(gentle bright music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle bright music) - I am Mike Galligan with the Law Offices of Galligan & Newman in McMinnville, Tennessee.

I support WCTE, the Upper Cumberland's own PBS station, because I believe it is important to create entertaining TV programs that also promote lifelong learning and understanding.

When I support WCTE, I know that I am helping our Upper Cumberland community for generations to come.

- [Announcer] The Law Offices of Galligan & Newman provide clients with large firm expertise and small firm personalized care and service.

- In this episode of "Where Stories Live," we will hear from the music icon, Darrell Scott, famously known for his songs like "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," and "It's a Good Day to Be Alive" among others.

Darrell is a renowned American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Grammy Award-nominated artist, father and farmer.

Throughout his childhood, he experienced frequent relocations, but eventually settled in Nashville where he established his musical journey.

From a young age, Darrell showcased his musical talents by performing alongside his father and their family band.

Despite being a shy boy, his passion for music led him to learn guitar and other instruments simply by observing his father and older brother, Danny.

The family band provided Darrell with a strong foundation that would shape his inevitable and successful music career.

(gentle guitar music) ♪ I walk a crooked road to get where I am going ♪ ♪ To get where I am going I must walk a crooked road ♪ ♪ And only when I'm looking back ♪ ♪ I see the straight and narrow ♪ ♪ I see the straight and narrow when I walk the crooked road ♪ ♪ I sing a lonesome song to anyone who'll listen ♪ ♪ To anyone who'll listen ♪ I was born in London, Kentucky.

And 1959, and my folks, we're from Kentucky.

My family's been from Kentucky for the last 250 years.

My mom and dad's generation were the ones who left the farm to go work in the Great White North.

And so the first one was Detroit, so car factories and stuff.

So my two older brothers were born there, Denny and Dale.

Then as happened, you know, they needed to put in the tobacco crop for the end of the season for, you know, my grandpa and grandma, and put it in the barn and all that stuff.

That's when I was conceived.

It was basically when the two of them, my mom and dad, were left in the barn.

That's the story that I get.

So then my dad transferred to Chicago, or actually on the Indiana side for steel mills.

So he was a steel mill worker for probably eight years.

And then I had two younger brothers born there.

We were living in East Gary, Indiana, and that was Don and David.

And so I was the only one born in Kentucky for that tobacco thing.

And you'll notice we're all named D, and that's because my dad was raising a band.

And for some reason he thought, you know, Wayne Scott, my dad's name was Wayne.

Wayne Scott and the five D's, Wayne Scott and the three D's, you know, that somehow was a thing.

♪ And a loving heart will fill my days with gladness ♪ ♪ Make joy out of sadness ♪ ♪ When I show this loving heart to you ♪ (bright acoustic music) Yeah, a young Darrell Scott, first of all, I was not a Darrell Scott.

I was a James Scott, so that's part of the family story too.

So my mom named me James and my dad named me Darrell, who's gonna win out?

My mom went out, and so I was James until I was 18 or so.

I was James until I started playing in a band with my dad.

So when he'd introduced me, he'd introduce me as the name he gave me, which was Darrell.

So a young Darrell Scott didn't even exist.

So I was a quiet kid.

And so music kind of came about because I paid attention to it.

If you're traveling in the truck with, you know, mom or dad or in the station wagon or whatever, and country music's on, and it was, you know, I'm zeroing in on the lyrics, the guitar licks, the singing, the harmony.

So I was a quiet kid in, I think, bringing in those kind of informations by paying attention.

Yeah, I got struck by music very early.

There was a Saturday morning and we were living in Northern Indiana where I woke up late and the house was kind of empty, like, no mom, dad, no brothers.

They were all out in the big yard.

We had a big yard, like an acre, at the side of our house.

And I was in the house alone, and I took that opportunity to go to where my dad's guitar was, and I was four years old.

And just put it up to my ear and just hit the notes, not playing.

I couldn't play, I was four.

But hearing those notes with my ear against the shoulder of the guitar, the vibration filled my ear, my head, my skull.

And something about that was like, whoa, what magic box is this?

♪ And only when I'm looking back ♪ ♪ I see the straight and narrow ♪ ♪ I see the straight and narrow when I walk crooked road ♪ (gentler guitar music) So I'd say my dad was my first influence, but he was heavily influenced by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.

And so in essence, I got the whole Hank and Johnny education, you know, from a little kid on.

♪ No, you don't mess around with a man in black ♪ ♪ You will say something wrong that you can't take back ♪ And then I had an older brother, Denny, who was a really good guitarist at 12 years old.

He was like playing, like, a 40-year-old man at 12.

And that would've made me about six years old.

And he became an influence, because he was so good, so quick.

And this is part of it too, because we moved around so much, you know, and I didn't include a lot of the moving places in what I've said thus far, but the quiet shy guy that I already was, became more quiet, more shy, and basically created a family insular thing, because we're together, we the brothers and mom, dad type thing, and less so the outer world.

You see what I mean?

So we were insular.

And what did the insular Scots do?

We played music, but as being boys and competitive boys, whether we are shooting baskets or, you know, playing a new Haggard song, we were in competition, you know, or singing harmonies, you know?

You were flat, oh, I wasn't flat, and that kind of stuff.

Or I can sing higher than you, oh, you wanna bet?

That kind of stuff.

So just sort of family, but it would push you, you know, into larger ranges of voice.

(bluegrass guitar music) And so performing, I started performing when I was, I'm sure I would've been six or seven.

Because we're playing in our church, the Scott family, or Wayne Scott and the three D's or whatever.

Our local church, but also did have outreaches into the local prison.

So I'd play at prison at age six and seven and mental hospitals at age eight and nine, and, you know, church-oriented things and branch out into school.

So play church, I mean, school functions, singing in the magicals, at the choir, this, that, and the other.

And so that's the other part that came with not just country music, we also had the church music, both from the, you know, the "Broadman Hymnal" approach, but also in the sort of small country church of the hills.

You know, the old gospel style stuff was sitting there in my heritage too.

And then gig wise, outside of church and school was probably about the age of 14.

My dad started playing clubs in Southern California.

My first actual money was about age 15.

Dad got a gig all summer long up in Alaska during the pipeline boom.

And that was my gig for a long time until I started writing songs.

And writing songs was the turning of, like, you can't just be a quiet side man anymore.

Being, you know, at the side of the stage, supporting the person in the center, making them sound better, singing harmony, making the arrangements, making the outros, intros, making it all work.

As a lead player, like, I was.

The songs started coming forth, my songs.

And then the shy guy had to stand up to these songs that were coming out that wouldn't allow a shy guy to stay shy.

The songs were making me step forward.

And so from, say age 16, 18 to 28, early 30s, moving to Nashville in my early 30s, I had to transition into I'm the guy who has to sing these songs.

You know, I'm the guy who needs to stand in the middle of the stage as opposed to off to the sides.

And the only thing I can say about it is the the songs made me do it.

You know, like the old saying, the devil made me do it.

The songs made me do it.

(bluegrass guitar music) - Despite encountering obstacles with his first album, Darrell persisted by refining his songwriting skills and paying close attention to his source of inspiration and intuition.

This setback did not deter him as he later went on to release his debut album, "Aloha from Nashville."

Darrell's drive to continue resulted in an album that not only guaranteed recognition, but also placed him in the company of respectful musicians and songwriters.

Fueled by this success, Darryl moved forward with unwavering determination to follow his dreams of being a singer-songwriter.

(heavy piano music) - When I write a song, roughly, if I have an idea and an inspiration to, like, stop doing whatever I'm doing when I'm not writing songs, which is a lot of the time I'm not writing songs all that often actually, at that point, I'm trying to honor the inspiration.

So if the inspiration says, you know, it's an emotional thing, then I go emotional.

If it needs a great guitar lick intro, then I go there.

If it needs a chorus that has a higher section than the verse, then I go there.

And I pay attention to what the inspiration is trying to tell me.

- Darrell's music is very relatable.

You can hear songs and you can see the visual paintings that he's painting with words.

You can understand times and places.

He's very good at communication, and so it's very easy for you to get into the song right away.

- Yeah, I listened to my dad's music a lot.

Some of it, as a kid, I didn't wanna hear it.

I heard it enough, I heard it 200 times on the drive home while my dad was listening to the latest mix.

But as I've gotten older, I've come to really appreciate it personally, been able to just kind of maybe have a little bit more space between me and the day in day out of hearing the music, and just kind of really appreciate some of the stuff he's made and appreciate how it was made and the stories that kind of come from that.

And when you've got these songs that kind of tell stories from your own life and maybe help you see your own fathers, I mean, how common is that to have something exactly of how maybe your father thought of something that was hard, difficult, beautiful, whatever, and have that snapshot of what that was to him.

I think that's a pretty rare and kind of special thing.

I really appreciate that.

♪ In the deep, dark hills of eastern Kentucky ♪ ♪ That's the place where I trace my bloodline ♪ ♪ And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone ♪ ♪ Said you will never leave Harlan alive ♪ ♪ Oh, you will never leave Harlan alive ♪ (acoustic guitar music) Yeah, one of my biggest disappointments was when I first moved to Nashville, I had a record deal that was based out of New York.

I was living in Boston at the time.

And it was kind of a singer-songwriter thing, and they never heard a hit out of it.

And so we went in a second time, added a couple of more songs, wrote new songs toward that end, and they still didn't hear it.

And so then I was free at last.

Out of that disappointment, which was, you know, big disappointment, and so then I came out with what was my first album called "Aloha from Nashville."

And "Aloha from Nashville" was kind of a, it established me in a way, in a sort of, you know, not in a giant way, but in the world of singer-songwriter, folk, bluegrass festival, that sort of acoustic music thing that is very much based in Nashville.

It got known in those circles, like Sam Bush, for example, played on that record.

I had him as a sideman.

When Sam wanted to add a guitarist to his band a couple of years later, I was that guitarist.

When Guy Clark wanted to add another player to his album band, he knew of my record and me and Guy had written.

So even though there was a failed record, there was information within that failure that read to those who know.

And so some of my biggest songs came out of that next album, because I'm just writing to write, you know?

A song called "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" came out of that.

♪ Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning ♪ ♪ And the sun goes down about three every day ♪ ♪ And you fill your cup ♪ ♪ With whatever bitter brew you're drinking ♪ ♪ And you spend your life just thinking how to get away ♪ - The career that Darrell built as a singer-songwriter came with sacrifices and some ups and downs.

But through it all, he has managed to pursue his passion successfully, all while building a family and eventually finding the love of his life.

Like most, Darrell contemplates the legacy he will leave and the significance it might have.

He sees his children and now his grandchildren as part of that legacy.

- I have three children, Mahala is my oldest.

You may not know this, she's gonna have twins within the month.

Like, within one month of now.

And that's big news around our world.

Abraham and Gabriel are my two sons, and they're adults now.

They're in their late 20s, early 30s, and well on their way, including, you know, me becoming a grandpa pretty soon.

- Growing up in my household, I have an older brother, older sister.

We lived a little bit outside of town in a house that my grandfather built, my dad's dad.

A lot of time outside, a lot of animals, ducks, geese, hamsters, hedgehogs, everything like that.

So just kind of spent a lot of time outside.

Didn't have a lot of neighbors, so just a lot of family time.

It's hard not to idolize your father when he's a man up on a stage like that.

But like, so much in the music industry, it's kind of two sides.

There's a side that's just kind of sitting back, doing nothing, sitting in the studio.

And then the other side is up on the stage, big or small, and just kind of doing the job.

So definitely, as a child, it was hard not to see him as a celebrity or whatever, at least to me, I mean, I think every child probably sees their father as a celebrity in some way, or a lot of them do.

And then add on top of that, he's actually up on stage and you're seeing him shaking people's hands after the shows, or what have you.

So definitely kind of saw my father as an idol.

(bluegrass guitar music) - Angela is my wife and partner.

And let's see, we've been married, is it 11 years now?

And we've been together like 13, 14 years.

And yeah, and we met later in my life.

- So I originally saw him at a festival in Colorado, because again, my friend had The Listening Room, and she said, I'm gonna invite Darrell to come play.

I want you to see him, go ahead and go watch his show.

So I did, and it was fabulous.

He had the audience up and singing by the end of his set.

And it was very memorable.

You know, along the way, I just kept taking note on how creative this gentleman was and unlike anyone I had ever really known before.

Creative and thoughtful, and intuitive and paying attention.

And those were really, you know, unique qualities for anyone, a friend or, you know, what we ended up becoming.

- Having a home to come to when my kids were little, and that's with their mom, Sherry, and that was important.

And it's important that I have a home now with Angela.

And the difference in that is she travels with me 100% of the time.

Me and Angela travel to all these gigs together.

And Miller the dog, this guy right beside me here.

♪ I will meet you in Nebraska ♪ ♪ Where the Platte runs muddy and wide ♪ ♪ And the crane come for the feeding ♪ ♪ I'll be standing ♪ - He has written a song for me, about me, and it is an account of a year of our courtship.

So it basically takes us through the seasons of a year.

It places us in Nebraska during the crane migration, which is, you know, a big important annual visit of hundreds of thousands of cranes to the Platte River in Nebraska.

♪ Like the light in my angel's blue eyes ♪ (wistful piano music) - What is my legacy?

You know, there was a time where I thought that was more important than it seems to be right now.

You know, I know my kids are a legacy.

I know that I'm about to become a grandpa, that's a legacy.

And I know the songs will stay around to some degree, whatever degree they are, they have a power of their own.

It won't be because I'm such a great PR person or great marketeer, you know, none of that will matter at all.

It's whether the songs speak to people, and it's out of my hands.

I already wrote the songs, you see what I mean?

- As far as the legacy for my father, for me, all these songs are special.

And that was big.

I know for my dad as well, to record the music his father made, my grandfather.

So that music is a legacy for the family.

It's a legacy for me.

It helps me to put context on the family history and it goes back generations with some of that stuff.

- Oh yeah, that little shy boy is still in there, but he doesn't show up on stage.

The stage is his spot.

- My vulnerability?

It's that I'm not gonna live, you know, terribly, terribly long, right?

None of us will, that I'm at the end of my life-ish.

You know what I mean?

That's my vulnerability that I won't be here anymore.

You know, it doesn't get more vulnerable than that.

And you know, what I like is to be able to leave music behind.

That'd be pretty good.

And I'd love to do that, and I suppose I already am.

I just have more to do in that department.

So I have, you know, more albums over there in that computer than are out right now.

People don't know.

And so my vulnerability is can I finish them and get them out and actually begin working on other stuff?

I'm almost at that point where I have so much to put out that it'd be like, great to get it out of the way so I could work on new stuff.

So there's fresh new ideas going on.

That's what I would like.

So my vulnerability is the discipline in which to finish what I've already started.

♪ That's the place where I trace my bloodline ♪ ♪ And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone ♪ ♪ Said you will never leave Harlan alive ♪ (acoustic guitar music) (audience cheers and claps) - We had a wonderful time with Darrell and his family and we appreciate the generosity of his family in sharing his story with us.

You can learn more about Darrell Scott and his music at wcte.org.

We hope you found this episode of "Where Stories Live" enjoyable, and we look forward to seeing you back next time when we go "Where Stories Live."

(bright music) - I am Mike Galligan with the Law Offices of Galligan & Newman at McMinnville, Tennessee.

I support WCTE, the Upper Cumberland's owned PBS station, because I believe it is important to create entertaining TV programs that also promote lifelong learning and understanding.

When I support WCTE, I know that I am helping our Upper Cumberland community for generations to come.

- [Announcer] The Law Offices of Gallagher & Newman provide clients with large firm expertise and small firm personalized care and service.

(bright music) - [Presenter] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music)