This month saw the release of Darrell Scott’s Couchville Sessions, an album that continues Scott’s long tradition of tackling profound issues that many of us will relate to. He has spent the last year devoting himself to a self-sufficient lifestyle in the country while simultaneously putting together his best album in years. For this reason, we are are incredibly honoured that he has recorded this exclusive Folk Radio UK Session featuring acoustic renditions of three songs from the Couchville Sessions.
“I look like an insider because of everything I‘ve done but I always felt like an outsider,” Darrell Scott says. “And that’s important—to be an outsider.”
https://soundcloud.com/folk-radio-uk/sets/darrell-scott-folk-radio-uk
Tracklisting
Down to the River – This indictment of mainstream radio is an epic that rises to becoming one of Scott’s most sing-alongable songs. The album version closes with a monologue from the great Guy Clark who passed away this week (read our tribute). Scott says it’s his protest about categorization that the industry and radio demand. “There’s a camaraderie amongst musicians that goes beyond classification and I wanted to call out the insincerity of the business.” Most memorably our narrator, who has been put before a “kangaroo court” because he’s not writing enough hooks, sings to the judge “Your music ain’t got no soul.” But this track certainly does.
It’s About Time – “Years back, I had little babies, I was saying yes to everything to make money and missing the very people I was working so hard to make a good life for,” Scott says. This song calls back those days and is a sweet come-on from the point of view of a character hoping to “lock the bedroom door” and “turn the clock facedown on the floor”.
Love is the Reason – “The broken spirit can get up and fly/when love is the reason” is the hopeful refrain of this look at all the different kinds of love—for our kids, for our better halves—and how that can push us through any of the other hardships life throws our way.
Couchville Sessions is Out Now via Full Light
Order it via: Amazon | Propermusic
Photo Credit: Jim McGuire