Ray Scott Has Landed

by Mary Mulvehill
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(taken from the original interview with Ray at Club Rodeo in San Jose, California. May 2006)

Ten miles outside San Jose the traffic seized up on the freeway. The wind was hot and as I threw the truck into park, resting my arm out the window, I could feel the breeze of a cool night coming. Having missed the originally scheduled interview in Fresno, I offered to make the three hour trip down from Sacramento to San Jose so I could meet with Ray Scott and his Band but as we sat there and the clock blinked 5:15, I reached for my cell phone. I was going to be late...and they probably wouldn't wait for me.

Forty five minutes later we rolled into the parking lot of Club Rodeo. Glasses were being stacked, amps were being tested, beer was being loaded into coolers behind the bars. When I asked the bartender where to find Ray Scott, a voice behind me said "Hey..". I turned to see Phil Moore walking toward me with papers, folders and a briefcase under his arm. He shook my hand with a mile-wide smile, as if we'd met a million times before. I turned to see Ray now standing next to him. Another big smile and he tipped the brim of his baseball hat. I started to apologize for being so late, when out of the Men's room, I could see a tall bearded guy coming over to join us. He kept looking behind him...

As Ward Davis, the band's youngest member, introduced himself, he was still turning around trying to look in the mirrors on the walls behind him with a serious look on his face. "Ray says these jeans make my ass look fat."

I twirled my finger around in the air and said "Okay, well then, let's have a look-see." Ward turned a few circles and attempted some twirls while we all laughed but he still remained looking concerned about the rear view. I assured him that he had a most normal but nice looking butt, indeed. We were still laughing as Phil and Ward departed for the hotel and Ray and I finally sat down. The three had brought the house down a few nights earlier at Buck Owen's Crystal Palace in Bakersfield and spirits were high all around.

Over the next forty five minutes of give and take, it felt like I was re-hashing stories with an old friend who was kind enough to not even remind me that I'd arrived almost an hour late and put him off his dinner schedule. As you are now about to discover, this was the very essence of Ray Scott: direct, forward-in-motion, without pause and chock full o' good 'ol country sass.

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MM: That has to be a great feeling. (we were still laughing and smiling.) That you get along so well and have so much fun with the people you are working with.
RS: Yeah, you know....(smiling) ...we do have a lot of fun!!
MM: Let me start by congratulating you on your 2005 Billboard Critic's Choice Award. It's always so much sweeter to get the awards from the Critics and the Fans.
RS: Thank you. Yeah, that was a great honor.
MM: Considering that your album was released in November, that's a HUGE accomplishment.
RS: Yeah, I was really happy and surprised by that.
MM: Take me back to the moment you knew you were being signed by the label (Warner Bros.). Where were you and can you help us to understand what that was that like?
RS: Well, we'd been talking about it and I think myself, Paul Worley and Danny Kee went to lunch. Danny Kee was my A&R guy at the time...Paul said well...let's do it. And that was the official Green Light. I remember we were at a place called Judge Bean's..a BBQ place in Nashville. ...we went out and cut some sides and he liked what he heard and said ok, let's go make an album. It had been such a long process..at the time when that was happening, I'd been in Nashville for about 9 years at that point...it was really exciting.
MM: How satisfying- seeing everything you'd put together, all your hard work come to fruition.
RS: Well, the funny thing is... that it is just the beginning. It's a new beginning. It's when the work all starts...

"I create my own trail , I don't follow."

The club was getting louder around us as we talked and you could sense an energy building. Everyone was looking forward to hearing this man's sound. As noise whirred around us, Country Music's best kept secret remained focused and open. He was surprisingly unguarded as we discussed his music, his marriage and life on the road--

MM: So, how long have you been married?
RS: Four years. (A huge smile darted out and dark eyes lit up from behind the frayed baseball hat that hung low over his face.)
MM: That's great. Congratulations to you.
RS: Thank you (face getting red) It's nice...you know, ...it's fun...knowing you are with the right one. It's not easy but she comes out on the road occasionally. Not too often at all but it's nice when she does. It's one of the hard things about being on the road.
MM: In your song, A Different Kind of Cowboy, you have a little fun with it but you also stay serious. You say you never lived in Texas, never drank no water from no cactus...but you tip your hat to the ladies. The song is obviously about you but the song speaks strongly to the creed of the cowboy: manners first, respect for the land; it's a hard, modest life. What part of that song is more you and less the stereotype of the cowboy? Most people don't know what a real cowboy is and I don't think they should be stereotyped. Commerical television and movies would have you think they all come from Texas.
RS: Well, that's true. That's one thing I was trying to say too. I think every kid, every man has dreams at one time of being a cowboy and it's a little more of an attitude, a little more of a style. I don't rustle cattle and I don't work on a 500 acre ranch or anything like that. My horse is a motorcycle...but I totally buy into the whole vibe and just the whole philosophy. I'm just trying to say, yeah..not all cowboys ARE from Texas, that's for sure. I try to say that, yeah, you got 'em everywhere you go. Aside from that, It's sort of a personal mantra. Sayin' I do things a little differently, I look out a different window.
MM: So it's a metaphor.
RS: Yeah. Exactly. It says: I create my own trail, I don't follow.
MM: Essentially, you are able to reach out to literally anyone and everyone who identifies with the hard working man or who might be running against hard times..that anyone who hears your music could take away a little part of it for themselves. I think that's pretty profound..
RS: Exactly, Yeah. Thank You.

"I want people to be compelled to own my music. To feel that I understand who they are because I come from the same place."

As the interview continued, we delved into a deep part of Ray's heart. His drive for songwriting. This is where I got a glimpse of the serious businessman. The well-seasoned warrior who has already seen the beginning of the battle yet to be waged. He is ready for the long haul, whatever it takes. There are no 'flash-in-the-pan antics' happening here. (Although, with Ward up in the mix...these guys have already been up to a little bit of mischief here and there -- but hang onto your duct tape..we'll get to that part.)

MM: Some say it is comforting to see that the Spirit of Johnny Cash lives on in you... it is obviously a huge compliment when you are favorably compared to one of the biggest names in Country Music, but do you feel that people are seeing you the way you want to portray yourself or that they are looking for a "cookie cutter" fill-in for what's missing now?
RS: Well, I'm sure people appreciate me for who I am. It's an honor and definately flattering to be compared to some of those guys 'cause they are all my favorites and I do try to pay homage to them (through my music). One of the main things that drives me is song writing. So I'm not out here singing other people's songs or trying to imitate other artists who have lived in the past... but I'm obviously influenced by them. However, my Dad influenced me more than anything.
MM: Well people will soon see that when you get up there you are doing a very unique and different thing. There is no Cash or Haggard imitation happening here.

MM: When you need to reach for a subject or a source for a song, do you find that your own past life experiences are working their way into your songs more often-or that you are writing more about current experiences, maybe the experiences that are taking you down that road and getting you from there to here?
RS: It's really a combination of many of those things. After a while, you learn to pay attention. You know, in Nashville, since I've been there, the best piece of advice that I've gotten from anybody - and you get it over and over - is that you got to write what you know. So, yeah, you come from the heart, you base things on your life experiences and you know, a lot of times...you know, life is not always that exciting. I think if you can take a true experience and embellish it a little bit, everybody is guilty of that..it helps. A lot of my songs on this first album are, basically, glorified versions of the real story. You gotta color it up a little bit to make it a little more interesting.
MM: Yeah, it can't always be...I lost my job, I lost my wife, I lost my dog...it's nice to see the genre get away from all of that. I like the way, the direction that Country Music is going. It's very positive.
(we laugh)
RS: Oh Yeahhh, yeah I hear that.
MM: When you sit down to write a song, what kind of approach do you take? Do you freeverse whatever is in your head or do you write in a structured format?
RS: You know... there isn't any one set way that I do it. I do it whatever way it comes to me...
MM: So at two in the morning you might just get up and write something, or you might write something on the plane or tonight on a break you might jot something down on a napkin...
RS: Yeah...sometimes I might come up with a guitar lick in my head and I kinda hum it into a tape recorder. I find a lot of times turning my cell phone off and pickin up a landline somewhere and callin my cell phone and leavin' myself a voicemail so I will remember a melody or something. But I don't start a song the same way every time, you know what I mean? ...Like that song Fly With an Angel, the second oldest song on there..and the whole chorus came to me when I was walkin' on a treadmill. I had to jump off and write it down 'cause I've learned over the years that when you get hit with it you better write it down then. If not, it's ...you are either going to forget it or it's just not going to feel the same later on...
MM: Do lyrics come to you more often than the melodies?.
RS: A lot of times I come up with a lyric and am singin' a melody along with it in my head, yeah....
MM: Are you able to write on the road? Not that you've been out here long enough but have you written about any 'moments on the road'?
RS: Oh yeah...as far as any road experiences right now I haven't written anything directly yet .. but I have written about places we've been and things that happened. One of the songs, a newer song that I have that I will play tonight is called Tijuana Buzzkill and it's about me going to jail in Mexico back when I was 19.
MM: Do you find it distracting to write on the road?
RS: Sometimes (I find it distracting). You know, the last time I was able to effectively write on the road was when we were on a long trip deadheadin' from Nashville to Salt Lake City..as a matter of fact it was on the way out this way on the run the last time I came through here. It's a song definately going on the next album called Sobering Up. It's one of the best ones I've written in a long time. I just wrote it on the bus.
MM: You once said you want to make music that is compelling, that will compel people, but that's all you had said on the subject. Can you expand on that to explain a little about what you meant?
RS: In this day and age it's really easy sometimes for record labels to get a song up the chart. A lot of times on the radio you hear things that are fairly 'safe' sounding, almost kinda 'pop' sounding or whatever and there's a place for everything. But I think that when people hear something that they consider compelling...they've become passionate about it and they wanna have it. They want to own it. I think it makes people relate to the music a little more.

"...I just said (to myself) oh man, I got a lot of work to do."

MM: What was your most humbling experience since you started writing songs - going way back to the very beginning.
RS: (he gets a little smile and remembers...)
One of my most humbling experiences has got to be when I got to Nashville. One of the first 'writers nights' that I ever went to, which is where songwriters get together in a club or a bar or something- one of the first places I ever went was a bagel shop, just up the street from where I was livin'. I didn't even know who the guy was..as far as knowing what he looked like...and I went to listen to the guy play, and I was just blown away. At the time I'd moved there,... I thought that I was a good song writer...or whatever..I knew I had a lot to learn...
MM: But deep down you knew you had somethin in there that was going to get heard. That you were going to get there.
RS: Yeah, I thought so.
RS: ...well the guy I saw that night was a guy named Skipp Ewing. A guy who has written just countless big, big hits. Just, really a brilliant artist and songwriter. And he's standin' up there pickin' his guitar and singin' these great songs and I just said (to myself) oh man, I got a lot of work to do. And that was definately my first memorable humbling moment in Nashville.
MM: You have said that part of your love for this music comes from a long line of old-school artists. What do you think of the "new" sound that Country Music is adopting today? Do you think that Country Music is losing it's old-school edge and leaning more toward a pop-modern, younger crowd that aren't missing the first sounds of Country because they just weren't here for it..
RS: Well music, Country Music or any kind of music is always evolving. The guys that I grew up lovin' back in the '70's, I spent the first part of my life in the '70's...so I remember a lot of Willie, Wayland and Johnny Cash; Merle Haggard and stuff like that. But the thing you got to realize is that those guys, back then, were doing somethin' new and cutting edge as well. And you know, Johnny Cash was considered rock and roll when he came out, so it's always evolving. All I can do is write it and do it the way myself and Phillip feel it and the way it needs to be produced and played. So, I think there is room for everything out there. I think that it is better to have some different sounds as opposed to having everybody sound the same. I think you can take any era and there's going to be people complaining about some of what's going on.
MM: Well you can't please everybody...
RS: Exactly..and you know, the bottom line really is it's either good music or it isn't. If people like what it sounds like, you got a home run. And if not...then, well... you know.
MM: When we first started out, you asked me where I'm from. I'm from Long Island, NY. Like you, been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. When I go back home I know there's things that I can never find anywhere else. You got me thinkin' about bagels now...(he laughs). What do you miss about North Carolina?
RS: I miss the laidback, slow lifestyle. You know, it's never something I thought I would ever want to have, as a kid. I was always itchin' to get out of there. But you know, being on both sides of it, I have a real appreciation for it. As you get older, you naturally do that....I miss my Mom's Chicken and dumplings and her tollhouse cookies, and I have had a lot of different jobs that all lead me to here and I've always said "you gotta go a bunch of places before you know where you don't wanna be."

"I probably shouldn't say anything...."

RS: You asked me earier if I had a story about us on the road...I can tell you this one I guess...(he starts laughing and tries to tell the story.) When we were in North Carolina a few months ago, Ward our keyboard player was in "an altered state"...and we duct taped his whole body. I mean...he couldn't move. We then attached him to a bellhop cart and pushed him around the hotel. He couldn't move. (more laughing) We got into trouble for that.
RS: There are a lot of things that go on with our keyboard player and our bass player that keep us laughin...but I shouldn't really say anything else .........(laughing)

"You can't write about things you haven't experienced."

MM: What kind of guitar do you play and what made you choose it?
RS: I play a Larrivee guitar. They originated in Canada. Jean Larrivee makes a GREAT, GREAT acoustic guitar. I own four of them now and I actually have an endorsement deal with them..and they just comp'd me one...it's a D-60. Man, it's BEAUTIFUL. Mahogany and Rosewood. These guitars are SO EVEN...the action is great, the feel of them is great. In fact...my producer and co-writer Phil Moore, he got to playin' mine and liked it so much now he owns two of them.
MM: What was your very first guitar?
RS: (he smiles thinking about it...) A Yamaha. ..I don't have it anymore tho.
MM: Do you use one guitar for creating songs or just pickin' and one for the shows? I know some writers that are really superstitious about things like that.
RS: Yeah, well...it all depends on what I have with me at the time... There is one at home, in the office that is the oldest Larrivee I own, it's a D-09...it's got a weathered look, faded a bit. I have had it about 10 years. When I'm home I use it but I don't take it out with me...it's kinda the special one. That one is the one I write on. The rest of 'em I use out here.
MM: We talked earlier about how your Dad is your primary influence for your interest in this whole industry. What was his advice to you once you had started to go out to do this?
RS: Hang in there. Don't Give Up. He doesn't say a whole lot but what he says is real. ...my Dad worked for the telephone company and his Dad farmed...he had a little General Store that he ran. I grew up in the heart of a blue collar family and my Dad sang about all of that stuff too. It's what drew him into Country Music in the first place. I'm always going to write about my life experiences no matter where I go from here I am not going to be too far removed from there cause' it's just bred into me from quite early on...
MM: That is a nice circle -- that people who listen to your music can relate to you because you are them. A lot of artists try to emulate an image and try to sing a song and they try to experience what they are singing about and they don't get it and your music doesn't come off like that. I really like that a lot.
RS: Well that's why I choose to write it all. If you are capable of doing that and you can share your own experience... that's the best way to come off as real. There are some artists out there that are very good at choosing songs and relating those lyrics..but I'm not one of those guys. I'm one of those guys who'd rather do it myself. ...I'm very visionary about what I'm trying to do. ...you just can't write about things you haven't experienced.
MM: How did you choose your band and what would, in turn, be your advice to artists who are looking for a road crew or starting to get interested in this kind of work?.
RS: Well one thing is...you gotta be good. You know, Nashville is home to a bunch of great musicians...there are thousands of musicians in Nashville that are great but you know, I think that any musician that's gonna run on the road with somebody, first and foremost, has got to like the music that they are playin'. 'Cause it comes across ..if you do or you don't. If you are just a gun for hire, who doesn't really care what you are doin', not only is it not going to be inspired sounding, I don't think that anybody you are working with is going to appreciate it much. It's a marriage, you know? You gotta get along. There's gotta be chemistry there. I mean, my band basically formed with me and Phillip writing songs together as far back as 8 years ago and then just sorta kinda finding guys along the way to fill in. Folks that we liked, that were talented, you know, the way we work now is as a unit and we have a good time together and I think that's the way it's supposed to be.
MM: Well it shows. All a person has to do is look at your pictures on your website and you can see that you all look happy. Just a bunch of down to earth guys having a good time.
RS: Yeah, we're just a bunch of nut jobs. ( he laughs.)
MM: When you were in the 6th grade and the teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up, what did you say?
RS: Ya know, at that point I don't know. ...I just wanted to go out and ride my motorcycle.
MM: I hear you are joining in with Montgomery Gentry on the ACM Motor Drive on the 21st...
RS: Yeah, we did it last year too. Anything like that, any Ride I can be involved in I'm all about. For charity or anything..it's my favorite thing to do. Right now I have a Roadstar, a Yamaha. My first street bike was a Honda Shadow but my first bike, period was an XR75 that I got when I was 4 years old.
MM: Four Years Old??
RS: Yeah...(laughs)

MM: What is the question that nobody has ever asked you...that you'd like to answer.
RS: (pauses)
You know, that's a good one. I don't know... I am going to have to think about that. I'll get back to you.

For now, I'll let that last question sit. . Until then, I can promise anyone who hasn't been to see this show......there is nothing typical or ordinary about Ray Scott or his music. There is a strength of character within each of these guys that shines through from the moment you set eyes on them. They have an unrelenting drive to produce what they truly believe in their hearts - which is definately getting them to where they want to be. These qualities are what drove me to go the distance not only to meet Ray, Phil and Ward, but to write this piece. These guys DESERVE all the success they've hoped for. They are genuine storytellers that seem to have been away for a long time.

As I drove back and the clock hit 4am, a steady energy kept my mind busy. I was confident that the dozens of people who had just been to Club Rodeo were going back to their homes with this same feeling - that pulsating tempo, that voice that surrounds you, pulling you in. Something different had been unveiled--and we were all just lucky enough to see it. Tonight, everyone who crowded that stage were all in the same place at the same time while a man and his band of musical merrymen took us to his private island and shared a story that no one in the room could tear away from until he lifted his head and tipped his hat.

Forget about everything you know or have been told about Country Music. This is money well spent....and you better get a spot on this island while you still can. These boys have landed.

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http://www.judgebeans.com/; http://www.larrivee.com/; http://www.rayscott.com/

Mary Mulvehill is a writer and artist living in Northern California. No portion of this interview may be reproduced, copied or otherwise transferred without written permission from the author. Copyright 2006. www.myspace.com/westendmgmnt.