DARRELL SCOTT —SONGS OF BEN BULLINGTON (Full Light Records)
Americana singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (Guy Clark, Tim O’Brien and Robert Plant’s Band of Joy ensemble) and producer, Darrell Scott is a master of all trades. Among those to cover and benefit from his compositions are the Dixie Chicks, Sara Evans, Kathy Mattea, Travis Tritt, Brad Paisley, Faith Hill and Patty Loveless plus “When No One’s Around” a co-write he did with Tim O’Brien was covered by Garth Brooks.
Scott has a great eye for detail, not only with his own material but others too as you will hear on listening to this record. All ten songs on this album are covers, songs written by a little known writer from Montana, Ben Bullington. An MD by profession Bullington loved writing songs, and he was no mean talent when it came to recording either. I remember with much fondness reviewing his record, White Sulphur Springs (one of a handful he made), find an excerpt from the review below.
Oh, how I love the relaxed tone of Ben’s music, and I am not the only one full of admiration for him, either. Since Texas singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell who guests on one cut ‘Toe The Line’, playing resophonic guitar and lending superb vocal support to a song he could just as easily have written and justifiably been proud of doing so!
Scott and Bullington met on a camping trip with their kids, and became friends. At the time Darrell was unaware just how good his songs were, it was only when he got to share an in the round session (it was on Ben’s bucket list) in Nashville, at the Station Inn with Crowell, Will Kimbrough that he realised how powerful they were.
So here you that them, a bunch of killer songs with exquisite lyrics; its little wonder Scott soon became lost in them, and in doing so adopted every one of them to become like foster children. For this to happen in the manner the songs (and Bullington as a person) had to be special, and for Scott to forgo releasing an album of his own material underlines his admiration for a man he knew for all too short a time. It was a big undertaking for Scott, although he had once before borrowed the efforts of others. I am talking about his album, Modern Hymns. On throwing himself into the project, and with the help of engineer Erick Jaskowiak he set the foundation at different locations while on the road, prior to three days in December last year at Dirk Powell’s Cypress House studio, Breaux Bridge, La —mixing and recording.
As stated in the liner notes Scott started sending Bullington I-phone recordings the last three months of his life, the first “I’ve Gotta Leave You Now” makes it on to the record just as it was, it and a live recording of “Country Music, I’m Talking To You”. Both are major songs of the collection. The first a poignant, beautifully written expressive piece has Scott on piano, the second awash in wry humour speaks of the demise of real country music, and it laments as to why the likes of Malcolm Holcombe, Mary Gauthier, Fred Eaglesmith among others aren’t bigger stars than they are. Recorded in Texas the audience help the song make a bigger impact than it might otherwise have in the studio. Up with them you have “Born In 55”, a song that speaks of events through the 1960s, the loss of JFK, Martin Luther King, and other Robert Kennedy and how American modern-day history was shaped. Not least, musically, as he speaks of how Hendrix lit up Woodstock in 69.
“Thanksgiving 1985” is another wonderful conversational piece, ‘my step-dad’s name is Rodney and I guess he’s been okay to me, he says things when he’s drinking but I just let it pass, but sometimes I wish you were still here, take him out and kick his ass, they say the war was winding down when you took that AK47 round. I wish you were here for thanks giving 1985, to cut the turkey instead of him with that stupid grin. There’s more wonderful stuff, some of the best I have ever heard, and Darrell performs as good, if not better than he ever has! He pulls out his banjo for “Lone Pine” to produce a wistful, lonesome sound. The song is akin to something Darrell himself wrote (a Scott classic to boot!) and with Scott deciding which instrument from his wonderful stock of eighty best suited for individual songs. Plus you have Ben’s piano, upright bass, Dirk Powell’s 1920’s banjo, Christina Balfa’s 1948 Gibson southern jumbo and a guitar made by Guy Clark.
Mellow, and beautifully so is tender love song “Green Heart” as it speaks of a long distance love affair, and with the likes of “Sage After Rain” every bit as strong the standard doesn’t slide. Bullington had a real connection with the outdoors and he puts this to good use here lyric wise, and with gentle strains of banjo, guitar the emotion builds on “In The Light Of Day” to the degree it reaches out to pull the listener in.
Even by his standard, Scott surpassed himself on the record. He took up a challenge few could and in the process not only helped get the name Ben Bullington out there, but I dare say learnt a thing or two more about music and life on making this album.
Maurice Hope