Taylor Scott — Tour Diary
9/29 Wednesday
I started the tour solo driving from Denver to Portland. Crossing over i-80 through southern Wyoming is boring for some people but I don’t mind it at all. The Medicine Bow Forest up near Elk Mountain, the Red Desert east of Rock Springs, and the bluffs of Green River all make the day go by quickly for me. I stopped over in Salt Lake City because I heard my good friend Todd Smallie was out there. Todd plays bass for JJ Grey who happened to be playing SLC that night. I cruised on over to the show and hung out with the guys afterwards for a bit. It was cold as hell and the band was crushing!
10/1 – Friday – Portland
My duo partner, Brian Claxton, flew in and we walked around the city most of the day. We were opening for a band called Carbon Leaf on this tour and the first gig was at the Doug Fir Lounge. Our friend Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven) came out to hang with us AND a friend of mine I’ve known since I was 19 happened to be in town from Pennsylvania. We all ate, drank, and laughed together after the show. It was an easy first night of the run.
10/2 – 10/3 Saturday-Sunday – Seattle
I love Seattle and haven’t been in years so I was pretty stoked to get up there. I used to play up there with Otis Taylor when I was in my early twenties and I had a girlfriend there for awhile so I have some great memories in the area. Brian and I were in town for two days and spent most of our time exploring downtown. Brian hadn’t been to Seattle before so we checked out the market of course and drank some bomb local coffee. In the market we found a record store that had some really great, rare old blues records including a few things I had never even heard of. The shows at Neumo’s and Triple Door went off really well and we spent our set breaks hanging out on the pier down by the water.
10/6 Tuesday-Wednesday – Utah
We had a few days off to travel back the way we came for a gig in Salt Lake. We stayed up in Ogden, UT right at the base of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains. The shades of late fall cover the mountains in a stunning and nuanced blanket of deep reds and oranges as if the whole landscape is rusting in front of your eyes. It was a really inspiring place to spend a couple days.
10/8- 10/10 Friday-Saturday – Back to Colorado
Back in our home state, we played this great room in Fort Collins called The Armory before heading to Denver to play the Bluebird Theater. These were some of my favorite shows of the run because we had some friends and family come out and that always changes the energy a little bit. At the Bluebird we grew the duo to a quartet adding the bass player from our band, Patrick McDevitt, and my friend Eric Benny Bloom (Lettuce) on trumpet. We wanted to step it up a bit for the home crowd and man, that was a great move. It was really nice hearing some people sing out our latest song, “Throwback Grooves” in Denver the day after it came out. Later that night I cruised over to the Ogden Theater to see Andy Frasco and ended up getting on stage to sit in for a tune. Playing and partying with that wild bunch was a perfect way to finish off the trip! I’m really grateful to our friends old and new who came out and showed us some love during these shows. Thanks to every individual venue for treating us so well and to Carbon Leaf for asking us to join their tour!
Find more music by Taylor Scott here: https://ffm.to/throwbackgrooves
1 thought on “Tour Diary: Taylor Scott September-October 2021”