) discussing his return from the Band Of Joy tour. At the risk of not ease dropping I thought I heard her mention a future 2nd Band Of Joy album with full song writing collaboration of the last line up.
We sat down at our front row table and sipped the excellent java and eagerly awaited the show. It was really cool to see how many folks at this 5:00PM show knew Darrell personally (He did attend Tufts University). At approximately 5:10 Darrell got on stage. He started out with a little warm up riff and quickly said “Good Morning” and away he went.
Darrell made mention that he doesn’t use a set list. He said that the impromptu choice of songs is based on where head is at during the moment and depending on the night before he didn’t want to be locked into a set list. This made the night even more enjoyable.
True to form he totally amazed me with his stellar guitar playing and spot on voice. Third or 4th song in was River Take Me. This song truly highlights his guitar playing and song writing. He took many request through the night with songs such as Shattered Cross and the awesome Banjo Clark.
Of course he played many cuts of the new album. He took careful time to explain what was behind the making of this CD. How they recorded it in his living room and the legendary musicians that performed on it. He elaborated on legendary Nashville musicians such as Hargus “pig” Robbins, Lloyd Green, and Charlie McCoy.
He wrapped up around 6:30 and had ½ hour before the next show. He took time to say hi to anybody that wanted to meet him. My wife and I were the last to speak to him. It was getting close to 7 and he had the next show to do but, he did take the time to have a few words with us.
My only regret was that I didn’t buy a ticket for both shows. If he wasn’t use a set list, I probably would have had heard much more from the great artist
