KEITH SCOTT

Universal Blues

Dreamday Music

By Eric Steiner

     Keith Scott has been plying the bluesman’s trade since landing in Chicago from Florida in the early 1980s, and since then, he’s released five CDs of original blues, rock and acoustic music.  Along the way, he’s played the Chicago Blues Festival, several Midwestern universities, breweries, and noted blues rooms in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.  In 2011, he released two CDs that bookend acoustic and electric blues.   I particularly enjoyed his unplugged Tennessee Blues, but the follow-up to this toned-down acoustic blues CD, Universal Blues, shows me that Keith can bend blue notes quite effectively with an electric band, too. 

     Keith’s music has landed on MTV’s “Real World,” “Road Rules,” and “Making the Video,” and was featured in a short film, “Fault,” which screened at the prestigious MIPCOM international entertainment conference in 2002. He’s toured extensively with “West Side Guitar Hero” Jimmy Dawkins, and has worked with the late Johnny Littlejohn, Hubert Sumlin, Hip Linkchain, and Eddie Taylor. 

     Universal Blues offers up some strong songwriting backed up by some pretty tasty electric blues, particularly on “Second Hand Man,” “No Mercy,” and “Mean Mistreater.”  While the majority of Universal Blues is forceful and electric, the acoustic blues of “Leaving Blues” and “Georgia Blues,” and the slide work on “Living in My Own World” attest to Keith’s diverse approach to the blues. 

     If you’re fortunate enough to live near Chicagoland, check out Keith Scott live.  He’s often working at clubs like Reggie’s on South State Street, the House of Blues downtown, or playing clubs all the way from Saugatuck, Michigan down to Warsaw, Indiana, and up to Baraboo, Wisconsin, and all points in-between.  I enjoyed Tennessee Blues, but his second 2011 release, Universal Blues, is even better as it offers up a mixture of original electric and acoustic blues that more clearly showcases the breadth of this bluesman’s talent.

To buy the CD or for more info, visit:

www.keithscottblues.com  or CD Universe

Eric Steiner is president of the Washington Blues Society Washington Blues Society in Seattle, Washington, and a member of the Board of Directors of The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee.