Darrell Scott

Darrell Scott (b. London, Kentucky, August 6, 1959 - ) – Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Born into a family of Kentucky tobacco farmers, Darrell Scott moved as a young boy to Gary, Indiana, because of its thriving steel industry. After playing locally and travelling with his father’s band, Scott hit the road on his own at age sixteen and spent considerable time in California and Canada, where he played steel guitar with the famous Mercey Brothers. Interested in a career in songwriting, he was drawn to Boston, where he eventually studied poetry at Tufts University. At the same time, he played regularly in the area, especially at the Warren Tavern in Charlestown. In 1990, while still in the Boston area, he arranged to record songs that he had written over a number of years with SBK Records, which ultimately decided not to release his material. In need of a change, Scott relocated to Nashville around 1992 and picked up session work with artists like Randy Travis and Trisha Yearwood and also toured with Guy Clark’s band. Although his first released album Aloha Nashville (Sugar Hill, 1997) did not sell well, the Nashville music industry took notice of his consummate skill as a songwriter. More specifically, Travis Tritt, the Dixie Chicks, and Brad Paisley all covered songs from the album. His next album in 1999 spawned a hit from Daryll Worley, a cover of the title track called “Family Tree.” Around the same time, Scott teamed up with folk-bluegrass artist Tim O’Brien to become one of country music’s top songwriting forces. The duo has provided hits for Garth Brooks (“When There’s No One Around,” 1997) and Sara Evans (“Born to Fly,” 2000). Scott’s highest charting song was the Dixie Chicks’ cover of “Long Time Gone” (#2 on the Country Chart on #7 on Pops Charts in 2002) from Scott’s Real Time (2000), published independently by Scott and O’Brien. As a result of his many successes, he was voted Songwriter of the Year by the National Songwriters Association in 2001 and by ASCAP in 2002. Since then, he has reworked some of the songs that were shelved by SBK, and he has worked on various electric and acoustic projects that often stray from mainstream country into folk and rock.