Scott Ainslie
From community concert series and local schools to the Kennedy Center and the renowned Empire Music Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Scott Ainslie plays and speaks of the music he loves with passion and authority. Combining thirty years of scholarship with almost forty playing guitar, Ainslie presents a beguiling mix of the African and American roots of the Blues, in story and song.
A Phi Beta Kappa and honors graduate of Washington & Lee University, Ainslie was a leader in the North Carolina Visiting Artist Program and served on its state board from 1988-1990. He was a University of North Carolina Public Fellow in 2000, and was awarded the 20th Annual Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award by St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College. Ainslie has received numerous other awards and grants for his artistic and scholarly contributions through Blues performance, documentation, scholarship, and education.
Ainslie has three solo compact discs of traditional and contemporary blues, and is the author of Robert Johnson/At The Crossroads (1992)---a book of transcriptions of the recordings of this Mississippi Blues legend with complete annotated lyrics, a brief Johnson biography and historical notes. He is also the video teacher for Robert Johnson’s Guitar Techniques (1997) on that Starlicks Master Sessions video lesson, recently released as a DVD. Ainslie maintains an active schedule teaching, leading workshops, writing, recording, and performing.
In late 2004, he produced a challenging CD of original songs, The Feral Crow, with producer and bassist Scott Petito at NRS Studios in Catskill NY. The album features the talents of Ainslie, Petito, vocalist Leslie Ritter, electric guitarist Marc Shulman, drummer Jerry Marotta, and keyboardist Peter Vitalone. The Feral Crow has garnered critical praise and spent a two months at #22 and #78 of the top 100 albums on the folkradio.org playlists and is currently seeing airplay in the United States, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Montenegro, Hong Kong, Israel, and Australia.
Having come of age during the Civil Rights Era just outside of Washington, DC; Ainslie now makes his home in Brattleboro, Vermont. When he is not touring, he teaches locally and is actively involved with local arts groups and progressive politics.