ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.
And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.
Additional support provided by these sponsors.
Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician, recorded live in the beautiful city of Danville, Virginia.
Tonight's episode is recorded from the Lady Astor House.
Let's step inside and listen.
[guitar instrumental music] -♪ Well she told me that She dearly loved me ♪ ♪ How could I Believe it untrue ♪ ♪ Until the angels Softly whispered ♪ ♪ She will prove untrue to you ♪ ♪ So bury me Beneath the willow ♪ ♪ Under the weeping Willow tree ♪ ♪ So she may know Where I am sleeping ♪ ♪ And perhaps She'll weep for me ♪ Good, man.
[guitar instrumental music] ♪ Well, tomorrow Was our wedding day ♪ ♪ God oh God where can she be ♪ ♪ She's out a courting With another ♪ ♪ And no longer cares for me ♪ ♪ So bury me Beneath the willow ♪ ♪ Under the weeping Willow tree ♪ ♪ So she may know Where I am sleeping ♪ ♪ And perhaps She'll weep for me ♪ One more time, buddy.
[guitar instrumental music] ♪ So bury me Beneath the willow ♪ ♪ Under the weeping Willow tree ♪ ♪ So she may know Where I am sleeping ♪ ♪ And perhaps She'll weep for me ♪ ♪ So she may know Where I am sleeping ♪ ♪ And perhaps She'll weep for me ♪ Hello, folks, and welcome to The Life of a Musician .
I am your host, Brandon Lee Adams, and today, we are in the beautiful home of Larry and Barb Meder in Danville, Virginia.
And our very, very special guest, Mr. Two-time National Flatpick himself, Scott Fore.
How're you doing, Scott?
-Yeah, I'm doing great.
Thanks.
-It's good to have you here, man.
-Yeah, it's good to be here.
-So, what was it about guitar?
You know, what was that thing about guitar that said, you know, I have to basically spend the rest of my life pursuing this?
What was that thing, if you can put your finger on it?
-You know, I don't know.
It's the sound of music.
You know, when I was a small kid, I used to look at the guitars hanging from the fishing line in Roses Department Store, one of those department stores, you know, always wanted one.
So-- -Was that you just had to have it?
It was an obsession?
-It was an obsession.
-What were some of your, you know, your early things like you--?
I'm sure you didn't just grab the guitar and start winning, you know, guitar competitions.
So, kind of what was that process as a younger man?
-Well, you know, it just started off playing in church.
And then, I heard the National Flatpick Championships on the radio one day and said, "Hey, that sounds pretty cool.
I want to do that."
I just started pursuing it, you know, and living in southwest Virginia, you know, it's-- -It's a hotbed for you.
-It's a hotbed, for sure.
-Virginia is just a hotbed for just hellaciously great pickers.
So, you see this thing from the fishing line at a department store, then you hear the National Flatpicking Championship in Winfield, Kansas, on the radio.
So, what kind of was going through your mind when you said, "I need to break down..." Was it three tunes you had to play?
-Four tunes.
-Four tunes?
-Yes, four tunes, two in the first round.
And if you make this final round, it's two more.
-Okay.
Well, what was the process, that kind of thought process?
Like, how did you pick your songs, you know, to be in that contest?
-Well, you know, growing up in southwest Virginia, there were fiddler's conventions every weekend.
So, the competition was just a natural thing, you know, and so you look at the rules and figure out, you know, what they're looking for, and, you know, and it's mostly your own arrangements and so I just picked tunes-- -That spoke to you.
-Kind of, yeah.
-Yeah.
You picked tunes.
You said, I think I can run that myself.
I don't think I need any help.
-Well, it's just something you just sit down and you kind of work out, and you just pick a vehicle.
-Well, what was-- What was it like trying to--?
Because I mean, you weren't-- were you born rich?
-Oh!
[chuckles] No.
-So basically, you didn't have, you know, 8 to 12 to 20 hours a day, to just sit and just work on tunes.
-No, and I raised three sons.
So, I'd get up at five in the morning to practice my tunes before I had to get them off to school-- -Right.
-And fix them breakfast and all that kind of stuff.
So-- -So, you actually had to live a normal, responsible adult life.
-Pretty much.
-And you just had to maintain enough drive to go out there and do that.
So, what was your first, you know, Winfield, Kansas like?
-It was pretty good.
I, actually, you know, won, and since I didn't grow up rich, you know, the only way I could get a good guitar was to win one.
-Right.
-So, that's why I went, you know, and first year out, I got second and got the guitar I wanted.
And a week later, I'm sitting there-- Well, that was not really why I went, you know.
I wanted to be a national champion.
So-- -You just practiced harder and got up at 4:30 in the morning.
-Yeah, pretty much.
-Well, that's pretty awesome, man.
It's, you know-- I know I've been listening to you for years.
And I know I listened to you play Alabama Jubilee and a lot of those tunes.
And I never thought to myself and said, "You know, I'm going to meet Scott Fore and get to jam with him someday."
So, I know, growing up, you know, you have an influence on people you never even met, you know, that style, that technique.
What's that feel like after getting up at five o'clock in the morning and just working and raising the boys and scrimping and saving to make it out to the national championship?
And now you've got dudes, you know, that you have never met who are listening to Scott Fore, like, God, I want to be-- I want to play like Scott someday.
How does-- what's that like?
-I don't know.
I don't think about it.
-Yeah?
-No, I've never given that a thought.
I just play what I play and try and figure out, you know, I always play a "what if" game?
What if I could do this, how would that sound?
And then figure out how to do it.
-Can you give us an example of a "what if"?
-Sure.
You know, the open string licks.
[instrumental music] We're playing like Bill Cheatham.
[instrumental music] With harmonics and stuff like that.
It's-- I mean, I'm at the wrong key for that right now.
-[laughs] No, I imagine that's a good example.
So, it's like what if I played Bill Cheatham with a half harmonic, and then go into-- -How would I do that?
-How would you do that?
That's kind of a thought process.
-Yeah.
How would a pedal steel guitar player play this song if he was playing it?
-Yeah.
Well, he'd play with his legs, I'd imagine.
How would Scott Fore do that?
-Well, you can do the bends.
I'll just show you.
-Yeah, just show me, man.
-So, like in the C Section, you know, pedal steels since [indistinct] at the bar, they're moving across the net... [instrumental music] ...you know, and using the open string.
[instrumental music] -Yeah.
-You know, and the harmonics thing.
[instrumental music] -So, it literally, it's just a lot of trial and error.
-A lot.
Yeah.
-A lot of trial and error, and figuring out that next lick.
I've always called those kind of runs that are cascading.
-Yeah, or floating.
-Floating or cascading.
Yeah.
I know that we learned... [instrumental music] You know, something like that's about as close as I get to it.
That was one thing I noticed about your playing that always struck me when I first heard you was, you really think outside the box.
You know, can you kind of-- did you know where that comes from, or are you just one of those, you know, savant kind of dudes?
-Well, I don't know.
Like I say, this goes back to the "what if".
You know, I mean, like Ch erokee Shuffle , for example.
If you think, okay, if I were the Allman Brothers, and I had to play Duane and Dickey's part at the same time, and they were playing Cherokee Shuffle , you know, how would that-- how would you do it as one guitar, you know, so instead of... [instrumental music] -[indistinct] And you're using those harmony notes along with it.
-Using harmonies, yeah.
"Double stops", as fiddle players call them.
-Yeah.
That's just beautiful.
It's a great example.
Well, man, I know that, you know, we talked about just a little bit about your beginnings and things of that nature, and your journey to the National Flatpick Championship.
But I do want to talk a little bit about like, you know, you're now kind of getting back in the game because COVID basically took you out of that.
-Pretty much.
-You want to tell us a little bit about, you know, what transpired during that whole--?
-Well, let's see, I got COVID.
And then, the treatment for the COVID caused, you know, a lot of other issues, and I wound up having sepsis, losing all the strength in my hands.
Woke up one day, couldn't play a note.
It's like I never picked up a guitar.
And then, you know, with the sepsis, they amputated my leg.
So, for the last year and a half, I've been, you know, basically recovering.
-Right.
Well, it looks like you're recovered, man.
I mean-- -I'm good, man.
I'm getting there.
-I feel sorry for everybody else once you consider you're there again.
So, what's that like?
I mean, what's the motivation for you to-- because, I mean, for a lot of people taking a knock like that, I mean, that's a big hit.
That's a lot to try to recover from.
So, kind of what goes through your mind, you know, what gets you back to the guitar?
What gets you focused on making your music again?
-Well, you know, when I lost the ability to play, I said, "Well, if it's gone, it's gone," you know, and I just kept trying to pick it up, and, you know, put my fingers where they're supposed to go, almost like a beginner.
-Wow.
So, it's just a passion and a desire.
-Just a passion and a desire and something I've done for 50 years.
So, it's like, might as well give it one more shot.
You know, and I was always fine to quoting the Shawshank Redemption , you know, "you either got to get busy living or get busy dying."
So-- -You decided to get busy picking.
-I got busy picking.
That's right.
-I hear you, man.
So, I know we were talking a little bit on the side about-- I say, you know, let's do this last song, and what's the last song we're going to do here?
-It's an old murder ballad, Pretty Polly .
- Pretty Polly .
And I said, you know, let's show everybody how we're doing the Drop D to it.
Because there might be some young man at home or some young lady at home who decides she wants to figure that out.
So, you were telling me about, you know, how you learned standard tuning, or that you weren't doing standard tuning?
-Yeah, you know, a funny story, when I was in college, I had never seen anybody play slide guitar.
And there was an old guy from one of the last Delta blues guys from Leland, Mississippi that came up, and he'd never been out of Mississippi.
So, he was afraid to go to sleep, you know, in this strange, strange place, you know, and so he's-- we sat up all night and he showed me how to play slide.
-That's awesome.
-And I said, "Man, how you got that thing tuned?"
because I'd never seen open tunings before, either.
He said, "Oh, man, you know, it's that old cross natural tuning."
Took me 30 years to realize what that was, an Open D tuning.
-Cross natural tuning.
-Cross natural tuning.
-That will forever now be what I call-- -Open D. -Open D tuning, or in this case, E. For everybody back home who's taking notes, we've got the capo whole step-up Open E, but when the capo's not there, Drop D or O national cross-- What was that phrase again?
Cross tuning?
-Oh yeah, cross natural tuning.
-Cross natural tuning.
[instrumental music] -♪ Oh, Polly, oh Polly, Come go along with me ♪ ♪ Polly, oh Polly Come go along with me ♪ ♪ Before we get married, Some pleasures to see ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ She climbed up behind him And away they did go ♪ ♪ She climbed up behind him And away they did go ♪ ♪ Over the mountains To the valleys below ♪ [instrumental music] -It's all right, man.
[instrumental music] Yeah, bro.
[instrumental music] -♪ They rode over mountains And valleys so far ♪ ♪ They rode over mountains And valleys so far ♪ ♪ They rode over mountains And valleys so far ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ They rolled in a bit further And what did they spy ♪ ♪ They rolled in a bit further And what did they spy ♪ ♪ But a newly dug grave, With a spade lying by ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Oh Willie, oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways ♪ ♪ Oh Willie, oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways ♪ ♪ Afraid you will lead My body astray ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Well, he threw her On the ground ♪ ♪ And her eyes filled With tears ♪ ♪ Well, he threw her On the ground ♪ ♪ And her eyes filled With tears ♪ She threw her arms around him And cried, Willie, Willie dear ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Well, there's no time To talk, man ♪ ♪ There's no time to stand ♪ ♪ Well, there's no time To talk, man ♪ ♪ There's no time to stand ♪ ♪ He pulls out the knife It was in his right hand ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Well, he stabbed her In the heart ♪ ♪ And her heart's blood did flow ♪ ♪ He stabbed her In the heart ♪ ♪ And her heart's blood did flow ♪ ♪ And into that grave Pretty Polly did go ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Well, he threw A little dirt over ♪ ♪ And he headed for home ♪ ♪ Well, he threw A little dirt over ♪ ♪ And he headed for home ♪ ♪ Leaving nothing behind ♪ ♪ But the girl left to mourn ♪ -[whistling] Awesome.
Well, Scott, thank you very, very much for joining us here.
-Thank you.
-We hope you'll come back in the future and play with us some more.
-Absolutely.
-And all you folks back home, thank you very, very much for tuning into the show, and we hope to catch you next time on The Life of a Musician .
ANNOUNCER: Thank you for being a part of our show.
We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life of a Musician.
-♪ And he threw A little dirt over ♪ ♪ And he headed for home ♪ ♪ He threw a little dirt over And he headed for home ♪ ♪ Leaving nothing behind ♪ ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.
And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.
Additional support provided by these sponsors.