Scott Low is a true troubadour. Based just over the state line in Clayton, Georgia, he’s been a professional musician around Southern Appalachia for many years now. He’s also a great father and devoted husband, a fly fishing guide and oversees the Hatch Camp & Art Farm, his creative oasis for live music and cultural gatherings.
I first met Low not long after I moved to Western North Carolina to work for this newspaper in 2012. Back then, he was hosting a popular house concert series in Clayton. I’d find myself there and, like clockwork, would discover my new favorite band on an otherwise quiet night in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Since then, I’ve watched Low evolve as an artist and performer, but more so as a human being. He’s proudly and fiercely independent, whether it be with his music, how he lives his life, or simply his unrelenting desire to disappear into the ancient woods surrounding his home. In truth, it all ties together, this juncture of tone and talent, nature and nurture.
Low’s latest album, “Highlander Mountain Blues,” is a live recording from one of his weekly blues gigs at the Highlander Mountain House in downtown Highlands. The residency will celebrate its 100th performance on July 16. For Low, the milestone is something to acknowledge and embrace. It’s also a moment to pause and reflect on his continued journey of song and self.
Smoky Mountain News: How was the residency initially sparked?
Scott Low: My good friend Caleb Caudle was booked to play the “Salon Concert Series” at the Highlander Mountain House. My wife and I attended the show and met [owner] Jason Reeves. We connected on music, fly fishing and exchanged numbers. After experiencing the great feeling of the venue, I reached out for a winter weekly residency and we agreed to “Blues, Burgers and Brews” every Thursday starting [in] December 2023.
I was a rookie slide player but set out to learn one or two slide blues “standards” a week from Lightnin’ Hopkins to Mississippi Fred McDowell/John Hurt and many more. In the next few months, I really got to hone this slide blues thing and started putting my own old and new songs into this new tuning and style.
SMN: What does that number, 100, mean when you place it against all of those gigs and dedication to the HMH residency?
SL: After a couple months of doing “Thursday Blues,” Jason sat and listened. After the show, we had a drink and he said, “You can have this gig til you die; sign it in blood right now.” And I honestly answered, “Nah, one of us will probably get sick of this.” We joked about that conversation when we were setting up the 100th show celebration, [because] neither of us are sick of it.
Jason told me to play whatever I wanted, [so] Thursdays were to be my testing laboratory for this whole new sound. I’m so grateful for a listening receptive supportive venue to let me glue this folk/blues thing together. This gig has led me to connecting with the Atlanta Blues Society and to winning the “Blues Challenge” [that] they sent us to at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis this past January.
SMN: What have you come to love about the blues?
SL: It’s kind of crazy because I have a love/hate relationship with the blues. I definitely started playing guitar because I saw Buddy Guy in the early 1990s, but then went journeying through jam, jazz, hip hop, electronica, southern rock and more. Three years ago, I came back around [to the blues].
I love the lore and mythology [of the blues] but also know I have to walk a thin line, as it is a very Black American art, and hold respect for cultural suffering and the long history of oppression. I always come back to Lightnin’ Hopkins saying, “Don’t matter who you are, everyone has the blues.”
I really try to feature more unknown artists like Mance Lipscomb and Pink Anderson. But there are definitely lyrics I will not sing out of respect for the dark past. Music is the United States’ greatest innovation and export, in my opinion. And without the slave chants and hard times of the southern Black family, there is no blues, jazz, rock [or] country.
I do believe a lot of blues has been forced into this homogenized guitar ego fluffing blues rock that fills XM [radio] and blues festivals. And we have lost the effort to serve the song, not just ego. The ability of lyrics and variety in song form to affect the audience has become a lost art in the genre. Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton were not taking 28 choruses of guitar pyrotechnic solos or just repeating the same hook every verse, every song.
The blues must respect the past, but also see the road forward with innovation, not just imitators.
SMN: I really admire how DIY you are, and how you’ve always carved your own path, on your own terms, and in your own time.
SL: Art is everlasting. We still see petroglyphs as art. I study music that is 110 years old. I don’t set out to make just entertainment, I want to leave a trail of art, rooted to the masters of the craft, something that resonates for a long time. The best art makes you feel. In the age of hyper-digital subscription capitalism, the biggest acts of rebellion may be being an independent creative.
I love the human connections with fellow musicians and listeners and getting to travel around solo or with friends to amazing places, then make sounds to help someone escape their stresses to enjoy some of mine. I’ve made so many lifelong friends through this art thing.
And I’m always seeking to learn more or find some new blues sound. Every great artist old or young is a mentor or someone I can learn from, and I try to respect any effort one makes to create. It is our job as artists to keep the art alive and flowing. We must remember the Mance Lipscombs and teach the youth of our nation about our greatest export and innovation — music.
Want to go?
Singer-songwriter and blues/indie-folk extraordinaire Scott Low will host a special performance for his album release of “Highlander Mountain Blues” at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 12, at The Grey Eagle in Asheville. Tickets are $14.05 to $16.11 per person (tax included).
Low also has a weekly “Blues Night” residency from 6-9 p.m. on Thursdays in The Ruffled Grouse Tavern at the Highlander Mountain House in Highlands. Those shows are free and open to the public. Reservations encouraged. To RSVP, visit highlandermountainhouse.com/calendar.
For more information on Low and/or to purchase tickets to The Grey Eagle release party, visit scottlowsongs.com. To learn about the Hatch Camp & Art Farm, visit facebook.com/hatchcamp.